Strategies for Supporting
Student Employability
Employability and Marketing
Sept 2013
E&M Structure
 Information & Publications
 Careers Unit
 Work Experience Unit
 Marketing Unit
 School & College Engagement Unit
 Employability Unit
Content:
Curriculum development via EDORT, Career
Development Learning and Graduate Qualities
Designing and developing activities for the Ulster EDGE
Award and HEAR
Overview of employer engagement strategies
Introducing your students to the DHLE survey
Why does Employability matter?
 Students motivation for entering HE
 Government Policy – Dearing, Browne,
KIS/WIS, Wilson Review
 Institutional Drivers –Corporate Plan
 Emphasis by employers on generic
competencies rather than direct subject
relevance
 HESA employment performance indicator
Reviewing Employability
 Key initiative helping to:
 identify skills
 the structures in place to support employability
 identifying & disseminating good practice
 create employability action plan
EDORT Toolkit: Staff and Student engagement
Both paper & pencil and online version available
24 schools, 76 programmes and 1195 students
EDORT toolkit, summary report, action plans, test
online version available: http://employability.ulster.ac.uk
What areas does EDORT review?
9 subsections:
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Curriculum development
Learning from work
PDP
Enterprise/ innovation/ creativity/
Transfer learning between contexts
Real world activities
Graduate/postgraduate employment
Career development learning (CDL)
Extra-curricular activities
Engaging with EDORT Online: Key Facts
 It facilitates course teams to review employability within
their degree by taking account of both staff & student views.
 The toolkit is adaptable. It contains sets of core questions
however, academics have the flexibility to create bespoke
questions in relation to their degree programmes.
 It generates an automatic feedback report which can help
inform and map into current revalidation documentation
 Refined to include statement of graduate attributes, KIS &
HEAR
Getting started:
 Contact Sharon Milner to develop staff and student
questionnaires
 Url will be sent to a contact within School to distribute
 Encourage small teams of staff to engage not just one
person
 Macro-enabled excel SS, word documents and powerpoints
will be generated
Career Development Learning at
Ulster – Delivery Strategies
 Bespoke assessed modules (10 & 20 points) on Career Management
Skills developed for particular schools or programmes
 Integrated Career Development Learning components into core modules
within programmes
 Modules offered to schools or programmes within the Certificate of
Personal & Professional Development (CPPD)
 Programme specific non-assessed Career Management Skills Units
delivered within and outside the curriculum
 Generic open careers workshops available to all students
 Generic Skills Training Careers Programme for PhD students
Topics:
 Self-Awareness
 Personal Development
Planning
 Exploring Career Options
 CV Building / Applications
/ Interviews
 Assessment Centres
 Action Planning
 Communication and
Presentation Skills
 Work Values
Assessments:
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Career Report
Professional Action Plan
Placement CV
Skills Audit
Reflective Journal
Mock Interview
Finalist CV
E-portfolio on PACE
Mock On-line Application
Group Presentations
Career Development Learning
 ACF343 Career Planning & Skills Development
 Mock Online Application form using Survey
Gizmo
 ACF327 Graduate Employment Skills
 Career Research topic group presentation to
expert panel including graduate employers and
academics.
Ulster Graduate Qualities
Resources to support the
implementation of the
Institutional ‘Statement of
Graduate Qualities’.
Enhancing employability via EDGE
 An employability Award for F/T Undergraduate Students
 Provides official recognition and evidence for activities
outside the students programme of study
 Taken in addition to degree
 Enrolment is free
 They have up to 3 years to complete the award.
 Presented at graduation
 Will appear on the students HEAR
Category 1:
Category 2:
Category 3:
Category 4:
Accredited cocurricular modules
Work experience,
Study Abroad and
Enterprise
Internal and External
Opportunities
Formal University
Wide Opportunities
•Open to all
•Sports/Students Union Club or
Committee Member
•Student Union Rag Volunteer
•Volunteering with External Organisations
•Business Enterprise Academy
•Business Bootcamp
•Careers Plus
Open to Social Work students
•Social Work Individual Practice
Development Days
Open to UOTC students
•Leaderhsip Development Programme
Module 1 &2
Open to Sports students
•Ulster Sports Outreach Education
Induction Training Programme
•Ulster Sports Outreach Sport for LIFE
programme
Open to UBS students
•Entrepreneurship Competitions
•CIMA Accredited SAGE certificate
Open to Nursing students
•Disaster Risk Reduction
•Immediate Life Support
Open to Computing & Engineering
•Stem Ambassador
Open to Media, Film & Journalism
•Entrepreneur Residency
Open to Sports and Creative Dance
•Dance for Life Programme
Open to Communication/ Art & Design
students
•Publicity Association of Northern Ireland/
University of Ulster Advertising
•Tutoring in schools
•Students Union Enterprise
Competition Team Member
•Sciences and Ethics:
Debates and Dilemmas
•Developing Digital literacy
•Open to 1st Year students
•Reflect on Me PPD131‘
•Building your skills PPD105
P/T job
•Work Experience Skills Builder
Module PPD 184
Open to 2nd Year students
•Developing Skills for Work
PPD104
•Peer Assisted Study Skills 1
PPD037
•Peer Assisted Study Skills 2
PPD051
Year long Placement –
DPP(I)/DIAS
Year Long Placement
Study USA
Study Abroad
International Student Exchange
Programme (ISEP)
Language Assistant
Ulster Sports Outreach
Educational Placement
Programme
Erasmus
Open to 3rd Year students
•Graduation- what next? PPD102
•Career management Skills
PPD103
Open to all students
•Skills Development through
Student Representation
Short-term placements – via
'employability through work
experience' PPD100)
Washington Ireland Program
IAESTE Placement
Preparation Module (only open
to computing students)
Placement Preparation PPD120
Business LaunchPad
Enterprise Development
PPD183
EDGE Registrations across Faculties: 2730
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
770
725
610
244
236
145
ADBE
Arts
C&E
L&HS
Soc Sci
UBS
Students that Graduated with Ulster EDGE Award
19
20
18
No of students
16
14
14
12
10
8
6
6
3
4
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
Subject Area
Photos of students that graduated with EDGE available on flicker
HEAR 6.1 Protocols
 The achievement is verifiable and endorsed by the University.
 The opportunity to undertake the achievement is open to all students, in
principle.
 Information is presented factually, not opinion-based.
 The role/achievement/outcome is defined by regulation (e.g. prizes,
sabbatical officer).
 The role/achievement/position supports a University process and is
verifiable.
 The achievement/role supports wider University policy and strategy.
Proposing Activities for
inclusion in the Award
 Activity proposal form available on the EDGE website
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/606277/ProposedActivity-for-Inclusion-in-Ulster-Edge-Award
 Minimum criteria – 30 hours, no impact on 360 points
and an output that requires student to reflect on skills
they have gained from the activity e.g logbook, ppt
presentation etc..
 Discuss ideas for activities to be included in the Award
contact Dr Sharon Milner: st.milner@ulster.ac.uk
 Approved activities will be provided with EDGE Award
kitemark to put on School website to link to the Award
Employer Engagement
Careers Events
 Autumn Careers, Placement and Postgraduate Fairs – 14th
& 15th Oct Assembly Hall UUJ; 16th Oct UUC, 17th Oct
UUM
 Northern Ireland Graduate Recruitment Fair Spring 2014
 Series of mini sector specific events – Law, Accountancy,
Teaching, IT
 Employer Presentations on Campus
Employer Engagement
Work Based Learning
 Support for Placement Preparation / Placement
Tutor Briefings
 Work Experience Week – Beginning 25th February
 Joblink, Placement Management System
 Business Launch Pad(Enterprise Development
Module)
 Paid Graduate Internships in Industry (PEP/
Santander)
DLHE Survey
 Undertake the Student Survey twice a year April
and January: 6 months after graduation (6130
students (3940 UUJ/UUB; 2190 UUM/UUC) 80%
response)
 Deadline 14th March 2014
 DLHE statistics on PACE (graduate destinations
on portal)
 Results published on KIS – employability
benchmark
Methods of contact
 Postal mailing
 Telephone
questionnaire
 PDF version (email)
 Centrally-hosted
online
questionnaire
Other methods
 Direct contact
During the field work period e.g. they visit the
careers office or during the graduation ceremony
 Academic departments Last resort
Can also be used as a source of information as
they may have on-going interactions with the
leaver(s)
 Employers Last resort
If employer is known to the institution they too
may be contacted
What you can do..
 Promote the survey to students (from second year)
 Briefing sessions to students on how to fill the form in –
final year
 Keep in contact with your finalists – let us (careers)
know where they are
 Send out PDF link - Institutions can email this version of
the questionnaire to leavers for completion. Leavers
should print the form in order to complete, sign, date
and return it to their institution
 Send out Online link
We need: Student Number, Programme Code, Full
Time/Part Time, Job title, Name of Employer
What you can’t do…
 Fill in the form for a student
 Send it out to everyone – there is a target
population – generally full time undergraduate
Further Information visit:
Staff Employability Newsletter
http://employability.ulster.ac.uk