Embedding employability in the course approval process

School: History, Classics & Archaeology (HCA)

Team Members: Esther Mijers, Emma Hunter, Craig Phillips, Azwa Shamsuddin

Abstract

Our project seeks to innovate Board of Studies (BoS) processes to embed employability in the curriculum and better articulate to students how HCA courses help develop skills for future careers.

Since 2015, HCA has collaborated closely with the Careers Service on student development and employability. We are acutely aware that there is a tension between the academic rigour and reputation of the HCA degrees and the needs and demands of the work place outside academia. Our work in this area has seen employability integrated into curriculum reform; the development and implementation of the HCA School Careers Board, HCA Mentoring Programme and a new outreach programme for HCA students; and two research-focussed employability projects which inform the current project.

Embedding Employability presents the development of a practical project building on our existing theory-driven research. We aim to devise and implement a strategy to entrench employability into the curriculum by embedding it into BoS approval and revision processes for new and existing courses, and make the ways in which forms of assessment contribute to employability more visible to students. We will conduct research into which assessment forms and skills are most desirable for the workplace; create a factsheet for considering employability as part of the course design process; devise a template course and programme description which explicitly discusses employability; and incorporate considerations of employability into our BoS guidance. We aim to provide a model for other Schools in the College, therefore external dissemination and engagement is an important part of the project.

Final project report

Download the final project report (MS Word)

Other project outcomes

• course proposal guidance
•  course design factsheet