THRIVING IN DIFFICULT TIMES: WORKING TOGETHER

TO ENHANCE THE EMPLOYABILITY OF HISTORY GRADUATES

JUDY BURG & AMANDA CAPERN

THE HULL HISTORY THE HULL HISTORY PARTNERSHIPPARTNERSHIP

THE HULL HISTORY PARTNERSHIP - VISION

THE HULL HISTORY PARTNERSHIP - MISSION

The vision (2009): a triangulated partnership that works to the benefit of all partners Objectives:

to promote and enhance the History teaching and learning experience across the 6th form-HE transition in Hull and the East Riding;

to provide training opportunities for young people wishing to develop careers in History teaching (primary through to HE), archives and heritage work, research in the academy and the workplace and work on public and community History projects;

The HHP embraces sixth form students, undergraduates and postgraduates in training and mentoring opportunities provided by contributing partners;

to promote pedagogical communication between the providers of History teaching in Hull and the East Riding.

DEVELOPMENTS 2010-11

HEA [History Subject Centre] Teaching Development Grant: Part-time administrator – Laura ROUND TABLE MEETING of representatives from History

Department, the Hull History Centre and circa 8 heads of history at schools and colleges in the region to discuss future collaborations in the Hull History Partnership (January 2011)

PILOT PROJECT FOR EMBEDDING EMPLOYABILITY IN THE CURRICULUM Competitive bursary scheme → 6 internships (Hull University Undergraduates working in the Hull History Centre) – pilot scheme for new Level 6 module to address employability of UG History students – Applied History (September 2011) – lessons learnt about scalability

Sixth form work experience week (summer 2011)

Experience of the Pilot Project – Kiri & Rhian

Primary school teaching (Year 1 – 5-6 years) – ‘Lady Hotham’s cookery class’ (circa 1850 woman’s recipe book) KS1 syllabus – numeracy

(adding and timing) and literacy (words matched to pictures)

Creative arts – picture drawn

Healthy eating Life in the Victorian period Greener society – how to

buy local produce Response of interns - eye

opener about work commitment needed for teaching

Successes? The interns – they have

both secured PGCE places in a difficult times - they both said that interviewers were impressed that they had lesson planning experience and experience leading a class independently

The HHP – the KS1 project filled a gap in the HHC education outreach and offered HU an employable-graduate success story

Problems and challenges? The logistics of finding

somewhere to hold a cookery workshop

Experience of the Pilot Project – Joseph & Katy

Archive cataloguing→ sorting, structuring, listing and summarising a deposit of modern political papers – about 8-10 box deposits for each

Learnt how to catalogue to spreadsheet Carry out data transfer

to HHC database Research and summarise

provenance and context/background of deposit

Overview of conservation needs and techniques

Successes? One intern described

herself as ‘relieved’ at finding ‘at last’ a career she would like to pursue – applying to archives management courses conservation

Both report enjoying the ‘intimacy’ of working with archival material and the finite nature of the task

Problems and challenges? Ensuring that the less

committed intern remained engaged with the task

Ensuring that the data was adequate for public consumption

Experience of Pilot Project: Mike & Becky

Mike working on community education → creation of a web resource showcasing the Maister archive

Learning journey for primary school teachers for use in lesson planning – going on My Learning website Regional history Business history & economic history

– wealth creation and family history Great story – counting houses by the

River Hull and fire of 1743 Historical geography – move of the

city Successes?

Accepted on to MA courses at Durham and York

Research skills main gain Also, selecting Public history - processing for an

identified audience (transferable skill)

Problems and Challenges? Lots of archival material - Identifying

and selecting to purpose

Becky working on 17th C women’s recipe/medicinal books) Mary Thompson (1670s) Perdita MSS Wellcome Library

Successes? Clarified decision to do MA –

interested in archives as material artefacts and plans to do conservation training (internship run alongside voluntary work with bookbinder)

Learning etiquette of archive use Note-taking skill – selection of the

factual from the archive (more so than when told what to read for a module) – fed back into Special Subject dissertation work

Problems and Challenges? Mine – how to stop her researching!

Problems to resolve

Scale – 6 interns fine, but module will have 18 – will it still work? – solution = timetabled progress meetings

Timetabled lectures, inductions etc = fine The differing level of past experience of students

problematizes induction to archives/museums/teaching e.g. Rebecca had already done two years with a bookbinder and worked on documents in Treasure House, Beverley ERO and Joseph had work at York Minster Archives in summer – level of information required unclear

Success seen with pilot scheme will be diluted in the module by going through University quality procedures – the 6 interns were selected from an application process, but the 18 interns of the module will just have gone through our ballot system

Embedding employability in the curriculum faces challenges that are not faced by free-standing intern schemes

Still worth doing? Ask me this time next year!

Applied History Module (Level 6)

The first full undergraduate module to be taught collaboratively by the Department of History at the University of Hull and the Hull History Centre

L & T Strategy – complex framework SEMESTER 1

Lectures on theoretical Principles in public history, teaching history in schools, history in the archives, museums and heritage sector, oral history and the preservation of public memory, the cultural uses of History

Comprehensive induction to introduce students to the module, give them the skills and knowledge needed for placement at the HHC

Organising students into one of three streams for placement and project work (lesson learnt from the pilot – makes embedding employability in the curriculum manageable: Archivist, Conservationist and Heritage Sector Stream Education Stream Academic and General Research Work Stream

SEMESTER 2 ‘The Eight Hour Day’ pattern of work on one day a week for several weeks Small group tutorials in the three streams to support project work Individual exit strategy interviews Assessment – Applied History (My Career) Portfolio (100%)

History Student Employability

Students need: Awareness – of self and of job roles – on which to base career choices Information on how to research a career path and pursue chosen career Opportunities to develop and demonstrate skills in the real world Relevant experience and achievements to contribute to a distinctive CV Opportunities to demonstrate commitment to pursuing chosen career

Outcomes for students Broad coverage of issues, real-world knowledge and experience relevant

to field Specific output of the (My Career) Portfolio – to describe and present to

potential employers and to use as base for explaining skills application in the workplace

Feedback and endorsement from an employing organisation (in this case the HHC)

Confirmation or clarification of career choices

The Hull History Partnership – the wider vision

Part of a range of activities in History @ Hull – HHP aimed at V100 and associated programmes but also: Maritime History at Blaydes House → workshops for

schools on regional history Slavery and diaspora studies at the Wilberforce Institute →

History city trails, school workhops Archaeology → summer digs in partnership with EH at

Brodsworth Art History → exhibitions of school art and UG internships

digitising slide collectionsThriving in difficult times?

Who exactly? – HEIs plus the class of 2012 Need to go on inspiring UG students in History but no

longer sufficient to do that without embedding employability on the curriculum – WE OWE IT TO THEM!