Universities UK Review of Skills

Transcription

1 Universities UK Review of Skills AGCAS response to UUK s: Call for Evidence (October 2016) Questions for Other Stakeholders Skills and employability 1. What are the priority skills that should be developed by undergraduates? It can be difficult (and counterproductive) to prioritise skills owing to the changeable nature of the graduate labour market; both sector and size of organisation will have a significant impact upon the type of skills employers are looking for in undergraduates. Skills cannot be ranked in order of preference - we need to ensure that skills development is not a one size fits all exercise. Commonly-referenced skills include: flexibility/adaptability, capacity for continuous learning, problem solving, decision making, creative thinking, communication, negotiation, influencing, assertiveness, presentation, teamwork, leadership, numeracy, entrepreneurial, innovative, project management, time management, digital, research, and analytical. Such skills should also be complemented by subject-specific and sector-specific requirements. In addition to skills, it is imperative that attributes or qualities are considered as part of this wider discussion. Confidence, resilience, drive, integrity, self-motivation, approachability, honesty, reliability and emotional intelligence are all key attributes or qualities for students considering their suitability for different roles when applying for opportunities, entering the workplace and navigating those early years. This is often called getting in and getting on. To enable students to present themselves and their career vision with authenticity, the main priority and focus for development should shift to raising students self-awareness of their own skills, helping them identify their abilities to enable them to effectively highlight the skills they have and align them to the opportunities to which they are applying. Successful employability outcomes are dependent on a range of factors: a blend of skills and attributes; students applying themselves seriously to the career planning and job search process; students self-awareness and understanding of their match to the labour market; and students abilities to effectively articulate and evidence the skills they have developed both through study and outside of study. In addition to knowing themselves, students need to demonstrate they know the organisation(s) to which they are applying to show a match between their career motivations and the context in which the organisation is operating. This could include their corporate aims and objectives, their organisational values, how the organisation is realizing their aims and objectives, for example, new product launches, new openings, etc.

2 2. What are the best ways for institutions to develop these skills? Institutions can develop these skills by adopting a combined approach: integrating careers education within the curriculum, via modules that clearly articulate to students how skills and attributes can be developed and enhanced (these may be explicitly employability modules or may be through integrating considerations of careers and employability into core subject teaching); identifying transferable skills in the curriculum, sometimes called contextualized employability and communicating these to students (this can remove the need for revising curricula); ensuring students have access to a range of opportunities for work experience (part-time work, volunteering, placements or internships) and exposure to real world challenges through co-curricular activities; introducing initiatives that support the identification of skills and attributes through extracurricular activities, such as involvement in student clubs/societies. Embedding or identifying employability and transferable skills in the curriculum is vital, as is ensuring students are able to reflect on, acknowledge and articulate the skills they have gained and developed and also understand why these skills are crucial in the workplace. There is a need for institutions to feature skills and attributes more explicitly in students learning and adopt a collaborative approach across the university, tailored to the needs and demands of different courses, to support this agenda. Wider buy-in from academics on the importance of employability is essential. Institutions should also seek to understand a student s starting point for skills and attributes development to deliver a personalized and targeted approach. This is particularly true for parttime students, many of whom are already in work and perhaps not able to recognize their existing skills and how they can develop these further in the workplace, as well as through HE study. A number of institutions use the careers registration method for this purpose. The successful development of the skills and attributes of students is only partly the responsibility of the institution. A willingness on the student s part to actively engage with the process is key; it is the holistic university experience that makes a graduate employable and students should take ownership of the opportunities for development presented to them. 3. What are the most effective ways for higher education institutions and employers to work together to support skills development? Flexibility and adaptability are key to successful university-employer partnerships and allow institutions to respond to employer needs accordingly. Maintaining the dialogue between employers and institutions is key. Effective employer groups can energise the employer engagement strand of an institution s strategy. Employer involvement in curriculum development groups, industrial liaison committees and on advisory boards/panels to explore course alignment to skills requirements can ensure that provision is more closely matched to sector needs. Employer involvement in employability modules helps to bridge the gap between organisations and potential hires, ensures an audience of informed students as potential recruits for employers and offers awareness of labour market opportunities to students.

3 Beyond this, engaging with employers to ensure that students perceptions of the graduate labour market are challenged is crucial for universities. Integrating employers from nontraditional pathways is crucial to explore the transferability of degree disciplines. This is particularly true in the light of the predominantly any discipline nature of the mainstream UK graduate job market. One of the key challenges for institutions is employer awareness of the opportunities to engage with universities. Developing broad and deep relations with employers is crucial linking to research and enterprise agendas can support this, and/or focusing on initiatives that can build lasting relations such as employer/student mentoring schemes, employer competitions for students, employer involvement in careers education delivery (workshops, webinars, online courses), etc. Employers are encouraged to regard careers services as gateways for this purpose. The provision of internship and placement experience offers students opportunities for workrelated learning to develop skills and attributes via live projects, offers institutions the opportunity to understand employers real-time issues and working practices (from micro businesses to larger, graduate employers) and helps employers better-understand institutions distinctive student offer. 4. Are there any particular approaches from both institutions and employers that would specifically help to address skills shortages or mismatches? See answers given in 3 above. Examples of university-employer partnerships to address skills shortages or mismatches include: Liverpool John Moores - World of Work Skills Certificate, a skills award co-designed and developed by employers. University of Lincoln - a partnership with Siemens, which resulted in the development of the first school of engineering in the UK for 20 years. Before academic modules are approved by universities, there would be value in inviting employers or industry-representatives to comment on the content and skills components of the modules. More professional accreditation of HE courses, for example the British Psychological Society s accreditation of psychology, may also address this. Universities could perhaps approach the creation of degree programmes with more flexibility, making them more responsive to new technologies and ways of working. There is a great need to remain flexible as shortage areas change from year to year. Greater involvement of academics in industry, whether through work or conversation, could go some way in addressing this. Resource should be dedicated to this activity. The new Degree Apprenticeships model will provide similar opportunities, although the logistics of this in practical terms are still yet to be seen.

4 5. What should higher education institutions be doing in terms of skills and employability to support particular groups of students to improve social mobility? What should employers be doing? Higher education institutions should be: analysing historical DLHE statistics and live data such as careers registration (where it exists) to identify at risk groups of students and follow this up with targeted and tailored careers education programmes and mentoring opportunities; providing support opportunities to widening participation (WP) students (for example, via personal tutoring or individual/small group coaching) for specific skills development, especially in the areas of self-awareness, confidence, aspiration and brand identity; better marketing the breadth of opportunities and challenges of the labour market to WP students to help them gain a realistic idea of their career prospects with different degree subjects and to consider the full menu of options available to them; offering direct support to help WP students build networks and grow cultural capital (this is more of a challenge for particular groups of students as they may not have access to family and friend networks in their chosen area); providing specialist careers and employability posts, who focus on this area of activity. Employers should be: open to engaging with universities via more creative methods (many higher education institutions offer a varied approach to employer engagement with a menu of options for increased campus presence without having to physically attend); thinking beyond A-level/UCAS points/institutional bias as a shortlisting criteria and embracing the potential and talent of a diverse and inclusive workforce; providing short-term, targeted opportunities for internships/work experience/networking, as well as apprenticeship opportunities. 6. How should institutions support undergraduates once they have graduated? Many higher education institutions already provide careers and employability support and access to related services beyond a student s time at university for a fixed duration. Many offer unlimited lifetime access. Increasingly, such services to graduates are offered online. Continued additional support from alumni departments offers access to alumni events for facilitated networking and mentoring opportunities, peer support groups, and to enable lifelong skills development. Universities could offer additional support in the form of (online) skills learning and development tools to graduates. 7. What skills should employers take the lead in developing? Employers should take the lead on providing higher education institutions with industry-specific and workplace-specific skills requirements and be more proactive to ensure that more universities are aware of the skills and abilities they require. Providing industry insights will help students better understand workplace etiquette, business behaviours, cultures and tactics, and the type of project work undertaken.

5 Employers should be upfront in highlighting the skill shortage areas they are experiencing on the frontline (both on student applications and once graduates are in post) and commit to regular dialogue with higher education institutions to explain what students/graduates are lacking from their own business perspective. Sustained engagement with universities will help employers better understand the HE environment and what students and graduates have to offer. 8. Do you have any other comments or evidence? Employers often seem pleasantly surprised by the extent of skills development work undertaken at higher education institutions. Many of the questions above assume that the remit of skills development belongs to either the higher education institution or to employers. Greater numbers of students have become very much aware of the importance of the skills agenda. It is crucial to acknowledge the role of the student/graduate in this process not as a passive entity waiting to be developed, but as an active and willing participant engaged in the creation and development of their own future. This is particularly important for part time students, many of whom are already working and eager to develop skills that they can immediately apply to the workplace. Graduate recruiters (especially large corporations) should be more specific about which skills they require at the point of entry and those that are important for future performance, but for which they have development programmes in place. Higher education institutions often don t know enough about smaller employers and their needs; it is crucial that smaller employers are included in this debate. This response was made on behalf of AGCAS by: Gemma Green, AGCAS Communications and Engagement Manager 31 October 2016