Enhancing the portability of employability skills using e-portfolios

Transferable skills are essential in allowing graduates to make the transition between the world of learning and the world of work. Teaching these skills, however, is a challenge that institutions of higher learning are still grappling with. This article describes how the transferability of skills can be encouraged using e-portfolios. It is based on a review of a skills course taught to first-year undergraduate economics students. Google sites were used by students to develop platforms of reflection and evidence their skills development. The approach used included bolt-on and embedded methods. The sites developed by students are reviewed alongside post-module focus group discussions. We find that the embedded approach is more effective in enhancing transference. We also find that e-portfolios provide a relevant platform and context for the development of transferable skills. The assessment aspect of the portfolio also provides the incentive to transfer.     

Evaluating the impact of the Erasmus programme: skills and European identity

The primary purpose of this study lies in the evaluation of what students acquire from studies abroad in the context of credit mobility, in terms of competence development and personal growth, compared with that gained by students completing their study or internship in their home country. A pre-post test design, with both an experimental group and a control group, was employed for students participating in the Erasmus programme and those continuing their regular course of study at their home university. The findings obtained suggest that study abroad programmes have a positive impact on the perception of university students. The highest values among Erasmus students in terms of outcomes were attributed to cultural enhancement, personal development and foreign language proficiency. Study abroad has, furthermore, a Europeanising impact inasmuch as it affects the self-identity of students.     

Identifying the trends and impact of graduate attributes on employability: a literature review

Graduate employability has become an issue since there are broad mismatches between the acquired graduate skills from university and the required skills by employers. While previous researches have outlined the salient skills that need to be embedded in graduate education, to date no studies have attempted to methodically identify and synthesize the literature on graduate attributes. In this paper a total of 39 relevant studies on graduate skills and attributes in the subject areas of business and management, accounting, and computer science were extracted from Scopus^® (database). This revealed a total of 53 graduate attributes, with some being highly used, such as communication, teamwork, problem solving, technological skills, creativity, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, self-management and flexibility/adaptability. The majority of studies used a quantitative survey method to collect and rank graduate attributes, and Australia emerged as the most active country in researching the domain.     

Academics’ perspectives of the teaching and development of generic employability skills in science curricula

ABSTRACT

Graduate employability is a key issue for higher education as new graduates face a highly competitive and rapidly changing employment sector. To maximise their likelihood of employment, graduates need to be able to demonstrate the skills and attributes most valued by employers. Employers, however, have long criticised the ability of graduates to contribute effectively to the workplace, especially due to a perceived lack of generic employability skills. This indicates a possible mismatch between the skills required by employers and those possessed by graduate applicants. This study addresses a gap in the scholarly literature regarding employability skills – the perspectives of science academics at an Australian and UK university regarding the promotion of generic employability skills in the subjects they teach. More specifically, this article discusses academics’ perspectives regarding: (a) which of the targeted generic skills were developed and assessed through their science units, and (b) the approaches used to promote the targeted skills and any associated challenges in employing those approaches. The discussion explores how shifting from traditional transmissive pedagogies to more problem-based approaches and embedding reflection into pedagogy and assessment practices would contribute to promoting the skills employers increasingly demand from science graduates.     

Labour perspectives on the new politics of skill and competency formation: International reflections

Skill/competency approaches to workplace-based policy seek to assess and train for discrete individual competencies with the goal of increasing employability and productivity. These approaches have become increasingly prominent across a range of advanced capitalist countries. A substantial critique has emerged over this same period regarding issues of instrumentality and social control, as well as the failure of skill/compentancy approaches to articulate a meaningful understanding of human learning capacities. In this article, these critical perspectives are clarified further by a review of contributions to understanding the skill/competence question emerging from sociology of work literature. Building from these critiques, this article outlines recent experiences with and perspectives on skill/competency frameworks amongst different national labour movements. Included in this outline is a more detailed, comparative analysis of Norway and Canada; here we see the lofty ‘new’, ‘knowledge economy’ rhetoric — in two countries where one might expect to see it blossom in application — brought down to earth by the realities of industrial relations, employer intransigence and intra-labour movement differences. ‘Skill/competence’ proves to be a floating signifier that, amongst both employers and labour, stands as a proxy for ‘power/control’ struggles. Degenerating in this way, from a labour perspective, the new politics of skill/competency formation is seen to have spiraled toward irrelevance in Norway and Canada; awaiting, in both countries, a re-invigoration through attention to changes in the participatory structure of the labour process itself.     

以“柔”适“新”：知识经济时代高教改革的必然选择

在即将来临的知识经济时代,技术老化的周期及人们职业变换的进度将越来越快。因此,高等教育只有实行柔性教育，才能适应这种迅速变化的客观要求，培养出具有良好社会适应能力和可持续发展能力的合格人才。而要做到这一点，就必须采用柔性教学计划,实施学分制管理和构建模块化课程体系。     

可雇佣性教育模式:理论述评与实践应用

可雇佣性教育模式中有代表性的包括输入-输出模式、Harvey和Locke模式、体验学习模式、高等教育作用模式、全面开发模式等.这些模式基于离校学生的角度,因此也可称为学生的可雇佣性开发模式.这些模式各有千秋,都具有一定的借鉴意义,在应用过程中需要结合一些具体情况进行延伸和拓展.本文指出高等教育机构在进行可雇佣性教育时应该结合宏观环境状况,考虑组织的认可度,合理地进行课程设计,并给学生提供适当的实践机会.在进行可雇佣性教育项目设计时需要结合学生特点以及专业学科特点,这样才能对可雇佣性教育最佳实践模式的探索奠定最基本的前提.     

Communication is key: a study of the development of communication key skills in China

Different countries offer alternative curricula around what might be designated language, literacy and/or communication. This article focuses on the latter, which has typically been associated with vocational education and often labelled a ‘key’ or ‘core’ skill that forms part of a wider set of life and employability skills. In recent years, as China has emerged as a global economy, education has been significant in its policy and development. This research explores staff and student responses to the introduction of a key skills communication course in three Chinese further education vocational colleges. The initiative was prompted by research in China which had suggested that communication is important not just for education (Ye and Li 2007) but also for employability, and that the ability to communicate effectively could be instrumental in individuals’ success and development (Tong and Zhong 2008). It explores what communication key skills might mean in a Chinese context and questions notions of transferability and of competence and performance in communication. It analyses how motivation could affect learner success and the relationship of pedagogy to curriculum, and, finally, it considers how communication might be an element in the longer‐term social and political development of critical literacies.     

研究生课程的衔接性设计:原理、经验与策略

研究生课程体系设计要完整贯彻研究生培养目标和学位基本要求,保证课程体系与培养目标、学位基本要求相一致。坚持以能力培养为核心、以创新能力培养为重点,注重不同培养阶段课程设计的整合、衔接;处理好本科生、硕士生和博士生在培养目标、课程设置上的相互关系,推动本科生课程体系与研究生课程体系的整合与衔接,打破本硕博课程壁垒,建立一体化课程体系。     

Perceived employability among undergraduates and the importance of career self-management,work experience and individual characteristics

Underemployment, continued growth in the supply of graduates and seemingly perpetual instability are dominant trends in graduate labour markets. In order to negotiate an increasingly complex career terrain, graduates require sharpened skills in effectively managing their own careers and a strong assurance of their own capabilities. This study focuses on the individual dimensions of perceived employability (PE) and explores perceptions among undergraduates and the associated influence of career management competencies, work experience and individual characteristics. Data were collected for 480 business undergraduates at a UK and Australian university using an online survey. Findings indicate that, overall, undergraduates demonstrated reasonably high levels of PE. Certain career management competencies influenced perceptions, in addition to work experience and individual characteristics. The study is relevant to stakeholders, including educators, employers and students, from developed economies as it highlights coherent strategies to enhance PE among higher education students. These may lead to increased individual success in the labour market and more effective recruitment, retention and performance of new graduates.     

Listening and reflecting: an introduction to the special issue

The topic of listening has been broadly neglected in educational studies. This special issue presents studies on the connections between listening and reflecting in educational contexts.

The implementation and development of science process skills in the natural sciences: A case study of teachers' perceptions

Abstract

The notion of scientific literacy, with its concomitant emphasis on science process skills gave rise to this study. This case study research sought to explore the perceptions of four primary school Natural Sciences teachers with respect to the implementation and development of science process skills at classroom level in a disadvantaged urban primary school in South Africa. Qualitative data, generated via focus group interviews and classroom observations were analysed. These data revealed that the implementation and development of science process skills were strongly influenced by the teacher's confidence and understandings of these skills, and that these in turn could be coupled to their present and past experience of science process skills. A key recommendation of this study, that might go some way to addressing these issues, is the implementation of high quality and sustained (over a long period of time) appropriate in-service training of primary school Natural Sciences teachers.     

论综合课程教师教学技能与素养的建构——以科学课程教师为例

师资问题是关系到课程改革成败的关键。当前,初中综合课程已经在全国各试验区开设,但随着课程改革的进行,师资问题尤其是教师的教学技能与素养已经成为制约综合课程改革的"瓶颈"性因素。综合课程教师的教学技能由一般教学技能和特殊教学技能共同组成,它的提高需要教师在长期的教学实践中不断发展。     

From consultation and collaboration to consensus: introducing an alternative model of curriculum development

ABSTRACT

Scholarly discourses call for curriculum development to be democratic and collaborative, include multiple stakeholders’ perspectives, and aligned to values that promote the professional, social, and public good. Despite this, curriculum development remains an internal process: a situation challenged by a greater emphasis on employability. This paper reflects on a consensus model of curriculum development in health professions, based on constructivist principles, where internal and external stakeholders’ voices were incorporated and valued. A framework is presented to support a consensus model of curriculum development that is more likely to represent the socio-political context in which the future graduate may be employed.     

大学毕业生可雇佣性开发实证研究

大学毕业生就业难是我国高等教育大众化面临的重要问题,可雇佣性不足是大学毕业生就业难的核心问题.论文阐释了可雇佣性和可雇佣技能理论,依托上海就业市场对大学毕业生可雇佣性情况作了调查研究,从而从高校和学生层面对开发大学生的可雇佣性提出建议,以实现大学生就业最大化.     

农村职业教育的课程思考——基于就业能力理论和社会需求特征分析的研究

农村职业教育在促进农村社会经济发展过程中发挥着重要作用。目前,我国农村社会经济的发展正处在转型期,农村社会经济结构的调整和农村劳动力的转移流动是其主要特征。在这一背景下,提高农村劳动人口就业能力成为社会发展的必然需求,也成为农村职业教育必须承担的责任。本研究基于对就业能力理论和社会需求特征的分析,从课程目标、课程内容、课程实施和课程评价等方面对农村职业教育课程提出了思考。     

Measuring student graduateness: reliability and construct validity of the Graduate Skills and Attributes Scale

This study reports the development and validation of the Graduate Skills and Attributes Scale which was initially administered to a random sample of 272 third-year-level and postgraduate-level, distance-learning higher education students. The data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis. In a second study, the scale was administered to a stratified proportional random sample of 1102 early-career, undergraduate open distance-learning higher education students in the economic and management sciences field. The data were analysed using confirmatory factor and Rasch analyses. The structural validity and reliability of the scale were confirmed by the results. Educators and learning and development practitioners may be able to use the findings in their teaching, learning and assessment design.     

The impact of a professional development model for a mobilized science curriculum: a case study of teacher changes

Background and purpose: To date, there has been little research on the Teacher Professional Development (TPD) for delivering a mobile technology-supported science curriculum. To address this, a TPD model for a science curriculum supported by mobile technology was developed and evaluated in this paper. The study reported focuses on the establishment of the TPD model and exploration of its impact on teacher behaviors in the curriculum implementation.

Sample, design, and methods: In the study, two representative science teachers’ implementation of the science curriculum was presented together with an in-depth study of the TPD sessions. The data from the teacher-led PD working sessions, classroom observation and teacher interview were collected. Mixed methods and case study were used to analyze the teacher performance on the PD working sessions and on the curriculum implementation.

Results: Our findings suggested that teachers benefited from the structured TPD which provided opportunities for sharing, extensive feedback, and reflection of the curriculum implementation. It showed that teachers had transformed questioning from traditional ways into constructivist-oriented patterns in the classroom. More student-centered activities were conducted and complemented with teachers’ various scaffolds for learning. Analysis of learning artifacts attested to improvements in students’ conceptual understanding of science.

Conclusion: TPD refers to a continuing and dynamic system for PD which needs to be changed and elaborated based on teacher needs, school context and the problems and challenges encountered in the teaching practice. TPD development and teachers’ growth in the belief and competences on the instruction constitute a mutual evolution process. Their evolution could guarantee the apt enactment and spread of the curriculum innovation to impact depth, to sustain and to spread.     

Communicating Politics: Using Active Learning to Demonstrate the Value of the Discipline

In the context of higher tuition fees, the Government’s employability agenda and growing concern for defined career development strategies among young people, there is a need more effectively for Politics programmes to foster the capacity to communicate politics. Without communicating the implications and relevance of politics the subject and the skills derived from studying within Politics the discipline, Politics departments may face recruitment difficulties that those in, for example, the natural sciences, vocational subjects or the ascendant Business Management, may not. This article examines pedagogical means of promoting the capacity to communicate politics as part of an overall programme which integrates outreach, widening participation, recruitment, undergraduate study and employability activities. I focus, in particular, on applying salient approaches prominent within the Politics pedagogical literature to the development of the curriculum of a third year undergraduate module in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University: PPR389: Communicating Politics. I suggest that incorporating active learning and innovative teaching and assessment methods provides opportunities for meeting both student recruitment and employability agendas in Politics and beyond.