Employability is a key challenge for all curriculum providers, as institutions come under pressure to demonstrate the career and economic benefits of their courses of study. A DIUS study found that career benefits and employability, followed by personal development, were the foremost reasons for considering a university education. Annual reports from the Higher Education Careers Service Unit define emloyability in terms of the skills and aptitudes that graduate recruiters are seeking and provide a useful picture of market trends. However, the LLiDA project highlighted that while 'employability' is a term in widespread use, it is not always well defined or embedded into curriculum processes.

In subject areas where the curriculum is strongly determined by PSRBs (Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies) there is a clear relationship between learning outcomes and employability. In other subject areas the connection may be less direct.

Employability links to the national widening participation agenda and increasing access to work-based learning. It links strongly, and to a large extent drives, the graduate capabilities  and competences agenda with the need to embed skills required by employers into the curriculum. It also relates to the need for learners to record and share their achievements and qualifications, and to support their progression through personal development portfolios, continuing professional development and portable e-portfolios.

Employability is generally best fostered through authentic professional and work-based learning experiences. Using technology to support such experiences was a focus for several projects in the Curriculum Delivery programme: MoRSE, SpringboardTV, Atelier-D, Duckling, Making the new Diploma a success, Generation 4, eBiolabs.

Among the Curriculum Design projects, CoEducate is supporting flexible curriculum opportunities that can be delivered in workplace settings, and Supporting Responsive Curricula is working closely with employers in four subject areas.

Employers can also influence the curriculum directly as stakeholders. Many projects included employers in base-lining activities, for example, or in the evaluation of project outcomes: MoRSE, Duckling, SpringboardTV, Supporting Responsive Curricula

‘Engaging with external clients and developing briefs helped learners to concentrate on the need to deliver to the client’s requirements.’ (Springboard TV)

Projects are engaging with the employability challenge in some of these ways too:

• engaging employers in curriculum design

• mapping and embedding competences across the curriculum

• developing e-portfolio approaches so graduates can record and showcase their achievements
  

Employability is also linked to the issue of flexibility in the curriculum and other advances that support the participation of work-based learners.

The Higher Education Academy has some useful tools for supporting employability in the curriculum.

Infonet has collated project outcomes and case studies on employability and e-portfolio

Open educational resources on the subject of employability are being released by the JISC Open Content Employability project

Case studies

• ESCAPE case study - Enhancing employability through CV preparation, interview role play and reflection
• Lewisham Using Mahara for CVs case study
• Lewisham Using the ePDP case study

• Duckling case study Second Life in Occupational Psychology

• Duckling case study Second Life in Education

• Atelier-D Using an Online Design Studio Environment
• Atelier_D Mapping of Design Thinking and Practice
• Atelier-D Collaborative Design in Second Life
• Atelier-D Social Network for Design Learners
• Atelier_D Conferencing to Support Collaborative Group Work
• Atelier-D Peer Asessment in Design 
• Information Spaces for Creative Conversations case study Year 1 at City University
• Information Spaces for Creative Conversations case study Year 2 at City University
• Information Spaces for Creative Conversations case study Year 2 context
• Information Spaces for Creative Conversations case study Year 1 at Middlesex University

Other resources

Duckling Guidelines on employability

E-portfolios and employability

View all resources tagged with 'employability'