Employability Learning is defined as, ‘a set of achievements – skills, understandings and personal attributes – that makes graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy’ (Kempster, online, n.d.).
Employability learning
Embedding opportunities to gain the skills referred to above is crucial for the student journey. Moreover, this is also important because fee paying students expect to be equipped with the employability skills, resilience and confidence to improve their long-term career prospects. How universities approach this may impact how candidates choose their courses.
Begin by responding to and reflecting on the student voice question set, which has been designed to help you identify both strengths and areas for development in Employability Learning in your programme or module.
Everyone teaching on a programme should be able to provide a detailed response to these questions that clearly articulates to students how the curriculum will support them in becoming a valued member of the Oxford Brookes learning community.
Engagement with the questions should prompt you to consider areas for development within your programme or module. Follow the Design Thinking process outlined on the How to use the model page and refer to the case studies and resources for examples and activities to support you in developing your practice.
Question set
- Networking - Where in my programme can I meet, hear from and network with prospective employers, alumni and stakeholders?
- Relevance of curriculum to employability - Where in the programme am I enabled to recognise the parallels between my academic experience and my employability?
- Diversity/inclusion - In what ways is my experience of the programme reflective of a diverse range of career role models, promoting awareness of equality of rights and opportunities within the workplace?
- Authentic assessment - How far are the assessments I’ll undertake reflective of authentic tasks I’ll carry out in the workplace?
- Professionalism - What opportunities are there for me to build confidence and strategies to develop my networks of career contacts, including employers, alumni and other stakeholders, and to present myself in person and online?
- Employability attributes - How does the teaching team support me to take ownership of the latest graduate competencies and Brookes attributes to inform my career development? This question has been changed from original question on the website
- The world of work - What is the scope for undertaking placements, internships and local, regional and global mobility on my programme?
- Expectations on the programme - Do the expectations set for me from the beginning of my programme match the professional expectations for behaviour, self-management and etiquette expected of a graduate?
Threshold plus
What distinctive/additional dimensions employability learning and development is the programme known for?
Guidance from the Careers Team
1. Networking - Where in my programme can I meet, hear from and network with prospective employers, alumni and stakeholders?
In order to support students, where might you be doing this already/plan to do as part of your course development? For example this could be:
- Holding your own employer events
- Engaging with Brookes Connections (Mentoring scheme)
- Encouraging students to attend Brookes employer fairs and external graduate/industry careers events
- Utilising guest speakers from your network - what employer contacts do the academic teams already have?
- Students engaging in placement and internships (face to face or virtual), live projects and any other opportunities to connect with employers, and being prompted to reflect on what they have learnt from that experience.
- Has data from NSS/Graduate Outcomes/APP* been reviewed to show employment trends/student preferences/demographics?
- What are your QAA subject benchmarks? (this may apply to all questions)
*The Graduate Outcomes survey seeks to collate data on the outcomes of all recipients of higher education courses in the UK. More details here: Brookes GO Data and HESA overview.
The Access and Participation Plan (APP) sets out how a HE provider intends to improve equality of opportunity for underrepresented groups, to access, succeed in and progress from higher education. More details here: Brookes Access and Participation Plan 2020-2025 and Brookes student survey dashboard. An annual Careers Registration enrolment survey at Brookes is now collecting data on student ‘career readiness’, which will show how it evolves over time.
2. Relevance of curriculum to employability - Where in the programme am I enabled to recognise the parallels between my academic experience and my employability?
In order to support students, where might you be doing this already/plan to do as part of your course development? For example:
- Have modules been designed with industry standards/requirements in mind?
- Is the programme accredited by a professional body? If not could there be a review of the standards of a relevant professional body?
- Do the courses incorporate changes in the workplace and how they evolve e.g. technological developments e.g. the need for increased digital literacy?
- What resources are being utilised that encourage focused reflection on experiences, skill development and learning gains and areas for further development?
- Brookes Careers consultants can introduce a range of reflective resources to students within the curriculum, including:
Audits to help students to reflect on Skills and Values to help them to identify and assess their current achievements and developmental goals
Students can be introduced to Kolb’s experiential learning theory and Gibbs’ Reflective cycle and further scholarly discussion as a good starting point. (Further discussion could also be included with vocational programmes on implications for professional practice).
A range of further online e-learning resources can be found on the Brookes Careers Resources portal.
- Brookes Careers consultants can introduce a range of reflective resources to students within the curriculum, including:
- Is reflection being prompted through discussion forum threads on Moodle and is this expected as part of formative assessment? Or could this be a part of a summative assessment?
- Could career development related PDPs be part of a module/module assessment to aid career planning and reflection?
- Could activities utilise the Brookes Careers Model (Discover Plot Action)? Brookes Careers
3. Diversity/inclusion - In what ways is my experience of the programme reflective of a diverse range of career role models, promoting awareness of equality of rights and opportunities within the workplace?
In order to support students, where might you be doing this already/plan to do as part of your course development? For example:
- Do academics direct students to central events/pop-ups offered by Brookes Careers, which include employers recruiting students from diverse backgrounds?
- Does it encourage students to attend relevant Brookes Careers central workshops e.g. disability rights?
- Does the course have guest speakers from diverse backgrounds - could you use personal networks?
- Does it encourage students to access the Brookes Connections mentoring scheme?
- Do you work in partnership with Enterprise Brookes to source relevant employers/individuals?
- Could case studies representing diverse career role models/pathways and role models from diverse backgrounds be utilised? Reflecting different backgrounds, experiences of work, work-life balance and following important life values?
- Has NSS/GO/APP data been reviewed to consider student experience, attainment and progression into highly skilled employment?
- Consider utilising APP data. This could be used as a tool to predict how diverse your new cohort might be (based on similar courses). It could be used as a tool to help you design content that appeals to diverse groups (e.g. relevant case studies/speakers) and may help with recruitment of under-represented students.
4. Authentic assessment - How far are the assessments I’ll undertake reflective of authentic tasks I’ll carry out in the workplace?
In order to support students, where might you be doing this already/plan to do as part of your course development?
- Has time been taken to see if assessments/teaching/pedagogy reflect working practices?
- Types of activities and assessments could include live projects/case studies/consultancy briefs, research reports, drafting briefings for policy makers or research bodies. (For level 6 / postgraduate studies, this could potentially be expanded to research projects as an alternative to a dissertation.) Other activities could include blog writing, Dragons’ Den activities, exercises reviewing CVs using employer shortlisting criteria, poster assessments and presentations to employers.
- Is the style of feedback relevant to career progression and employability skills?
- How is student feedback on any placement experience considered in programme design and evaluation?
- Could refer to ETC Toolkit - Embedding Enterprise and Employability in the Curriculum for useful examples of activities.
5. Professionalism - What opportunities are there for me to build confidence and strategies to develop my networks of career contacts, including employers, alumni and other stakeholders, and to present myself in person and online?
In order to support students, where might you be doing this already/plan to do as part of your course development? For example:
- Are students encouraged to engage with university services that can support this e.g. Brookes Careers (e.g. via events)/Brookes Enterprise/the Brookes Connections mentoring scheme.
- Do courses incorporate themes such as resilience to help them with confidence, and/or signposting to Brookes Careers central programme on these topics?
- Does the course engage with guest speakers/sector experts and do they contribute to assessment/feedback? If accredited, does this help with the confidence of students and networking opportunities?
- Are students being given regular opportunities (e.g. speed networking), to develop their professional communication skills with others who are unfamiliar to them?
- Do you and your students create opportunities to gain constructive feedback together with employers on these experiences?
6. Employability attributes - How does the teaching team support me to take ownership of the latest graduate competencies and Brookes attributes (please see section below) to inform my career development?
In order to support students, where might you be doing this already/plan to do as part of your course development? For example:
- Are the attributes considered in the development of each module and the design of assessments/feedback?
- Are the attributes linked to the course intended Learning Outcomes?
- Is there regular engagement with employers and Brookes Careers to embed this and understand what employers want?
- It may be beneficial to refer to some of the prompts considered already in threshold question 2.
7. The world of work - What is the scope for undertaking placements, internships and local, regional and global mobility on my programme?
In order to support students, where might you be doing this already, or plan to do as part of your course development? For example:
- Are internships/placements already embedded as part of the course design (and has labour market information been reviewed to see if there are placement vacancies in the relevant sectors)?
- If not, are students supported so they can engage with industry insight schemes and structured work experience?
- Are they signposted to employer/career fairs so they can meet and network with relevant employers?
- Are they signposted to access appropriate placement search sites including Brookes Careers Jobs and Events portal?
- Where applicable is there consultation with the faculty placements’ department?
- Are students signposted to global learning online and face to face opportunities e.g. the Turing Scheme (where applicable).
- How is the internal feedback gained from these experiences considered and used to inform future planning?
8. Expectations on the programme - Do the expectations set for me from the beginning of my programme match the professional expectations for behaviour, self-management and etiquette expected of a graduate?
In order to support students, where might you be doing this already/plan to do as part of your course development? For example:
- Have courses been created with reference to expected graduate skills identified by employers, the Job Market and employer/stakeholder input (for example, the Chamber of Commerce) and with reference to Brookes Attributes?
- If the course is accredited, has the professional body been consulted on standards and employability?
- Has research been taken to see what sectors/employers expect? If so, is this embedded in modules, Learning Outcomes and assessments/feedback?
Graduate Attributes
This element of the IDEAS model contributes to the Oxford Brookes Graduate Attribute of Critical self-awareness and personal literacy.
Activities
More information on the following actions can be found in the three principles in the Brookes Briefing on Employability Learning.
Identify the key employability skills in your programme/subject area
There may be employability skills specific to your subject area and programmes, and there are generic ones across all. To identify the former, you may discuss with awarding bodies, alumni, and employers and use their documentation. For the latter, the Brookes Graduate Attributes are a good indicator. They are: Academic Literacy, Research literacy, Critical Self-Awareness and personal Literacy, Digital and Information Literacy and Active Citizenship.
Review/audit module content, assessment and feedback processes and (re)design these with employability in mind
It is necessary to understand where you are providing employability learning as well as where the gaps may be.
The Brookes Enterprise and Employability (BEE) tool can help you create your student employability roadmap by highlighting existing opportunities (linked to activities) to both you and students and also identify where more are needed. You can use the BEE Journey template to categorise activities as ‘Building your professional profile’, Engaging with the professions’, ‘Developing professional skills’ and ‘Exploring ideas and enterprise’.
Other reviewing tools you can use include Advance HE’s Framework for embedding employability and The Enterprise Educators UK toolkit/ which includes examples of work-related activities which are relevant for individual programme areas.
It is important to remember you do not need to design alone. You can seek support and guidance from central careers and educational and academic development teams. Work with the Brookes careers service, who have a person linked to each area. This could be to review current/proposed content to see where it already contains elements of employability. Alternatively, you can collaborate on embedding employability in module content and assessment/feedback processes, for example programme or module design could include involving employers in live projects and observing assessed presentations from students.
For examples of good practice, please see the ‘case studies’ further down this page.
Resources
Brookes services
Brookes Careers offers consultancy to academics to develop employability within their programme. It also supports current students and recent graduates to explore career options, develop their self awareness and confidently navigate the labour market and graduate recruitment. We provide a range of employer events, graduate vacancies, training and volunteering opportunities. Our interactive Resources portal includes a range of e-learning tools, videos and tools that provide personalised feedback.
Brookes Connections Mentoring Scheme is a career mentoring scheme run by Brookes alumni for current students and recent graduates.
Brookes Enterprise Support offers a range of training, events and experiences that help current students and recent graduates to build skills, develop confidence and encourage business start-up.
Frameworks and toolkits on employability
Advance HE has published a Framework for embedding employability.
University of Bristol - Embedding Employability in the Curriculum toolkit (example of a detailed HEI toolkits on employability learning)
Enterprise Educators UK has published a toolkit with examples of work-related activities which are relevant for individual programme areas - see https://www.etctoolkit.org.uk/.
Graduate Outcomes
HESA, the government’s Higher Education Statistics Agency publishes national Graduate Outcomes (GO) data on the outcomes after 15 months of graduates from UK institutions. Internal data for Oxford Brookes Graduate Outcomes can be found here.
Access and Participation Plan
Oxford Brookes Access and Participation Plan 2020-2025
NSS results
OFS overview overview and national NSS provider data comparisons
Brookes student survey dashboard
Researching the Labour Market
The UK Office for National Statistics publishes official data on the UK labour market
LMI For All provides a DfE funded portal to make sense of labour market data - it includes areas of employment growth and provides comparisons of how pay varies by job role.
Careersmart presents useful overviews of data on different job roles and sectors.
Prospects Luminate presents overviews on graduate employment statistics by programme area.
Regional labour market information and analysis is available from Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership and Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce
Government database of UK professional bodies
TEF guidance to follow will refer to employability.
Case studies
ICE Qube (Dr. Samia Kamal, School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics.
Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment) provides an integrated approach to employability and enterprise within the curriculum, or as part of students’ broader development.
Showcase how you have embedded Employability in your curriculum: Submit a case study for inclusion in the toolkit.
We will be regularly uploading case studies showcasing excellent practice at Oxford Brookes. If you would like to share how you have embedded Employability Learning in your curriculum, why not submit a case study for inclusion in the toolkit.
Further reading
References
De Cuyper, N., Mauno, S., Kinnunen, U. and Mäkikangas, A. (2011). The role of job resources in the relation between perceived employability and turnover intention: A prospective two-sample study. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 78, pp. 253-263. doi: 10.1016J.JVB.2010.09.008
Dacre Pool, L., & Sewell, P. (2007) ‘The key to employability: developing a practical model of graduate employability’, Education + Training, 49 (4), pp. 277-289. Doi: 10.1108/00400910710754435
Dacre-Pool, L. Revisiting the CareerEDGE model of graduate employability. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 44 (1). pp. 51-56.
Kempster, H.What is employability and why is it important? online, n.d.Available at: https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/career-success/0/steps/21285
Quinlan, K.M., Renninger, K.A.(2022) Rethinking employability: how students build on interest in a subject to plan a career. Higher Education 84, pp. 863–883 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00804-6
Money, J., Nixon, S., Tracy, F., Hennessy, C., Bal, E. and Dining, T. (2017) Undergraduate student expectations of university in the United Kingdom: What really matters to them?, Cogent Education, 4:1, doi:10.1080/2331186X.2017.1301855
Small, L., Shacklock, K., amd Marchant, T. (2018). Employability: A Contemporary Review for HigherEducation Stakeholders. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 70(1), pp. 148-166. doi:10.1080/13636820.2017.1394355
Shury, J., Vivian, D., Turner, C. and Downing, C. (2017). Planning for success: Graduates’ career planning and its effect on graduate outcomes. London, UK: Department for Education.
OCAED thanks the Oxford Brookes Careers Service team for the content on this page.