Enhancing employability through

Transcript:Enhancing employability through:
Enhancing employability through Internationalisation Steve Woodfield Associate Professor, Kingston University London SRHE Employability, Enterprise and Work-based Learning Network Workshop: “Developing the most employable global citizens: How can we encourage and celebrate outward mobility and working abroad?” Friday 13th November 2015 Overview of this session In this session I plan to cover…. Concepts of ‘employability’ and ‘graduate attributes’ The internationalisation of higher education in a European context Findings from three recent research projects that explored the links between employability and internationalisation Your backgrounds, and your experiences, will help to enrich our discussions Employment skills Focused on a particular job or industry Highly vocational – workplace preparation Specific career pathways (e.g. engineering, nursing) Linked to professional accreditation Subject-specific knowledge, skills and competencies Demand-led skill sets Challenge: equity for non- or multi-vocational programmes Employability skills Generic – not exclusively skills-focused Transferable or transversal skills ‘Softer' and more person-centred focus Recognition of multiple career pathways Knight and Yorke (2003) – a blend of understanding, skilful practices, efficacy beliefs (or legitimate self-confidence) and reflectiveness (or metacognition). “…..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 benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy.”(Yorke, 2006) Graduate attributes Employability attributes are a subset of wider set of attributes (i.e. life-skills) Bespoke and defined by individual universities Expectations of the skills & understandings students can develop via curricular, co-curricular & extra-curricular activity Can be exhibited before and after graduation Bridgstock (2009) ‘lifelong career development’ “The contemporary focus on graduate attributes in higher education is really part of a bigger, as yet unresolved, debate about the purpose of university education and how to develop well-educated persons who are both employable and capable of contributing to civil society.” (Hager and Holland, 2006) What skills do employers want? Prospects: http://www.prospects.ac.uk/applying_for_jobs_what_skills_do_employers_want.htm What about future skills needs? Davies et al (2011) Future Work Skills 2020: http://www.iftf.org/uploads/media/SR-1382A_UPRI_future_work_skills_sm.pdf Graduate attributes: staff & students :Gunn University of Glasgow student research project (2010) Internationalisation in HE “the intentional process of integrating an international, intercultural or global dimension into the purpose, functions and delivery of post-secondary education, in order to enhance the quality of education and research for all students and staff, and to make a meaningful contribution to society” (de Wit and Hunter, 2015) Landscape of international HE Covers a range of activities and can be viewed through