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Employability

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BU has one of the highest graduate employability rates in the UK and students develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable them to be so successful through innovative curricula, strong links with employers and the professions, and a rich offering of extra-curricular opportunities. These pages provide programme teams with some resources to support the enhancement of employability within the curriculum.

You may also find it helpful to look at the student focused information on the Student Portal about career planning finding placements, entrepreneurship , and opportunities for developing employability outside the curriculum through the BU Student Development Award.

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Employability skills and graduate attributes

What skills are employers looking for from graduates? - In general, they claim they are satisfied with the skills of those they recruit. This report published by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, Employability: Incentivising Improvement (June 2010). identifies what they think HE providers should be doing to support the development of graduate skills.

What can you do? - Be explicit through the intended learning outcomes for your units and use appropriate assessment methods to reinforce students' understanding of the employability skills and attributes they are developing. The documentation required for framework and programme evaluation contains a checklist for integrating employability capabilities into the curriculum. This checklist is available in the Academic Procedures.

Each of the Higher Education Academy's 24 Subject Centres provides discipline focused materials on employability. Some may be used with students, eg: these podcasts from employers and psychology graduates on the importance of gaining relevant work experience and how psychology degrees are used in various work settings.

The Hospitality, Leisure Sport and Tourism (hlst) Subject Centre hosts a large number of case studies on embedding employability, including examples from BU.

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Problem based learning (PBL)

Many professionally-oriented programmes use problem based learning as an approach to support employability, as it is frequently associated with better problem solving, a better grasp of practicalities and greater client-centredness.

The method: Small groups of students consider an unfamiliar situation, problem or task, without any prior preparation. By exploring the nature of this unfamiliar situation, the students share prior knowledge and experience. As they progress, they pose questions which they need to explore in order to complete the task. After a period of individual study and other supportive educational experiences, they discuss what they have learned and how this relates to the original situation.

Curriculum structures and assessments are designed and implemented in order to support this form of self-directed learning. Teachers adopt the roles of facilitators and managers of the students' learning.

Two examples of PBL in use are from nursing and sport and leisure.

This SHEER Project Final Report provides insight into the views of lecturers who have used PBL.

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Entrepreneurship

The HEA's Entrepreneurial Skills Matrix highlights the knowledge, skills, aptitude, and motivation required to start, develop and run a small business. The blue sections of the matrix link to other resources that could be used with students in class or might be incorporated into self-managed learning materials.

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Work-based learning (WBL) and CPD

Developing courses that support work-based learning and continuing professional development for employers is an important area, particularly at postgraduate level. This QAA publication explores a variety of models and provides ideas, case studies and tools for implementing WBL.

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Accessibility and employability

Employability and disability is a National Teaching Fellowship Scheme project that aims to reduce discrimination and enhance disabled graduates' employability. A new web-based resource, usemyability, will be the major output of the project.

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