Employability, E-Evolve & UWBSDr Rob Edwards, TSL Coordinator, UWBS

University of Wolverhampton

Employability Conference

25th June 2009

"I expected everything to be handed to me on a plate, I now realise that while I

graduated with a decent degree (2i), I had no real awareness of the skills I had to offer.

I had no idea at all of career opportunities within small businesses and no relevant

experience. Thinking about it now, I couldn’t manage my way out of a paper bag."

(Unemployed Graduate, 1995)

Threads of an evolving engagement …

• Employability: a central underpinning concept?• Integrating employability into the curriculum• Utilising online environments• Designing for reusability• Adding value via WOLF & Pebble Pad• Employability: the end of a refreshed beginning?

A key underpinning concept in HE today?

‘providing students with relevant skills they can transfer to the workplace, which is essential in an increasingly

competitive job market.’

(Vice-Chancellor, UoW, 2008)

How?

Integrating employability into the curriculum

• Employability– viewed at UWBS as ‘a set of achievements – skills,

understanding and personal attributes – that make individuals more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations’

• Integration– of employability skills development into UWBS

undergraduate curriculum progressed as a result of networking, collaborative development, reading and research both in support of the E-Evolve Project and of development of UWBS Employability Strategy

E-Evolve?

An HEFCE FDTL Phase 5 Consortium Project targeted to contribute towards improving graduate-level employability primarily but not exclusively for business and management graduates

by

• developing a model and e-learning resources• supporting enquiry based learning• supporting students in virtual learning

environments

UWBS Employability Strategy

• Subject knowledge & understanding

• PSBR alignment & endorsement

• Summer employability programme for international students

• Employability & research strand in courses, providing skills capture via e-portfolio & ePDP

• Online learning materials to support employability in curriculum delivery

• Flexible approach to placement &/or work based learning

• Work-related learning & practice route through the BABM course

• Integration of employer, careers service & learning centre support into curriculum delivery

Aiming to advance

Utilising evolving online environments

• Between the start and conclusion of E-Evolve institutional systems infrastructure and strategies developed and advanced potential for online student learning

• Using generic, widely available and easy to work with software to create employability learning resources has proved beneficial

• E-Evolve materials are capable of being used in ways which were not thought of at the outset, reflecting continuing innovation in the technology and pedagogy of blended learning

Designing reusable employability resources

• A generic design methodology which can be easily understood– Used to create employability skills resources – Applied to RLO development in any academic subject

area• A relatively short step

– Moving from understanding LALOs & RUMLOs– To creating RLOs for on campus &/or online use

• For example, let’s consider the Working Creatively

LALO…

Using Learning Objects: Demonstration

Learning Activity Learning Objects

Working Creatively: Construction of a LALO

Working Creatively

LALOIntroduction

And Learning Outcomes

Tasks

Edward De BonoYoutube video

Introduction to creativityMini-lecture

Creativity TechniquesMini-lecture

Six Thinking HatsWorksheet

Re-Useable Materials Learning Objects (RUMLOs)

Re-Using Learning Objects: Demonstration

RUMLO AIntroduction to

Negotiation(Enhanced ppt)

RUMLO B

Conflict Styles(Enhanced ppt)

RUMLO CConflict Mgt.

Survey(URL link)

RUMLO DNegotiation

Self-Test(Enhanced ppt)

RUMLO E

What is Conflict(Enhanced ppt)

RUMLO F

Conflict Quiz(Enhanced ppt)

Re-Useable Material Learning Objects

Re-Using Learning Objects: LALO Building

AIntroduction to

Negotiation(Enhanced ppt)

BConflict Styles(Enhanced ppt)

CConflict Mgt.

Survey(URL link)

DNegotiation

Self-Test(Enhanced ppt)

EWhat is

Conflict Mgt(Enhanced ppt)

FConflict Quiz

(Enhanced ppt)

Introduction to NegotiationLALO

Managing ConflictLALO

Adding-value to E-Evolve via VLEs

via WOLF

Adding-value to employability via VLEs

via Pebble Pad

The end of a refreshed beginning?

• E-Evolve: an online portfolio of malleable learning objects with ongoing legacy? Or just another project?

• Roll-out? Limited to business and management students or relevant to employability skills development beyond UWBS?

• Working with learning materials: simply cherry pick n’ mix from E-Evolve or build on this by sharing employability resources within a widening community of practice?

• Reflecting further on the road travelled so far …

Employability: are we on the right track?

• We … think university should be about … empowering people to explore what they don’t know. We do that through passionate, dedicated teaching … When you really want [to learn?] something you put the [academic?] work in.

• The [undergraduate academic] programme aims to enable students to develop [inter alia] … advanced skills which are transferable to a wide range of employment contexts and life contexts.

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Acknowledgements

• The E-Evolve Project was initiated, developed into a consortium and driven forward to its conclusion by Beverly Leeds at UCLan.

• At UWBS Steve Grady championed the integration of E-Evolve into the School’s Employability Strategy and together with Charlotte Poole and Rob Edwards leads on progressing the adoption and use of online employability skills development resources in the business and management curriculum.

• Rob Edwards route to participation in E-Evolve was a spin-off from

his role as TSL Coordinator for UWBS. • Thanks for advice & support, at call and short notice, from

colleagues championing the ever morphing world of TSL, e-Learning and Blended Learning in other Schools of the University, in ITS and in the Institute for Learning Enhancement – without whose initiative this presentation wouldn’t have had a conference slot to

pitch into.

References

• This presentation has drawn on an unpublished working paper written by Rob Edwards in March 2009, ‘E-Evolve and Employability Strategy at the University of Wolverhampton’.

• The paper can be downloaded from the Pebble Pad Webfolio which is illustrated in this presentation, to which access can be made available via an email request to R.M.Edwards@wlv.ac.uk.

• The paper provides references to sources cited in this presentation except for the extracts from the University of Leicester’s advert in The Guardian on 23rd June 2009 (Education Guardian, p 3) and

from course information via the Said Business School’s web site http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/undergraduate/baem/About+the+programme.htm which was also accessed 23rd`June 2009