What can job search look
like in the future?
Carole Still
Coventry University London Campus
11 Dec 2013
Digital innovation in job search – enabling tools
for the furthest from work
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Coming up…
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Current toolbox test
National Grid case study
The Perfect Storm (of exclusion)
Employability – “Triangular tensions”
A better tool for the future
wwwOEStandard.org
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Current Toolbox Test Q.1
What are A-levels for?
“The purpose of A-levels is to prepare people for
university”
Michael Gove
Secretary of State for Education
July 2010 - Festival of Education speech
wwwOEStandard.org
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Current Toolbox Test Q.2
What is a good proxy for a
person’s communication skills?
“A good grade in English GCSE proves that a person
possesses good communication skills”
In conversation with an
ex Secretary of State for Education
Dec 2012
wwwOEStandard.org
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Current Toolbox Test Q.3
What 3 things do these 2 people*
have in common?
* and many others
in Government
and opposition
1) Passionate about improving outcomes for young people
2) Conviction that academic grades = employability
wwwOEStandard.org
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Current Toolbox Test Q.4
What do employers want/need
grades to be capable of?
A proxy for workplace effectivness
(a.k.a. “Employability”)
wwwOEStandard.org
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Current Toolbox Test Q.5
Are GCSEs, A-levels, degrees etc.
good proxies for employability?
… but it’s the only convenient, recognised and
quantitative tool employers have at their disposal
wwwOEStandard.org
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National Grid
We can’t even
read 9000 CVs!
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Vacancies
9000
Applicants
So (reluctantly)
grade-based
screening it is
wwwOEStandard.org
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The Perfect Storm (of exclusion)
Lack of tools beyond grades
- which aren’t fit for purpose
You get what you measure, but
who measures employability?
Grade inflation
➜ Youth disengage
from a game they
don’t feel able to
play or feel is
not relevant
to their life
chances
25 years of CBI surveys
(saying the same thing)
“We already embed
employability in our
curriculum”
Career academics
teaching work skills
wwwOEStandard.org
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Employability - Triangular Tensions
100% Employers
- We need it
75% Universities
82% Employers
- Not our job
- It’s your job
96% Educationalists - We give it
18% Students
- We get it
CBI / UUK Future Fit (2009)
wwwOEStandard.org
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Future toolbox must:
• Be Employer led and defined
• Be Compatible with academic practice
• Have Buy-in from, and responsibility shared
by:
• Students and young job seekers
• Academia
• Employers
• Solve the “GCSE as proxy” problem
• Provide Fresh opportunity for young job
seekers & those furthest from the market
wwwOEStandard.org
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Open Employability Standard
1. Define Employability
2. Train & Assess Employability
3. Hire Employability
wwwOEStandard.org
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1. Define Employability
Crowd source a superset 2 levels deeper
than CBI list of employability skills
Competing employability taxonomies everywhere but…
“There is no generally accepted skills taxonomy”
– EU Commission report, 2011
"Break down skills into smaller parts until they are no
longer disagreed on“
- Proposal from JISC CETIS conference, 2005
wwwOEStandard.org
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2. Train & Assess Employability
•
Learning outcomes & assessment criteria
Tutors and trainers can train 2 levels down
•
Not a single grade, but a “vector” of grades
•
wwwOEStandard.org
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3. Hire Employability
If employers are open
enough to make their
role weightings public,
then applicants can selfselect which roles to
apply for.
e.g. A ‘pass’ for KPMG,
but a fail for McDonalds”
oestandard.org/demo
wwwOEStandard.org
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No more job description clichés!
“Self-motivated, problem solving
team-player, who is dynamic
and results oriented …..”
Employers decide the
weighting of each role
specific employability skills
screen applicants
accordingly.
wwwOEStandard.org
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What can we create?
A flexible, public domain taxonomy of employability
skills created by employers and used by teachers,
students/job-seekers, and employers alike.
Quantifying the “unquantifiable” is hard …
but it’s not rocket science!
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade
and do the other things, not because they are
easy, but because they are hard, because
that goal will serve to organize and measure
the best of our energies and skills.”
wwwOEStandard.org
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Thank You
carole.still@culc.coventry.ac.uk
and
carole.still@oesalliance.org
And exercise the “best of your energies and skills” at:
www.oestandard.org
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