Reflective Summary

University of Ulster Career Development Centre

Summary Evaluation Report

Employability Development Opportunities Review Tool
(EDORT)

Sharon Milner

April 2008

Table of Contents Page

1. 0 Executive Summary ………………………………………………………… 3 1.1 Key Findings ………………………………………………………………… 3

2. 0 Methodology 2.1 Research Instruments ………………………………………………………… 7 2.2 Research Methods ………………………………………………………… 7

Appendix 1 Staff Employability Development Opportunities Review (EDORT)

Appendix 2 Student Employability Development Opportunities Review

Appendix 3 Examples of good practice

Appendix 4 Action plans

1. Executive Summary

As part of Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund (TQEF) monies have been made available from February 2007 by the Department for Employment and Learning to support the University’s key strategic objectives relating to employability. The Career Development Centre on behalf of the University has been funded to undertake a range of activities to enhance student employability. One of these activities was to develop and pilot a tool to explore the employability development opportunities available for students within the University. In June 2007 each Faculty identified Schools/ Programmes to participate in the pilot. In total eight Schools with 12 programmes were nominated.

This document briefly highlights the key findings from the piloting of the Employability Development Opportunities Review Tool (EDORT) which occurred between October to November 2007 (see Appendix 1 & 2). The focus of the tool was not just about identifying skills but about identifying the structures in place to support student employability.

In particular the tool sought to:

• establish the extent to which a School/Programme was promoting student employability in an explicit and effective way; • identify employability development opportunities available to students; • collect examples of good practice; • identify gaps in provision and areas for future action; and • establish training and support needs for both staff and students.

Key Findings

I. Staff perceptions of the employability development opportunities provided to students in the majority of cases tended overall to be rated higher across all 9 subscales of the questionnaire (curriculum; learning from work; personal development planning, enterprise/innovation/creativity, transfer learning between contexts, real world activities engagement, graduate employment, career development learning/ Career Development Centre engagement, extra-curricular activities) than students perception ratings.

II. Key areas were identified that are effectively enhancing student employability skills and those that need development[1]:

Table 1 below provides (in rank order) a broad comparison of the areas that both staff and students collectively perceived in their programmes of study to be the ones providing the student with opportunities to develop their employability skills and attributes and enhance their job and employment opportunities. As can be seen to a large degree both staff and students agree on the areas that are effectively enhancing the students’ employability skills; curriculum, real world activities and graduate employment. However staff overall feel that their programme provides a range of opportunities for transferring learning between contexts whereas students collectively feel this is an area that needs development. In contrast, students identified PDP as being well developed as part of their programme of study whereas staff feels that this area needs development.

Table 1: Staff versus student perceptions of the areas providing opportunities to enhance student employability

|Category |Areas that are effectively enhancing the students employability|Areas that need Development |
| |skills | |
|Staff Review |Transfer Learning between Contexts |Engagement with CDC |
| |Curriculum |Extra-curricular Activities |
| |Graduate Employment |Enterprise/innovation/creativity |
| |Real World Activities |PDP |
|Students |Curriculum |Extra-curricular Activities |
|Review |PDP |Enterprise/innovation/creativity |
| |Real World Activities |Engagement with CDC |
| |Graduate Employment |Transfer of Learning between contexts |

III. Within their degree programme students identified the following factors as helping them prepare for graduate employment: • Placements • careers advice / lectures • guest speakers • team working • presentations.

IV. Students suggested the following changes to their degree that they felt would help with their preparation for graduate employment: • making the programme more relevant to the work environment. • more and varied placement opportunities • more one-to-one time with lecturers • more team working projects • more guest speakers • more careers advice / lectures • more feedback from assignments and IT skills training.

V. Following completion of the student questionnaires focus groups were carried out with each of the 8 pilot Schools. Overall the focus groups reported similar issues:

a. Positive aspects of degree programme in providing employability development opportunities: • Team work very helpful due to amount of presentations which improves communication skills, leadership and confidence • Placement Preparation • Placement • Deadlines for assignments as helps with time management and organisation • Completing CV.

b. Aspects of degree programme identified as needing enhancement in order to provide employability development opportunities: • More employer contacts needed, bring in from start of the degree to talk about relevant career paths • Degree classification should not be determined solely by marks in 3rd year, 2nd year marks should also count • Make degree more relevant to work environment • More careers information on relevant routes and earlier in degree • Placement and not degree more helpful in learning about pressures and etiquette of work in professional environment • More varied and shorter placements needed.

VI. Examples of good practice were identified across all areas and these included (see Appendix 3 for detailed outline): • Curriculum: BSc Hons Communication: within 1st year their students are introduced to interpersonal social skills using video recordings and role-plays to develop an appreciation of good communication skills. This practice is continued in second year. • Learning from Work: BA Hons Drama: within its Arts Administration module in 1st year students participate in technical theatre, 2nd year they work in an Arts organisation and in 3rd year they undertake an enterprise module. • Personal Development Planning: BMus with Hons: provide all feedback on assignments on PDSystem and encourage students to reflect on the feedback (this occurs across all year groups and all modules) • Enterprise/innovation/creativity: BSc Hons Environmental Science: Has a business and environment module in 2nd year • Transferring Learning between Contexts: BSc Hons Computer Science and BEng Hons Electronics and Computer Systems: all students maintain reflective diaries in the form of logbooks as part of placement assessment in year 3. • Real World Activities: BSc Hons Accounting: Employer Liaison Committee established to help inform programme development. • Graduate Employment: BSc Hons Biomedical Sciences degrees: careers training in 2nd year, a research road show as well as subject specific lectures in 4th year • Career Development Learning (CDL)/ Career Development Centre (CDC): BDes Hons Design: industrial practitioner tutor across all levels and modules • Extra-curricular activity: BSc Sports Studies and BSc Sport & Exercise Science: University of Ulster Sport Volunteer database which is utilised by students throughout their time at University.

VII. Key recommendations for the EDORT process include: • partake in exercise once every two years • map the process in revalidation • include graduate responses in student evaluation questionnaire • reporting to School T& L Committee or Course Committee agendas • action plan essential and resources required to take it forward.

VIII. The following areas for staff development were identified: • employability skills • increase staff awareness of careers education benchmark • increase awareness of employability priorities in T&L strategy and Corporate plan • PDP & PDSystem awareness • CV preparation, training in interview techniques for mock interviews • innovative teaching and assessment techniques.

IX. The action plans developed by each School / Programme identified a number of areas for future work (see Appendix 4 for detailed outline): • Produce professional DVDs of students talking about their achievements & abilities • Increase the extent of reflection and action planning • Provide opportunities for project work in real settings • Increase the opportunities to interact with employers and alumni • Module in employability skills for students at level 2 & 3 • Increase CDC input and engagement. • Provide more training and support for placement co-ordinators • Further promotion / use of PDSystem for both staff & students esp. for final year programmes • Increase numbers of students obtaining placements • Creation of publicity and support materials (DVD and web-based) • Stronger links with industry / current and potential employers • Establish Employers advisory group • One day workshop event on lifelong skills for final year students • Improving appreciations of the challenges and opportunities for students with disabilities • Integrating employability into course documentation and design • Increase work-based experiences • Information for prospective students from non-traditional backgrounds • Developing student’s appreciation of employability skills and opportunities • Longitudinal survey of graduate students career paths for past 15 years • Establish incubation unit for explicit inclusion of enterprise, innovation and entrepreneurship.

2. Methodology

2.1 Research Instruments

An employability development opportunities review tool (EDORT) was developed for both staff and students participating in the pilot. It was based on two questionnaires; the LTSN Bioscience Employability Audit and the Sheffield Hallam Employability questionnaire but modified to reflect the University of Ulster perspective. EDORT was used in this pilot not just to identify skills but to identify the structures in place to support student employability.

EDORT contained 9 subscales; curriculum; learning from work; personal development planning; enterprise; innovation and creativity; transferring learning between contexts; real world activities engagement; graduate employment; career development learning/ career development centre engagement and extra curricular activity. Each question could be answered ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if yes the question was rated using a Likert scale of response where 1= poorly addressed, 2 = partially addressed, 3 = adequately addressed and 4 = optimally addressed. Each subscale had between four to thirteen questions within it. A section therefore that has ten questions (e.g. curriculum) could be rated a maximum score of ‘40’ if the Programme team felt that they were very happy with this area (see Appendix 1).

At the end of each subscale examples of good practice were identified for that area (see Appendix 3 for full outline of exemplars across all of the pilot schools).

EDORT also asked if the programme team felt that their staff needed training or development in any of the areas addressed in the questionnaire. The action plan at the end of the questionnaire was filled out after the review was completed. This allowed the team to reflect on any projects or initiatives that they wanted to build upon or address any gaps that they had identified.

The student questionnaire covered the same broad areas as the staff review in order to have some level of comparability between the two groups. It also used a Likert scale of response where 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree and 5 = strongly agree or N/A if the question did not apply. Each section contained between three to five questions. A section therefore that had three questions students could be rated a maximum score of ‘15’ if they felt very happy with this area (see Appendix 2).

2. Research Methods

Eight Schools from across the six Faculties participated:

• School of Computing & Intelligence Systems within the Faculty of Computing and Engineering • School of Art & Design within the Faculty of Art, Design & Built Environment • School of Creative Arts within the Faculty of Arts • School of Accounting within the Faculty of Business & Management • School of Communication within the Faculty of Social Sciences • School of Biomedical Sciences, School of Environmental Science and School of Sports within the Faculty of Life and Health Sciences.

Twelve programmes in total participated.

EDORT was completed by a small team of staff members which normally included the Course Director and PDP Co-ordinator. The student questionnaires were distributed to students who had just entered into their final year of study (n=464). In order to ensure maximum return, the questionnaires were distributed to the students and completed at the beginning of lectures. Participants for the focus group were recruited at the same time.

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[1] While this is in the general context there was significant variation across Schools