Learning and Teaching in Action

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1 Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching Learning and Teaching in Action Volume 9 Issue 3 Spring Term Employability: Transferable skills ranked by students and recruiters Authors Wendy Wild Associate Head: Accounting, Finance and Economics w.wild@mmu.ac.uk telephone: Ext 3990 Jane Wood Senior Lecturer: Textile Technology j.e.wood@mmu.ac.uk telephone: Ext 2664 Abstract This paper describes the results of an employability survey given to level four accounting and finance students and fashion students in the spring of This was preliminary research to try to establish whether students ranked transferable employability skills the same as potential graduate recruiters and whether there was a difference in the perceptions of the importance of these skills between diverse cohorts of students. The paper then looks at the potential implications of the outcomes from the survey for programme design teams and those academics responsible for the delivery of those skills. Learning and Teaching in Action Vol 9 Issue 3 3

2 Background to the project The enhancement of employability skills has been a constant target of funding interventions. In the 1990 s the Dearing Report (1997) lead the way with regard to embedding employability in to higher education and the establishment of the Teaching Quality and Enhancement Fund had employability as one of its priorities. The fund supported the establishment of new agencies, the Learning and Teaching Support Network and the Institute of Learning and Teaching, both with a remit to support subject level initiatives and staff development, including communities of practice on employer engagement. These agencies, alongside the Enhancing Student Employability Coordination Team, developed academic approaches to employability. In 2003, the Government s White Paper The Future of Higher Education, launched the Centres of Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs), which included 22 centres focused on employability, enterprise and work based learning. In 2006, following the Leitch Review the focus moved from broad employability skills of a graduate towards specific workforce skills, including macro targets for workforce participation in HE through to This focus has continued with the Wilson Report (2012) recommending that Universities should reflect on the opportunities that are provided for students to develop employability skills through the formal learning methodologies used within the university and ensure that students are able to articulate the skills that they have developed through their learning experiences. Universities have responded by developing and articulating coherent policies and frameworks to build graduate attributes within and across programmes. (Tempone and Martin 2003) In the Corporate Report, MMU has as its first vision to place quality and employability as our top priority, and has introduced an employability strategy to demonstrate how this vision is to be achieved. The key aim is to embed and strengthen the development and enhancement of employability, enterprise and self employment skills within the student experience. Thus ensuring MMU graduates are developed to be able to apply skills of critical analysis to real world situations within a defined range of contexts and demonstrate a high degree of professionalism characterised by initiative, creativity, motivation and self management. The Higher Education Academy in their Pedagogy for Employability (revised 2012) defined employability as a set of achievements skills, understandings and personal attributes that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefit themselves, the workforce and the economy. Embedding employability requires a multi faceted approach that will give the graduate the selfesteem to move forward into employment at the end of their programme. This has been captured in the following model of essential components of employability by Dacre Pool et al (2007), Learning and Teaching in Action Vol 9 Issue 3 4

3 The essential components of employability Employability Self efficacy Self esteem Self confidence Reflection and Evaluation Career Development Learning Experience (work and life) Degree Subject Knowledge, Skills & Understanding Generic Skills Emotional Intelligence Source: Dacre Pool L, & Sewell P, The Key to Employability The model demonstrates the complex mix of attributes a student needs to develop to assist them in the employability process. This paper focuses on one area, generic skills, as these are transferable skills that should be developed across all courses and the paper reviews whether different students attach different levels of importance to those skills and what areas they feel most competent in. This insight, it is hoped, will be informative to programmer designers as to the needs of their students. In 2011, the CBI survey found four out of five employers stated that they valued employability skills and used it as the most important factor when recruiting graduates. However, as can be seen from the table below, some of their main areas of dissatisfaction came from those generic skill areas. Table One Employer satisfaction with graduates employability skills (%) Very Satisfied Satisfied Not Satisfied Business & Commercial Awareness Self- management Teamwork Problem Solving Basic Literacy Positive attitude to work Learning and Teaching in Action Vol 9 Issue 3 5

4 Basic numeracy Use of IT Source: CBI education and skills survey 2011 Aim of this paper What this paper aims to demonstrate is that, although as academics we can use a general term transferable skills, we need to describe what is meant by the term to our students, students also need to recognise those skills in order to enhance their employability and ensure that they are competent in them. In Spring 2012, level 4 students on the BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance programme and the BA (Hons) Fashion Design and Technology programme were surveyed and asked to rank the transferable skills they thought employers would want, and then rank their perception of their own competence in those areas. These results were compared to the importance attached to those skills as reported by Fielding (2007) when she surveyed 750 employers on behalf of The Association of Graduate Recruiters. The rationale for using level 4 students was to: see what they perceived as important and where this was divergent to employers; to inform programme design teams so as to ensure transferable skills became recognisable to students; and to deepen their understanding of how to gain and apply those transferable skills over the course of their studies. Accounting and Finance Cooper (2002), (as cited by Kavanagh) found that the expectations of performance placed on accounting graduates are complex and demanding, requiring them to develop broader skills and be committed to continuing professional development and lifelong learning. Cooper found this led to the expectation that accounting graduates demonstrate additional competencies, with increasing importance given to non accounting capabilities and skills. In 2008, Kavanagh wrote that students are becoming aware of employers expectations in terms of communication, analytical, professional and team working skills. Employers are expecting a good understanding of basic accounting skills and strong analytical skills as well as, business awareness and knowledge in terms of real world. Both students and employers report that many of the essential non technical, professional skills and attributes are not being developed sufficiently in university accounting programmes. At MMU, on the accounting programme, transferable skills are embedded throughout the programme, rather than offered as a separate unit. Although personal development planning is part of one unit at each level under EQAL. 32 Accountancy students completed the survey for this research and the results compared to those of the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR). The results are shown in Table One, and demonstrate that the main areas where accounting students perceptions differed from those of the recruiters were with regard to commercial awareness, problem solving, motivation and managing own career. It was not perhaps surprising that students at level 4 did not feel competent with regard to commercial awareness, as it is later in the course when the theory of accounting is applied to real Learning and Teaching in Action Vol 9 Issue 3 6

5 world scenarios. However, given that the students are on a vocational course it was surprising that they did not recognise the importance employers attach to this skill. A constructivist approach has been taken to the teaching of accounting with problem solving at the centre to develop students knowledge of the subject, so this result was surprising. Not only did the accounting students not recognise the importance of this skill, they also felt less competent in it than prospective employers would want. The result could be due to a mix of variables. As this survey was at level 4 it could be that the foundations of accounting theory are being taught formulaically, taking a behaviourist approach with the application made at later stages in the course, or students are not recognising when they are applying these problem solving skills in their work. The final areas that had a large deviances from the results of AGR s for accounting students was motivation and the skills to manage own career. Employers expect students to be committed to what they were studying and are motivated to achieve their ambition. Students themselves recognise these as important in the survey, but were less motivated than recruiters would expect and lacked organisation skills to manage their own learning. For a vocational course this was surprising and would warrant further investigation to gain an understanding of the student s rationale for joining the course and their expectations of the course, and from a programme design point of view how the students can be motivated and enthused about the subject and demonstrate organisational skills. Fashion Design and Technology On this programme employability skills are embedded at level 4 into a separate Academic Practice unit that has been introduced in under EQAL. The unit aims to develop such skills as presentation styles, report writing etc., to give a student the opportunity to develop their professional and employability skills, MMU (2013) Whilst employability skills are embedded in this unit, the whole programme has transferable skills embedded in it with experiential learning the main pedagogical approach. Academics have regular engagement with employers to deliver units that are hands on practically taught and assessments linked to live industry briefs For this research, 26 Clothing Design students were surveyed and the results compared to those of the Association of Graduate Recruiters. The results are shown in Table One. Design student s perceptions of the importance of transferable skills differed from those of recruiters mainly with regard to computer literacy, team working and self management. The design students ranked both the importance and their competence of computer literacy higher than the importance attached to this area by recruiters. However, it is felt that whilst it was positive that students felt confident in this area there could be confusion as to the definition of computer literacy between the students and the recruiters, with students focusing on their abilities with Computer Aided Design (CAD) and perhaps recruiters focusing on more general IT skills. Anecdotal evidence from lecturers could support this assumption, as some found that simple IT applications such as excel and power point are used throughout the units within the Fashion Design Technology program, but students often lack the confidence to transfer the use of these applications to other fields. This was illustrated in a question to a placement student in an Learning and Teaching in Action Vol 9 Issue 3 7

6 interview, How could you present the data gained from your lab testing? the student struggled to answer, but later realised that she had these skills. Table one also shows that the students recognised motivation and enthusiasm as an important employability skill, ranking it with virtually the same high level of importance as the recruiters, but in table two the results showed that the students felt that they were not competent in these areas. This is a challenging area for academics to assess, and for students to clearly demonstrate their motivation and enthusiasm to potential employers, but is clearly an area recruiters look for from graduates. Both the students and recruiters ranked team working as an important employability skill, but students recognised that they were not as competent as potential employers may like. It could be that students at level four may not in their previous education had to focus on teamwork and group assessment and that is why they feel a lack of competence. Anecdotal evidence through the internal student surveys has shown that students were commenting that the programme was helping them develop team working skills through tasks set them in class and the group assessments. This is positive as research by Riebe et al (2010) showed team working is a valuable transferable skill and more needs to be implemented as the CBI survey (2011) found 20% of employers were still not satisfied with this skill level. Areas for discussion, conclusion and recommendations Whilst MMU along with other universities have moved to embed employability in their programmes, it is not clear as to how well students are recognising the importance of different key transferable skills and to what level their competence in these skills is being developed. Whilst criticisms can be made of the survey, and further work would be required to gain a full understanding of the responses, the main areas that perhaps warrant discussion to ensure our students are employable could include How should employability be embedded in programmes for maximum effectiveness, should there be a separate unit or should it be across the programme. Is this dependent on the programme? Do different programmes require transferable skills to be taught differently? Do students recognise what is meant by the terms used to define transferable skills? Should employability language be used in programmes and assessment to help students recognise the relevance? Are the terms interpreted differently across different industries? Whilst programmes are embedding the transferable skills are they giving the students the ability to recognise, appreciate and apply them? Can programmes assess these transferable skills as well as the subject knowledge and learning skills? Once students are competent at employability skills do they have the confidence to build on them and use them to increase their self esteem? This preliminary research into MMU student perceptions of employability skills, and their own competence in them, has been thought provoking and has highlighted the complexity of the area for both academics and students. Some of the results were quite surprising and suggest more indepth research is needed to understand some of the differences we found. Learning and Teaching in Action Vol 9 Issue 3 8

7 Appendix One: Survey Results Table One: Students Rankings of the Importance of Employability Skills v Association of Graduate Recruiters Rankings of Importance (scale from 2 no importance to +2 most important) Transferable Employability Skill Importance Levels Deviance from AGR Accountancy Fashion AGR Accountancy Fashion Commercial awareness Commitment and drive Computer literacy Cultural sensitivity Customer focus Flexibility and adaptability Leadership Managing own learning and career Motivation and enthusiasm Numeracy Oral communication Planning and organising Problem solving Project management Report writing Risk taking and enterprise Second language Team working Time management Table Two: Students Perception of their Competence Level at each Employability Skill v Association of Graduate Recruiters Rankings of Importance (scale from 2 not competent to +2 very competent) Learning and Teaching in Action Vol 9 Issue 3 9

8 Transferable Skill Competence levels Deviance from AGR Accountancy Fashion AGR Accountancy Fashion Commercial awareness Commitment and drive Computer literacy Cultural sensitivity Customer focus Flexibility and adaptability Leadership Managing own learning and career Motivation and enthusiasm Numeracy Oral communication Planning and organising Problem solving Project management Report writing Risk taking and enterprise Second language Team working Time management Bibliography Archer W. and Davison J, (2011), Graduate Employability: what do employers think and want?, (online), (accessed 2/3/2012) Learning and Teaching in Action Vol 9 Issue 3 10

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