Workshop presented by Alex Tymon and Charlotte Harrison. Event: Employability & Enterprise Conference, University of Portsmouth

1. Preparing business and law
students for sustainable
careers: research informed
strategies for curriculum
development
Alex Tymon and
Charlotte Harrison

2. The student perspective on
employability (Tymon, 2013)
 Inductive, qualitative, case study
 Focus groups involving over 400 UG students
 4 questions posed
 What is your understanding of the term employability?
 What, if any, are the core transferable skills and/or
attributes it may encompass?
 To what extent does the university support your
employability development?
 To what extent does employability matter?

3. Selected findings
 Most students have a `traditional framework‘ view
of employability or employMENT focus
 Embedded activities are recognised
 Job hunting support is recognised
 They do not consider the wider, more long-term
view of `sustainable employABILITY` until the final
year
 At levels 4 and 5:
 Low importance attached to grades and experience
 Conflicting evidence on the value of placements

4. Improved academic performance and enhanced
employability? The potential double benefit of
proactivity for business graduates (Tymon & Batistic,
2016)
 Quantitative, cross sectional study
 166 UG students:
Self report measures of two proactivity
constructs
Proactive personality (PP) and Personal Initiative
(PI) a situated behaviour
Secondary data on academic grades

5. Selected findings
 High proactivity personality (PP) and high
personal initiative (PI) together = best academic
grades
Neither on their own significantly predicts better
student grades
 High PP and low PI is the worst combination
 Failure to develop PI inhibits and wastes the
valuable trait of PP
 PI can be developed

6. Employability projects in progress
 Proactivity and employability: the role of
protean career and networking
 Demographics, proactivity and participation
in career management initiatives
 A year in the life of placement hunters

7. Networking behaviour and graduate
employability: A social capital perspective.
(Batistic & Tymon, 2017)
 Quantitative, cross sectional study
 376 UG students:
Perceived employability
Networking behaviour
Job Search Learning Goal Orientation
Access to information and resources

8. Selected findings
 Networking and access to resources both DIRECTLY
increase self-perceived employability
 Access to resources is also a mediator between
networking and employability
 Thus targeted networking has employability value
 Supports the literature on `Networking capital`
 Job Search Learning Goal Orientation (JSLGO) boosts
the relationship
 By providing direction/focus for targeting of
networking behaviour

9. The `marmite` units!
 The challenge of the marmite units:
 Where does the unit sit and who should deliver it?
 Mixed academic commitment and skill
 Mixed student profile and engagement
 Evidence suggests students underestimate career
challenges and consistently fail to make good use of
employability support offered by universities
(McKeown & Lindorff, 2011; Ng & Burke, 2006, Rae, 2007)
 RPD experience 2014/2015 – low student
engagement and performance

10. Employability Skills Research Project
Apple Charlotte
To address the uncertainty of our
students` futures we need to
consider `sustainable
employability`
A longer term, more holistic and
much messier graduate identity
approach (Holmes, 2013; Stevenson
& Clegg, 2011, Van der Heijden & De
Vos, 2015)

11. Careeredge model

12. The employability aspects of the unit
 Guest lectures (often
from alumni)
 “Brand Me”
Presentations
 Reflection
 Dedicated seminar activities
 Assessed essay and
portfolio
 Simulated recruitment
process in seminars:
 CV selection process
 CV workshop
 Application form workshop
 Graduate interviews
 Assessment centre

13. Methodology
• Self-report survey (Employability
Development Profile “EDP”) from
students at 3 points in time
 EDP factors (Dacre Pool, Qualter &
Sewell (2014) plus
 Self-esteem
 Job search self-efficacy
 Self-perceived employability
 Evaluation of unit (final survey)
• “Brand Me” Presentation at 3 points
in time
• Lecturer feedback
• Student feedback
• Interviews at L6 to evaluate
learning
Mixed methods and longitudinal

14. Initial findings
 Research population of
approx. 170 students
 65 surveys and “brand me”
presentations at 3 points in
time (with consent)
 65 surveys and “brand me”
presentations at 2 points in
time (with consent)
 Interviews with teaching
team and 8 students at
Level 6
 Data analysis is ongoing
but we do know:
 Positive feedback from
students and tutors on the
value of the “brand me”
presentations
 Feedback from “mock
employers” reporting
improvements in
confidence over time
 Student feedback on
improved confidence
 Quantitative data is
showing increases in the 3
S`s over time
Change for 2016/17: final Brand Me
presentations is summative

15. Initial themes from interviews
• The value of the “Brand Me” presentations in building
confidence
• Clear indication of the importance of the close relationships
with seminar tutors (Bryson & Hand, 2007)
• Students welcome the opportunity to engage in simulations of
real world experiences
• A sense that students need to drive this themselves – it is not
something which a unit can deliver without input from the
students

16. Do you think that the employability unit is as valuable as the other
academic units?
 “I don't think so, it's valuable. But, in which sense? You will recognise that
after your graduate it is very important because it gives you which
routes, how to get the job. So it's definitely going to be valuable but you
will realise it when you graduate.”
 “I definitely believe that, going forward, I can take away a lot of the
skills that I have, the sort of memory bank that I've developed, that will
allow me to stand a better chance of getting what I want in the future
than if I hadn't done it.”
 “Yes. Depending on how seriously you take it I would probably say it could
potentially be one of the most important ones, if not the most important
one. Purely because you can be the brightest spark there is but as soon as
you walk into an interview room and you don't know what the hell is going
on, you can have the best CV in the world but you have still got to sell
yourself. And I felt that that class certainly showed me how to do that.”
Engagement: still the biggest challenge of all?

17. Discussion