Employer perspectives on a broader
curriculum and graduate attributes
Tony Donohoe, Head of Education Policy
Outline
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Business Context
Employers’ view – IBEC Survey 2010
National Strategy for Higher Education
Employability skills and attributes
PhD skills
Five Minds for the Future
Impact on curriculum, pedagogy and learning
environment
 Education for employment v good student learning
Post industrial concerns
 Globalisation
– 75% of world’s population does not speak English
 End of US global economic dominance
 Pervasiveness of technology
 Complex and dynamic markets
– Respond to customers, governments, markets,
economic and social instabilities
 Growth of services
– 70% of employment and 40% of exports
 Sustainability is a growing concern
IBEC Survey 2010
 Majority of respondents said they had no difficulty in
recruiting suitable graduates from Irish HEIs (74.6%).
 Most employers who had difficulty highlighted problems
with the engineering-related disciplines
 Employers were less satisfied with graduate’s ‘ability to
work autonomously’
 Employers are now expecting higher education
institutions to embed generic or employability skills more
fully into their curricula.
 38% of respondents have informal or ad hoc college
placement procedures in place in their organisations.
IBEC Survey 2010
National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030
 Integrating research with teaching learning
– Parity of esteem between roles
 Clear routes of progression
– Work/service placements acknowledged through
accreditation or diploma supplement
– Flexible routes of progression within and across HEIs
– National framework for RPL
 First year experience
– Induction and preparation programmes
– More interdisciplinary learning opportunities
National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030
 Generic skills
– Explicitly address skills required for workplace and
engagement in society
– Ensure alignment between learning outcomes,
pedagogy and assessment
 Review quality assurance frameworks
– Develop guidelines to support National Framework of
Qualifications
– Review of external examiner system
National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030
 Engagement with wider society
– Encourage greater inward and outward mobility of
staff and students between HEIs, business, industry,
the professions and wider community
– Respond positively to the continuing professional
needs of the wider community
– Recognise civic engagement of students through
programme accreditation
– Encourage involvement of wider community in a
range of activities including programme design
Vitae (UK) Report –ranking of skills for PhDs
1. Data analysis
2. Problem solving
3. Drive and motivation
4. Project Managing
5. Interpersonal skills
6. Leadership
7. Commercial awareness
The entrepreneurial skill-set
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Self-confidence
Strategic thinking
Cooperate for success
Ability to plan work, organise tasks and communicate
decisions
Project development and implementation
Team-building and attribution of success
Recognition and proactive orientation to change and
innovation
Risk assessment and foresight activity with regard to
market changes and opportunities
Gardner’s Five Minds for the Future
 The Disciplinary Mind
– mastery of major schools of thought
 The Synthesizing Mind
– ability to integrate ideas from different disciplines
or spheres into a coherent whole
 The Creating Mind
– Capacity to uncover and clarify new problems,
questions and phenomena
 The Respectful Mind
– awareness of and appreciation for differences among human
beings and human groups.
 The Ethical Mind
– fulfilment of one's responsibilities as a worker and as a citizen.
Employability
 A richer construct than ‘skills wish-list’
 A set of achievements, understanding and personal
attributes helps students to realise their potential
 Meets corporate expectations
 Supports values of citizenship
 Helps produce learning that will shape the future
 Should be located in an academic context
 Not inimical to the values and practices of the
academy
 Implications for pedagogy, learning environment and
assessment
Impact on learning environment
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Employability – not a stand-alone ‘bolt on
Learning not just tied to instruction
Inter-disciplinary teaching
Active learning
Problem-based learning
Reflective learning
Team development
Work experience modules & materials
Work-based projects
Promoting employability
 Explain what we mean by ‘employability’ to teaching
colleagues and students
 Write employability into programme specifications
 Audit and promote employability
 Not ‘one-size fits all’
 Tuning existing curricula
 Use a variety of assessment methods
 Help students to translate their achievements into
‘employer-friendly language
How business can do more
 Support case for realistic funding models
 Provide more guidance on the content of courses
and the nature of employability skills
 Provide opportunities to undertake real-life projects
and provide undergraduate work experience
 Seek to work with HEIs as a core part of their
innovation activity
 Seek to engage with the HE system to develop and
help finance bespoke training provision for
employees
 A national graduate internship scheme
What will success look like?
 Stronger business-university partnerships in which
employers’ needs and HE outcomes are aligned
 A sustainable and more efficient HE sector with the right
incentives to deliver high-quality teaching and research
 Business taking a more active and integral part in
developing students’ skills and experience of the work of
work
 A richer experience for students