Strategies for Supporting Student Employability

Employability and MarketingSept 2013

E&M Structure Information & Publications

Careers Unit

Work Experience Unit

Marketing Unit

School & College Engagement Unit

Employability Unit

Content:

Curriculum development via EDORT, Career Development Learning and Graduate Qualities

Designing and developing activities for the Ulster EDGE Award and HEAR

Overview of employer engagement strategies

Introducing your students to the DHLE survey

Why does Employability matter? Students motivation for entering HE

Government Policy – Dearing, Browne, KIS/WIS, Wilson Review

Institutional Drivers –Corporate Plan

Emphasis by employers on generic competencies rather than direct subject relevance

HESA employment performance indicator

Key initiative helping to: identify skills the structures in place to support employability identifying & disseminating good practice create employability action plan

EDORT Toolkit: Staff and Student engagement

Both paper & pencil and online version available

24 schools, 76 programmes and 1195 students

EDORT toolkit, summary report, action plans, test online version available: http://employability.ulster.ac.uk

Reviewing Employability

What areas does EDORT review?9 subsections:• Curriculum development• Learning from work • PDP• Enterprise/ innovation/ creativity/ • Transfer learning between contexts • Real world activities • Graduate/postgraduate employment • Career development learning (CDL) • Extra-curricular activities

Engaging with EDORT Online: Key Facts

It facilitates course teams to review employability within their degree by taking account of both staff & student views.

The toolkit is adaptable. It contains sets of core questions however, academics have the flexibility to create bespoke questions in relation to their degree programmes.

It generates an automatic feedback report which can help inform and map into current revalidation documentation

Refined to include statement of graduate attributes, KIS & HEAR

Getting started:

Contact Sharon Milner to develop staff and student questionnaires

Url will be sent to a contact within School to distribute

Encourage small teams of staff to engage not just one person

Macro-enabled excel SS, word documents and powerpoints will be generated

Career Development Learning at Ulster – Delivery Strategies

Bespoke assessed modules (10 & 20 points) on Career Management Skills developed for particular schools or programmes

Integrated Career Development Learning components into core modules within programmes

Modules offered to schools or programmes within the Certificate of Personal & Professional Development (CPPD)

Programme specific non-assessed Career Management Skills Units delivered within and outside the curriculum

Generic open careers workshops available to all students

Generic Skills Training Careers Programme for PhD students

Topics:

Self-Awareness Personal Development

Planning Exploring Career Options CV Building /

Applications / Interviews Assessment Centres Action Planning Communication and

Presentation Skills Work Values

Assessments:

Career Report Professional Action Plan Placement CV Skills Audit Reflective Journal Mock Interview Finalist CV E-portfolio on PACE Mock On-line Application Group Presentations

Career Development Learning

ACF343 Career Planning & Skills Development Mock Online Application form using Survey

Gizmo

ACF327 Graduate Employment Skills Career Research topic group presentation to

expert panel including graduate employers and academics.

Ulster Graduate Qualities

Resources to support the implementation of the Institutional ‘Statement of Graduate Qualities’.

Enhancing employability via EDGE

An employability Award for F/T Undergraduate Students Provides official recognition and evidence for activities

outside the students programme of study Taken in addition to degree Enrolment is free They have up to 3 years to complete the award. Presented at graduation Will appear on the students HEAR

•Open to 1st Year students•Reflect on Me PPD131‘•Building your skills PPD105 

Open to 2nd Year students•Developing Skills for Work PPD104 •Peer Assisted Study Skills 1 PPD037•Peer Assisted Study Skills 2 PPD051

Open to 3rd Year students•Graduation- what next? PPD102•Career management Skills PPD103

Open to all students•Skills Development through Student Representation

P/T job•Work Experience Skills Builder Module PPD 184

Year long Placement – DPP(I)/DIASYear Long PlacementStudy USAStudy AbroadInternational Student Exchange Programme (ISEP)Language Assistant Ulster Sports Outreach Educational Placement ProgrammeErasmus

Short-term placements – via 'employability through work experience' PPD100) Washington Ireland ProgramIAESTE Placement

Preparation Module (only open to computing students)Placement Preparation PPD120

Business LaunchPadEnterprise Development PPD183

•Open to all•Sports/Students Union Club or Committee Member•Student Union Rag Volunteer•Volunteering with External Organisations•Business Enterprise Academy•Business Bootcamp•Careers PlusOpen to Social Work students•Social Work Individual Practice Development DaysOpen to UOTC students•Leaderhsip Development Programme Module 1 &2Open to Sports students•Ulster Sports Outreach Education Induction Training Programme•Ulster Sports Outreach Sport for LIFE programmeOpen to UBS students•Entrepreneurship Competitions•CIMA Accredited SAGE certificateOpen to Nursing students•Disaster Risk Reduction•Immediate Life SupportOpen to Computing & Engineering•Stem AmbassadorOpen to Media, Film & Journalism•Entrepreneur ResidencyOpen to Sports and Creative Dance•Dance for Life ProgrammeOpen to Communication/ Art & Design students•Publicity Association of Northern Ireland/ University of Ulster Advertising Competition (PANI)

•Tutoring in schools•Students Union Enterprise Competition Team Member•Sciences and Ethics: Debates and Dilemmas•Developing Digital literacy

Accredited co-curricular modules

Work experience, Study Abroad and Enterprise

Internal and External Opportunities

Formal University Wide Opportunities

Category 1: Category 2: Category 3: Category 4:

Photos of students that graduated with EDGE available on flicker

HEAR 6.1 Protocols

The achievement is verifiable and endorsed by the University.

The opportunity to undertake the achievement is open to all students, in principle.

Information is presented factually, not opinion-based.

The role/achievement/outcome is defined by regulation (e.g. prizes, sabbatical officer).

The role/achievement/position supports a University process and is verifiable.

The achievement/role supports wider University policy and strategy.

Proposing Activities for inclusion in the Award

Activity proposal form available on the EDGE website http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/606277/Proposed-Activity-for-Inclusion-in-Ulster-Edge-Award

Minimum criteria – 30 hours, no impact on 360 points and an output that requires student to reflect on skills they have gained from the activity e.g logbook, ppt presentation etc..

Discuss ideas for activities to be included in the Award contact Dr Sharon Milner: st.milner@ulster.ac.uk

Approved activities will be provided with EDGE Award kitemark to put on School website to link to the Award

Careers Events

Autumn Careers, Placement and Postgraduate Fairs – 14th & 15th Oct Assembly Hall UUJ; 16th Oct UUC, 17th Oct UUM

Northern Ireland Graduate Recruitment Fair Spring 2014

Series of mini sector specific events – Law, Accountancy, Teaching, IT

Employer Presentations on Campus

Employer Engagement

Work Based Learning

Support for Placement Preparation / Placement Tutor Briefings

Work Experience Week – Beginning 25th February

Joblink, Placement Management System

Business Launch Pad(Enterprise Development Module)

Paid Graduate Internships in Industry (PEP/ Santander)

Employer Engagement

Undertake the Student Survey twice a year April and January: 6 months after graduation (6130 students (3940 UUJ/UUB; 2190 UUM/UUC) 80% response)

Deadline 14th March 2014

DLHE statistics on PACE (graduate destinations on portal)

Results published on KIS – employability benchmark

DLHE Survey

Methods of contact

Postal mailing

Telephone questionnaire

PDF version (e-mail)

Centrally-hosted online questionnaire

Other methods

Direct contactDuring the field work period e.g. they visit the careers office or during the graduation ceremony

Academic departments Last resort Can also be used as a source of information as they may have on-going interactions with the leaver(s)

Employers Last resort If employer is known to the institution they too may be contacted

What you can do.. Promote the survey to students (from second year)

Briefing sessions to students on how to fill the form in – final year

Keep in contact with your finalists – let us (careers) know where they are

Send out PDF link - Institutions can email this version of the questionnaire to leavers for completion. Leavers should print the form in order to complete, sign, date and return it to their institution

Send out Online link

We need: Student Number, Programme Code, Full Time/Part Time, Job title, Name of Employer

What you can’t do…

Fill in the form for a student

Send it out to everyone – there is a target population – generally full time undergraduate

Staff Employability Newsletterhttp://employability.ulster.ac.uk

Further Information visit: