Enhancing Employability: Policy, Practice and Reality
Dr Sandra Hill
Ray McMaster
Lindsay McDonald
Agenda
•UWS approach to graduate attributes and employability
•What is a modern graduate?
•How the Employability Link facilitates employability
•Careers Service role
•Linking research and teaching – social capital, graduate
attributes and employability
UWS Approach
No single statement of graduate and employability
attributes
Embedded within curriculum using
•Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework (SCQF)
•Student Employability Profiles produced by Higher Education
Academy(HEA)/Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE)
Link with PDP
Joined up approach – Faculties and Support Staff
Agenda
•UWS approach to graduate attributes and employability
•What is a modern graduate?
•How the Employability Link facilitates employability
•Careers Service role
•Linking research and teaching – social capital, graduate
attributes and employability
WORK
EXPERIENCE
Business
Awareness
CONFIDENCE
TEAMWORKING SKILLS
Literacy & Numeracy
skills
Flexibility
and
readiness
Communication Skills
(written and verbal)
IT skills
Entrepreneurship/innovation
Planning & organisational skills
Positive
Attitude
Information
analysis/data
Self management and
motivation
How do we as the
employability.
•Careers Service
•Placement Centre
•Employability Developer
•Job Shop
facilitate
Careers Service
• lunchtime seminars
• Drop in sessions outwith department location.
• (IM)PROVE yourself programme
• Links with local volunteering centres
Sector Based events
• CSI event
•Computing Employability session
•Creative Choices Festival
Embedded Curriculum Activities
• PDP slots within the timetable
• Employer visits and sessions
• My LINC (input into PDP activities)
• Cross Campus & Cross Departmental
working
• Placement Team
Dr. Sandra Hill


12 recent first generation graduates from the
Business School were invited to reflect upon
how employability skills and attributes were
developed during their course of study.
The focus was on making connections with
others, in the internal learning environment
and with the business community

Bonding
 describing the ties between people in similar situations
such as family and friends (getting by),

Bridging
 relating to more distant ties of like persons such as
workmates and loose friendships (getting on),

Linking
 referring to reaching out to unlike people and
dissimilar people who are entirely outside the
community thus engaging a greater range of resources
than are available within the community (getting
around).

The support offered by family and friends
was often the catalyst for continuing with
education but the lack of access to
information and other resources and the
dependence it created restricted choice of
course and location of study.

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
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When students begin to connect with other
students and staff in the institution
Structures and support are needed to enable
this to happen
Students need to connect with new networks
when existing groups inhibit their studies
We must not assume that skills and
capabilities to confidently connect with others
already exist

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Demonstrating commitment to study
Seen to be contributing in class
Achieving academically
Regular attender
“ I knew at the end of second year that I was
going the wrong way. If I kept doing what they
were then I was not going to make it. I wanted to
work with a group that was more confident, more
committed sort of thing. I thought some of their
confidence might rub off on me”.

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
Students are restricted in accessing some
groups because of past behaviour or lack of
confidence in making connections
“ She had let me down in the past. I just made sure
I didn’t work with her again.”
“They left everything to the last minute. Even
though their work was good. I did not want to be
with someone like that. I just couldn't trust them
in the group to do things on time”.

Some groups become closed and restrict
access (bridging to bonding social capital)
“ We were a very closed group. It was into class and
heads down. It would have been too difficult to let
anyone new come into the group”.


Groups need to be aware that this will restrict
access to different behaviours and ideas
What happens to those who are not let in?

Students often feel unprepared for working in
groups
◦ Clarifying group objectives
◦ Knowing how to manage group behaviour and
processes
◦ Developing skills and attributes
◦ Dealing with conflict and applying sanctions
◦ Reflecting on group and skills development
◦ Reflecting on employability
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When students have opportunities to connect with
more remote networks
Gives access to information and resources not
normally available within the immediate learning
environment such as business experts
Can be challenging, exciting and daunting
Students need to recognise the skills and attributes
which enable them to make connections
confidently and competently.

Increased confidence

New ways of working

Practising skills and behaviours

Applying them to relationships with diverse
others in the external environment (linking
social capital)
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Access to new ways of thinking and behaving
Access to new ideas and a trigger for
creativity
Development of skills, competencies and
capabilities relevant to employability
Support and encouragement needed from
staff
Role for staff in encouraging reflection of
informal learning

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Interpersonal skills and competencies to
communicate with diverse others
Knowing who to connect with, how to make
and sustain connections and recognising
potential benefits
Knowing how to transfer skills and
capabilities to other situations
Confidence comes with feedback and success
Skills and attributes
Generic Competencies
Personal Capabilities
developed
(CIHE)
(CIHE)
•speaking to others
•planning and organising
•Personal Development Planning
•improved self confidence
•influencing
•Creativity
•managing groups
•written communication
•Decisiveness
•dealing with conflict
•questioning
•Initiative
•learning to trust
•listening
•Adaptability / flexibility
•dealing with breakdown in trust
•teamworking / working with others
•Achievement Orientation
•self belief
•interpersonal sensitivity
•Tolerance for stress
•improves self-image
•organisational sensitivity
•Leadership
•valuing others
•lifelong learning
Bonding Social Capital
Bridging Social Capital
Linking Social Capital
Family and Close Friends
Brokering new relationships at
college
Connecting with the external
environment
•support and encouragement
•Relating to staff
•Building self confidence
•shaping identity but restricting options
•Building new networks
•Feedback reinforcing confidence
•Developing identity
•creating identity as a business graduate
•Changing values
•Opportunities to practice skills and
capabilities in the 'real' world
•Building skills and capabilities
•Opportunities to practice and reflect on
development

Imagined (Quinn, 2005)
 using imagination to explore possibilities about new
identities, raising aspirations and expectations.

Unimagined (Hill, 2009)
 where the advantages to be gained through widening
connections and networks are not recognised, where
people are unable to see the benefits of connecting to
others

Unimaginable (Hill, 2009)

that which is undreamt of, beyond current belief and
unthinkable.