Creating and embedding an employer liaison group (ELG)
to enhance employability and higher level skills in science students.
IDENTIFYING AND CAPTURING IMPACT FROM THE
EMPLOYER LIAISON GROUP
The issue
In order to substantiate the need and benefits of having an Employer Liaison Group
and ensure that the ELG is sustainable, it is important to capture the opinions and
benefits for, the participants.
How we captured impact
Impact can be measured as both tangible and intangible benefits. To help capture
how participants perceived the ELG, which would correspond to intangible benefits,
we relied on questionnaires and also comments made in telephone conversations or
emails (with permission). After the first ELG meeting questionnaires were compiled
for each participant group and distributed by email with a summary of the outcomes
of the meeting. The response rate to this questionnaire was around 40%, a
percentage considered very good for such polls, but which was considered
insufficient to allow a full statistical assessment.
Learning from this experience, a shorter questionnaire was circulated at the second
meeting that was completed and returned by all the participants before their
departure. A copy of this questionnaire is provided at Appendix 1.
A number of more tangible benefits have also been realised. For example, one
company has offered summer placements for students which have the potential to
lead onto bursaries for the selected undergraduates. Another employer has taken
advantage of the Careers Service to attract Science undergraduates with unique
language skills (Mandarin and Cantonese) and made contact with academics for
potential research interactions.
What did we learn?
Capturing interactions that are leading towards more tangible forms of impact,
together with the expectations or views that the participants have of the ELG,
evidence the group’s value. Given this it is important to:
 Record comments (with permissions) from meetings, telephone conversations,
emails or questionnaires
 Maximise feed-back via questionnaires, our experience would suggest it is
best to keep the questionnaire short, provide it at the beginning of a meeting
and have it completed and returned prior to participant departure.
Questionnaires are also a great way to find out what stakeholders would
really like to discuss such as the merits of pursuing a higher degree from an
employers’ perspective. Individual comments from participants can often be
very helpful in forming opinions.
Quotes from academics
“I learnt lots from the students and employers and actually from the staff in
other departments. They brought to mind a number of issues that had not
previously considered.”
“The meeting exceeded my expectations, primarily because I wasn’t sure what
to expect or the context. I found the meeting very useful for several reasons –
to see what the skill set that employers are looking for and in particular short
falls in this.”
“I’d like to take our STEM degree programmes and get employers to rank a
selection of modules in terms of importance and compare this with perceived
importance from staff, students and careers staff.”
Quotes from employers
“I understand better how things work [at the University] regarding placements,
projects etc. I am sure the company will find this information useful.”
“I do feel that…greater opportunities to integrate and develop employability
skills in undergraduates is lacking.”
“I was impressed by the proactive nature of the University”
In response to the question “What benefit have you got from participating in
the employer liaison group meetings?”, the following employer responses
were obtained:
“As an employer it has been possible to contribute to a better understanding of
what makes a graduate better able to contribute in the outside world.”
“A better understanding of how we as a company could help the university/
students meet their aims. Also some ideas of how we could get involved and a
case as to what we could get out of it.”
“It’s a good opportunity I think with staff from the uni and meet other employers.”
“The debate was very open and it’s great to be involved and share similar
employer issues but also University issues.”
“Understand more about what Universities are doing. Contacts to help begin
our internship/bursary programme.”
The following academic responses to this question:
“helps develop departmental curriculum.”
“hearing employers perspective to specific issues that are relevant to
academics”
APPENDIX 1
Questionnaire used to evaluate an ELG meeting
Thank you for coming and contributing to this meeting. To capture your thoughts
about how these meetings can be improved it would be very useful if you could
complete and leave this questionnaire before you depart.
1: Please indicate below whether you are attending this meeting as
an employer
student
student union officer academic staff?
2: The main agenda item was to discuss:
“How to provide greater opportunities to integrate and develop problem solving and
analytical and conceptual skills in undergraduates within the University experience?”
Did the meeting produce an appropriate answer to this rated in a scale of 1-5, where
1= no did not address this at all, and 5= completely addressed this?
1
2
3
4
5
If not, please elaborate on what you feel could be done?
3: The next meeting date is set for Oct 2012 – we are aiming to have meetings every
6months in Oct and March.
Do you intend to continue your involvement with the Employer liaison group? Please
elaborate on your answer.
Is this the right frequency of meetings? Should meetings be more or less frequent –
please suggest what would be right for you.
4: What benefit have you got from participating in the employer liaison group
meetings? Please elaborate.