Herding Cats in Search of Employability Skills - Bridging the Employer Engagement Gap

Martin McAreaveyBolton Business School

In This Session...• Some context…why are we here, for example?• Employability Issues in Higher Education• Outline of an employability project (WITH HEALTH

WARNINGS!)– 2012-13…– HE in FE…– Down the road…– I’m New here…

• I’m just after your ideas

• A bit o’ science / theory• You do some of the WORK..K?

Oh, and gratuitous reference to cats..

Why are we here?

Darn it!…I should’ve stuck with teaching…

Did you read the preamble?

You know what it’s like…

OK, What’s Wrong With This Equation?

+ = Employability

Our Employability Context• North West Region*– 2nd highest population density (490/KM2)– 10% of UK GVA (13% of UK manufacturing GVA)– 3rd largest expenditure on R&D by business in UK– Highest UK (pc) number of start up businesses– 15 Major HEIs and 29 HE in FE Centres• All seeking to develop links with local communities• All facing the same economic and political challenges• All competing for the same students and employers!

*Source: ONS 2013 (various bulletins)

Lots going on..Enterprise..

Background & Context

– Industry-driven origins

– The vocational / academic continuum

– Proximity to local community

– Why do our students come here now?

Our Educational Imperatives

• Develop links with ‘industry’• Embed ‘employability’ into the curriculum• Equip graduates with ‘employability skills’• Match these skills to Employer Needs• Deliver value as defined by:– National comparators (KIS)– Students at the heart of the (education) system– Employers– Government

Benefits of ‘Community Embedding’• Integrating employer based research into the curriculum enhances

the overall learning experience– Shah & Treby (2006)

• Collaborative Partnerships between HE and employers provide benefits including:– Widening Participation– Workforce Development (Foskett, 2005)

• Students learn better when allowed to apply their learning in collaboration within ‘applied’ settings– Harker, M and Harker, D (2007)

• Enhances development of creative problem solving strategies in undergraduates – Wood & Bilsborow (2013)

Some questions…

- Does our proximity to local communities give us any

advantage when seeking to match students with organisations in which to test their learning?

How Do We Connect to Local Communities?

• Do outside organisations know we are here?• Do they know what we (i.e. our students) do?• Does TIRI mean anything to them (yet)?• Do they know how to access us / engage?• Do we engage effectively?– If so….

Why isn’t there an employer queue?

What do we know?

“..as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know.

—United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

Employability Models• Many have been developed…

What we do to Install Employability

• Academic / teaching– Embed in curriculum

• Refinement Opportunities– Essays– Reports– Examinations– In-class activities– Research activity on & off campus

• Opportunities to Apply Skills– Placements– Year out– Ad Hoc projects negotiated by enterprising students

However:

If our teaching & learning strategies for ‘employability’ are really working....

• Shouldn’t we expect students to know how to engage employers / organisations in terms of their studies?

• If so....

Why isn’t there a student queue looking for project opportunities?*

Employers

What Happens if…

You ask undergraduates: (maybe from any discipline):

“If you could research anything within your subject area, what would you choose?”

Hold that thought…

What Happens if…

You ask undergraduates:

“What kind of organisation would you like to work with for your final year project / dissertation?”

Hold that thought too…

Typical Student Responses (to prev. questions)

• Thud– “Eh?”

• FUD– “I’m worried I might not be able to make a

difference”– “I’ll just end up making the tea..”

• What’s Gud?– “What are employers looking for?”– “Can’t you just tell me what I should do.?”

• I’m ok, Bud..– I’ll do my own thing / Am on it / I’ll let you know

when I’ve got something…

Academic Issues• Normal Distribution of abilities– ‘Thud’ to Critical Faculty continuum– Should we issue ‘Health Warnings’ for employers?• Ensure expectations set & managed

• Student Engagement– Getting students to:• Listen!• Attend all key sessions• Read the instructions!• Read around their subject(s)

– Those who ‘do their own thing’

Issues in Employability• A lack of consistent and effective mechanisms to

bring students and employers together• Students don’t always know what they don’t know,

especially adding value to a potential employer• Employers often aren’t aware that they can engage

undergraduates on bounded / low risk tasks (or that we would really like them to do this!)

• Success looks different from every student / employer perspective

…….i.e. lots of Unknown Unknowns

…Still herding cats…

An Alternative Approach

Who is this? (It’s not Leo Sayer)

Malcolm Gladwell.. Author & Thinker (recommended!)

Alternative Science

“Thin Slicing”• There is evidence that humans can make reliable

judgments about complex propositions based upon very little information (Gladwell, 2005)

• The concept of ‘thin slicing’ underpins the premise behind ‘speed dating’ and appears to have substance in terms of theory and practice (Kaplan, 2008, Ambady et al, 2000, Gottmann 2011).

Speed Dating ??? For Students AND Employers??

• Multiple ‘engagement opportunities’ • Themed, streamed and facilitated• Lots of data to validate the concept• Health warnings (both sides of the table!)• Expectations managed prior to event• Matches formalised into ‘Project Proposals’ • Clear timescales and outputs from projects• Measurable!

Precedents - (Business) Speed Dating

• Networking• BNI

Precedents

The pilot (2012-13)

Year 2 & Year 3 BA Business Studies / BA Business Accounting Students

The Event

• November 2012• ‘Topped & tailed’ with informal Networking • 1pm-3.30pm inclusive ish..• 44 employer representatives from East Lancs– SME– Public & Third Sector– Large employers (manufacturing, services)

• Participants matched using pre-event data• Both sides ‘pitched’ ideas

Speed Networking for Students - Prep

For Employers• Recruited via personal

network and ‘Employer Engagement Unit’

• Pre-event online questionnaire / registration

• Asked to consider potential project areas and prepare a short pitch for each

• Briefed pre-event about the student group(s) they would be meeting

Speed Networking for Students – Prep(ii)

For Students

• Part of research methods module

• In-class workshops to identify initial areas of interest

• Students completed online streaming tool to narrow focus

• Used outputs to create a research topic outline

Results• Too late in academic year to impact most Y3 students – Only 2 Y3 potential projects scoped

• 27/48 Year 2 business students identified potential projects with local organisations

• 14/27 (52%) ‘matches’ taken forward as basis for final year project

• 10 projects completed per original TOR• 5 additional projects from ongoing conversations

between students and local organisationsA Success????

Learning?

• Better than ‘traditional’ approach (i.e. assignment driven employer engagement)

• Created effective and enduring links to potential employers

• Employer engagement needs to be early in the academic year

• Created significant additional overhead (work) for module team

• Worth a try!• Next time, involve students more in the organisation and

delivery (HEA feedback)

Mr Socks says that’s enough..

Selected References• Ambady, N., Bernieri, F. and Richeson, J. (2001) “Advances in Experimental Social Psychology”

(p201-272 Elsevier, 2000)

• Foskett, R. (2005) “Collaborative partnership between HE and employers: a study of workforce development” Journal of Further and Higher Education. Vol 29, No 3 pp 251-264

• Gladwell, M. (2005) Blink! The Power of Thinking without Thinking. Penguin Psychology Publishing

• Kaplan, M. (2008) “Love: You have 4 minutes to choose your perfect mate.” Nature. Vol. 451 Issue 7180, p760-762.

• Sewell, P. and Dacre-Pool, L. (2010) ‘Moving from conceptual ambiguity to operational clarity – Employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship in higher education’. Education and Training. Vol 52 No.1 pp88-94

• Shah, A. and Treby, E. (2006) Using a Community Based Project to Link Teaching and Research: The Bourne Stream Partnership. Journal of Geography in Higher Education. Vol 30 No 1 pp 22-48

• Wood, D. And Bilsborow, C. (2013) Enhancing Creative Problem Solving in the Higher Education Curriculum Through the use of Innovative e Learning Technologies. Conference Paper (tbc)‐

The Workshop Bit…• Working in PAIRS:– Ask the other person to explain about one

employability initiative in their area that either:• Worked (….why / how?) OR• Didn’t Work (…. why not?)

– 2-3 minutes each (max) – make some notes – Be prepared to share what you have learned

• OR If you can’t find an initiative, talk about issues you’ve encountered around the Employability agenda here at UoB (& write some notes.. Please)

OK.. What have we got?

• What works ?• What doesn’t work?• Impacts?• Issues around

Employability?