Centre for Career Management Skills
Foundation degree group – July 19th 2006
Notes from the meeting
Present
Heather Christie
Helen Thomas
Kriss Turner
Careers Adviser (also seconded to the Foundation degree CETL)
University of Portsmouth
Professional Skills Development Co-ordinator and Student Engagement
Adviser, University of Bradford
Careers Adviser (and seconded to the Foundation degree CETL)
University of Portsmouth
FD course leader, Southampton Solent University
Careers adviser, Somerset College of Arts and Technology
Careers adviser, Nottingham Trent University
Quality Support Manager and Lifelong Learning Network Manager,
University of Reading
South-East Co-ordinator, Foundation Degree Forward
FD course leader, University of Reading
From CCMS
Julia Horn
Sarah Morey
David Stanbury
CCMS Development Officer, University of Reading
CCMS Development Officer, University of Reading
Team Leader, University of Reading
Becka Currant
Liz Holford
Mike Johnstone
Helen Marriot
Gillian Murchie
Liz Starbuck-Greer
A) Welcome and introductions
It was a pleasure to note that we had good representation across the board from different
institutions and different roles within them. The group included both careers advisers,
academics who ran courses, representation from Foundation Degree Forward and
representatives from both universities and FE colleges.
It was noted however that it might be desirable in future to reach more staff within FE colleges
and we will look into ways to do this. Other representation to seek for future meetings might
also include employers from representative sectors, and students.
B) Introduction to CCMS
David Stanbury, Team Leader of CCMS, gave a brief introduction to the CCMS project and
outlined its different areas of work:
1) to create a new website to replace the current CMS online materials
2) to work with departments at the University of Reading to improve practice in CMS –
including altering teaching and assessment methods, and replacing the existing version
of the online materials with the new website
3) to work with other HEIs across the UK to fund projects to develop CMS/careers
education in a way which is beneficial to the HE community as a whole, and with a
particular focus on the development of teaching and learning
4) to conduct research into careers guidance and education, including sponsorship of two
PhD students
5) to disseminate good practice and to create a network of practitioners across the UK
6) to promote good practice with specific groups of students; namely foundation degree
students and postgraduate degree students, including producing customised material
for these groups.
Further information on the CCMS project is available at the project website
http://www.reading.ac.uk/ccms
C) Demonstration of CMS II (new online materials for careers education)
Page 1 of 4
Centre for Career Management Skills
Julia Horn gave a short demonstration of the new website, which will be piloted at Reading in
the academic year 06-07 and with other institutions in the following academic year.
The new site is rather different from the existing one in the following ways
1) it is created from pages of information/activities that do not refer directly to each
other, allowing great flexibility in putting together a customised course for students,
particularly when delivered through a VLE
2) the site also works as a stand-alone website for students to use in a self-directed
manner
3) the site has many activities, video and audio clips, quizzes and is much more extensive
than the current. For example, the pilot version will have about ten times as many
pages.
4) the site will continue to grow with time. While the first units replicate the material
available on the previous CMS site (but with a much larger amount of material for the
same topics), in subsequent years we will add topics such as networking, work
experience, confidence, decision making, subject specific materials and sector specific
materials – including material for FD students
5) the site will be fully accessible and will be tested with a range of users.
While there is no demo site available outside Reading at the moment, the new site will be
showcased at the CCMS conference next January 11th-12th (see the project website
http://www.reading.ac.uk/ccms for more details!). The site will be extensively tested with
users throughout 06-07 and so changes may be made to navigation, layout, design, colours, etc.
D) Discussion of challenges of careers education for foundation degree students
We held a round table discussion with structured questions. Answers were captured on flipchart
during the conversation, and are therefore not attributed to a single speaker. The answers
represent the range of comments, rather than being a scientific survey, of course!
FD students – what are their specific needs, characteristics, etc?
- Useful to customise for a ‘sector’ (eg. the IT sector/ Education early years), as well as
or rather than for a subject (eg. Computer studies/ psychology)
- Mix of students who are both very IT literate (into mobile learning) and who are very
inexperienced with IT
- Some students feel they do not need help with careers – they already ‘have’ a CV, a
career path, etc
- Tension between encouraging them on to HE and valuing the FD in itself
- The word ‘careers’ does not always go down well. Often better to align practices with
CPD or professional skills development instead. Employers/professional bodies
sometimes offer good models here
- Often need help with action planning, managing others in the workplace, negotiating
- Successful teaching has often involved placing the student in the role of the employer,
rather than that of the employee – get them to role play eg. recruitment
- The sub groups of students are very varied – both 18 yr olds and mature students, etc.
- Students need to be able to market their foundation degree – employers often do not
really understand what an FD is/does
- FD students like 1-1 sessions as well as group work
Theoretical and practical models of CMS – what theories underlie the CMS used?
- DOTs is often used, Portsmouth are interested in new DOTS/CPI models
- reflective approaches are favoured
- there was interest in the project that the Reading CAS is undertaking into producing
short sections of teaching material that could then be combined into a whole session
(eg. ice breaker + exercise 1+ exercise 2 = one session)
Page 2 of 4
Centre for Career Management Skills
There was also interest in the group sharing teaching materials that were in use for CMS,
perhaps through a password protected section of the CCMS project website. It was thought to
be preferable to keep the materials within the group rather than to make them available to all
on the web.
Models for delivery CMS/careers education in institutions – who delivers, who creates,
who assesses?
- Careers staff nearly always create the materials for teaching
- Academics nearly always deliver them.
- Careers staff are therefore often in a consultative role
- An ‘economic’ model is beginning to develop in some institutions where money is
attached to the module and apportioned according to the work done (in creating or
delivering or both).
- Some models make use of employers (BT, PWC etc)
- There is limited or no engagement from academics in developing the materials
- There was uncertainty about the future – eg. the situation in 5 years time. Most felt
there would be more careers education. Some were concerned about how much 1 to 1
guidance would still exist. It was thought that there would be more integration with
PDP/skills.
- It was noted that the FD system is likely to become more modular (eg. take the
modules one by one) – where would this leave a careers education module?
- It was uncertain what effect top up fees would have
- There may be more formalisation of how provision is provided. It currently seems to be
common that careers education provision is ad hoc, first come first served. In the
future it may be provided on the basis of bids/money etc
- Assessment was seen as an area which attracted concerns. Volume of assessment
considered acceptable varies between academic departments. Formative assessment
only works if it is compulsory, and CMS courses often don’t fit well into the
institutional teaching systems – eg. the modules are too small, too long etc to
comfortably sit with the departmental modules and thus represent a ‘disruption’ in the
timetable.
It was noted in general that the models of careers education and the delivery of teaching and
assessment was very similar to the experience in HE. This contrasts with student needs which
show some overlap but also some important differences.
The wider FD community – the FD group – what resources would be useful? What help is
needed?
For FD students
Video resources would be very useful – sector specific, not necessarily FD specific.
Subjects for which video and written resources would be useful include
- What do employers look for in candidates?
- Work place simulations
- How to integrate work and study
- Time management
- What to do if your employer is not supporting your study
- Managing your employer/negotiation
- Widening participation – eg. talking to your family about your study
- Tackling issues of what it means to get a degree – what type of person has a degree – is
it ‘for’ you?
- Academic confidence
- What to do if you get behind with your study
- Work-life balance
- How to action plan – short, medium and long term goals
Page 3 of 4
Centre for Career Management Skills
For the
-
How to evidence your work experience
How to approach a progress review
group
Email list
Face to face meetings
Employer representation and student representation (NUS?)
E) Introduction to partner fellowships
David Stanbury spoke about the funding available from CCMS for ‘fellowships’ – projects which
could be undertaken to develop new approaches to CMS or new materials for CMS for
foundation degree students. There is not a minimum or maximum award, but projects must
focus on development, not delivery of CMS. Projects will be looked upon favourably if they
have an impact on the wider community and if they allow for collaboration between
institutions.
It was decided that the group would like to brainstorm some possible projects for the FD
community at the next meeting in order to try to put forward one or two projects which had a
benefit for the group as a whole.
F) Plans for the next meeting, other business
It was decided that the next meeting would be held at the end of November or the start of
December 2006, preferably on a Wednesday. Gillian Murchie kindly offered to host the meeting
at Nottingham Trent University.
It was also decided that an email list would be created by CCMS, and this might be used for
both dissemination of materials to do with the group meeting but also more informal
conversations and sharing of experience.
The group came up with some overall aims (interpreted into full English – so please feel free to
comment if you don’t think they represent our discussion)
1) to form a community in order to find out what happens in other institutions, share good
practice and help us to engage better with foundation degree students
2) to identify the specific needs of foundation degree students and to add value to their
experience through careers education
3) to help CCMS regarding development of CMS 2 (online materials), both in providing
discussion groups to comment on the creation of materials for use by FD students, and
through thinking about models of teaching and learning in FD careers education
programmes
Page 4 of 4