"If we do not challenge the status quo, we do nothing to contribute to social mobility"

Social Mobility has been a feature of political rhetoric of late, and has been an underpinning aim of many widening participation universities. However, I do wonder whether the complexities and subtleties required to enhance the student experience to ensure all our students maximise their potential, are truly understood. Gill Frigerio, Course Director of the Management of Student Work Experience Programme, at the University of Warwick has written a really interesting article which examines, very succinctly, both the Government debate, social theory and our roles in Advice and Guidance - see link below to access the article.

"Fireworks and networks - is it really all about 'who you know'"?
Author: Gill Frigerio, Course Director of the Management of Student Work Experience Programme at The University of Warwick
Pub: Phoenix, October 2011
http://www.agcas.org.uk/articles/446

Useful Video Clips from BBC 3 Up For Hire Live website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00k9c3r/clips

Some useful video clips can be found on the above link. The clips include comments from employers as well as young job seekers and include the following topics:
An insiders' guide how to develop a positive approach to job searching
An insiders' guide to interviews
An insiders' guide to looking for the right job
An insiders' guide on how to fill out your CV
An insiders' guide on how to be a good team player and a good team leader
An insiders' guide on how to be a better problem solver and decision maker
Technical Note: These clips tend to work better if opened up in the Firefox browser, and they do need you to be using the latest version of Adobe Flash Player.

Digital Identities - Webfolios

I have spoken before about the increasing importance of having a digital identity. Webfolios is one way to develop a digital identity and Sussex University have developed some examples - see the link below.

http://www.agcas.org.uk/assets/download?file=2856&parent=1092

Useful PDP tools from www.mindtools.com

www.Mindtools.com

You can find a range of free tools students could use as part of their PDP at the above website - topics include:
Leadership; Team Management; Strategy Tools, Problem Solving; Decision Making; Project Management; Time Management; Communication Skills;, Creativity Tools; Information Skils and Career Skills.

Are women breaking through the 'glass ceiling'?

The two articles below discuss this - what are your thoughts and experiences?
Women and men disagree over fragility of glass ceiling, says Friends Life

http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/hro/news/1019890/hr-directors-positive-women-breaking-glass-ceiling-research

HR directors are positive women are breaking through the 'glass ceiling', research shows

http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/hro/news/1019849/women-disagree-fragility-glass-ceiling-friends-life

The Increasing Importance of Creativity if business are to survive in an increasing complex world.

According to a major new IBM (NYSE: IBM) survey of more than 1,500 Chief Executive Officers from 60 countries and 33 industries worldwide, chief executives believe that -- more than rigor, management discipline, integrity or even vision -- successfully navigating an increasing complex world will require creativity.

Conducted through in-person interviews with senior leaders and consultants from IBM’s Global Business Services division, less than half of global CEOs believe their enterprises are adequately prepared to handle a highly volatile, increasingly complex business environment. CEOs are confronted with massive shifts – new government regulations, changes in global economic power centers, accelerated industry transformation, growing volumes of data, rapidly evolving customer preferences – that, according to the study, can be overcome by instilling “creativity” throughout an organization.

How can students be supported in developing, applying and articulating their creativity? Is this a key focus within your programme?

Resources:
Creativity and Entrepreneurship: A Regional Analysis of New Firm Formation
Sam Youl Lee, Richard Floriday and Zoltan J Acs
https://papers.econ.mpg.de/egp/discussionpapers/2004-17.pdf

'Creativity and Innovation in business thinking outside the box
' Jon Boyes, Exeter University - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/careersandemployability/pdfs/resources/Creativity_and_innovation.pdf

Resources for developing Creative Thinkers http://tlp.excellencegateway.org.uk/tlp/xcurricula/employability/index.php?i=27

Innovation and Creativity in the Curriculum
http://www.innovations.ac.uk/btg/resources/publications/innovation.pdf

UCAS Employability Profiles and PDP

The UCAS Employability Profiles on this site(http://www.ucas.ac.uk/seps/intro)have been created to suggest the skills that typically can be developed through the study of particular subjects and can be a useful starting point for students to explore their programme of study and evaluate and articulate their personal development.

Job Prospects are still better for graduates than 16-18 year old job seekers -

Despite worrying employment figures, job prospects are still better for graduates than those of 16-18 year old job seekers -

AGCAS President, Anne-Marie Martin, said:

"A degree alone is not a passport into a graduate job and it isn't right for everyone, but to compete internationally, the UK needs a more educated, skilled and flexible workforce.

Consequently, the job prospects of graduates - and especially those who take advantage of some of the many opportunities both within and outside the curriculum to gain experience and learn relevant skills - are much rosier than those of 16 and 18 year old job seekers, and look certain to remain so.

However, we need to make sure that prospective and current students have access to genuinely helpful information and advice when making career and course choices. And, we need to ensure that all young people develop their employability skills alongside their subject knowledge."

Hints for creating an effective Linkedin profle

The article below provides a link to a free resource offering advice about how to develop an effective Linkedin profile with examples of different types of profiles.

Link - http://linkd.in/rNEt6e

Graduate Employability 2012

Interesting commentary about Graduate Employability from Dr Paul Redmond, AGCAS President Elect and Head of Careers at Liverpool University.

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/2bfdda29#/2bfdda29/4

Do your students experience problems with group work?

Have a look at WebPA, this is an open source online peer assessment tool that enables every team member to recognize individual contributions to group work.

See link - http://webpaproject.lboro.ac.uk/

Scaffolding Reflective Journal Writing with the 4Rs Model of Reflective Thinking (bain et al., 1999; Carrington & Gitta, 2010)

I came across what I thought was a really accessible model of reflective thinking which has been designed to prompt and guide students towards a deeper level of reflective thinking. The model introduces a common language that can be used by students and academics, and makes explicit the issues that students need to consider and address in their reflections. It may be used by students reflecting on critical incidents and by students who are keeping reflective logs/journals. This model can form the basis of grading systems for assessment tasks, and can be included in assessment criteria.
Source: Teaching and Assessing Reflection Highter Education Newsletter, Issue 4, June 2011
4Rs Model
Level 1 Reporting & Responding
Report what happened or what the issue or incident involved.
Why is it relevant?
Respond to the incident or issue by making observations, expressing your opinion, or asking questions.
Level 2 Relating
Relate or make a connection between the incident or issue and your own skills, professional experience, or discipline knowledge.
Have I seen this before?
Were the conditions the same or different?
Do I have the skills and knowledge to deal with this? Explain.
Level 3 Reasoning
Highlight in detail significant factors underlying the incident or issue.
Refer to relevant theory and literature to support your reasoning.
Consider different perspectives. How would a knowledgeable person perceive/handle this?
What are the ethics involved?
Level 4 Reconstructing
Reframe or reconstruct future practice or professional understanding.
How would I deal with this next time?
What might work and why?
Are there different options?
What might happen if ....?
Are my ideas supported by theory?
Can I make changes to benefit others?

Good News from the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR)

"The recent AGR survey* shows that graduate vacancies are predicted to increase by 2.6% this year. This follows an increase of 8.9% in 2010, and signals sustained recovery of the graduate recruitement market.
The average starting salary has also increased slightly by (2%) to £25,500, the first increase since 2008."

Source: Graduate Recruiter, Issue 61, Pub: AGR


*The 2010-2011 AGR survey is based on responses from 202 AGR graduate recruiters in the UK across 20 sectors which will provide an estimated 21,507 graduate vacancies in 2011.

Education for life or for work?

http://bit.ly/ouxHHS

An interesting article in the Guardian which examines various viewpoints on this issue.

I feel there needs to be a happy medium
- learning and acquiring knowledge, but also the skills and confidence to challenge the status quo, analyse and critically reflect;
- encouraging students to explore and take themselves out of their comfort zones, provide opportunities to increase their self-belief and self-confidence and their understanding of the distance travelled during their studies so that they are able to articulate their learning, skills and attributes to finally equip our students to be able to maximise the investment they have made in their education.


Not much then!

I think it is important to remember that most of our students do not have private incomes, and will and do, have to earn a living.


What do you think?

Are we supporting our widening participation students enough?

"The research reveals a clear gap in the aspirations of the UK's richest and poorest young people. It shows that while most young people feel they will be able to realise their potential, young people from poor homes are significantly less likely to believe that their life and career goals are achievable than those from affluent backgrounds." (1)

"This report highlights the urgent need to tackle social immobility in the UK." Professor David G Blanchflower (1)

Are we doing enough to bridge the gap with our own students?

(1) Broke, not broken: Tackling youth poverty and the aspiration gap, May 2011, Prince's Trust - See the link - http://bit.ly/mPXCL6

Advice for Employers offering Internships

A recently published best practice code could be useful when talking to employers considering offering internship opportunities for students.

"Common Best Practice Code for High-Quality Internships", Gateways to the Professions Collaborative Forum, , July 2011

See link to access your copy of the document: http://bit.ly/nRb3SB

Resources to support students develop Academic Writing Skills

The Flying Start project has been a two year inter-institutional and cross sector project designed to find and evaluate ways of easing transitions in academic writing that students must negotiate if they are to be successful studying at degree level. The Flying Start website offers useful resources for both staff and students.

The final report is now available; please see the HEA website:http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/ntfs/projects/Liverpool_Hope.pdf

The link to the Flying Start website:http://www.hope.ac.uk/collaborativeprojects/flyingstart/

Links to other resources:

http://www.strath.ac.uk/caple/studentdevelopment/forundergraduates/
Examples of resources: Writing an Assignment; Checking your essay; Responding to feedback, etc.

http://www.thinkingwriting.qmul.ac.uk/srb.htm
This offers discipline based materials such as: Maths, Physics, Engineering - Short Writing Tasks in the Sciences; Biology - Peer Review; English - Critical reading, creative writing in English, etc.

Beware - the social media detectives are about!

A recent Bloomberg article suggests that job hunting could get a lot worse - "As if it weren’t difficult enough to find a job in this still-struggling economy, prospective employees have a new hurdle to overcome: the dreaded -- and highly sophisticated -- social-media background check."

To read more follow the link: http://linkd.in/oRECEi

New Report - Employers' perceptions of the employability skills of new graduates

Link to the report: http://bit.ly/pG4MJS

Key Recommendations in brief:

• Employability should be at the centre of HEIs strategic planning.


• Funding research should be used as a lever to encourage HEIs to develop their students' employability skills and attributes.


• Placements and internships should be encouraged in all programmes.


• Careers services in HEIs should be given more responsibility (and resources) to develop employability activities at faculty and departmental level.


• Employer partnerships need to be effective, sustained and equitable.


• Degree course design should articulate the needs of business and emerge from a strong partnership with employer organisations.


• Employer membership of HEI committees should not be a token measure.

See the above link for the full on-line version of the report.

Pebblegogy - new book from PebblePad

PebblePad launched their book Pebblegogy last week at Wolverhampton University. The book contains a whole range of case studies detailing how different curriculum areas have introduced and used PebblePad. A number of copies will shortly be deposited in the library.

Improving Retention using PebblePad

I attended the Pebblegogy Conference last week, and heard how tutors had successfully engaged new cohorts of students prior to their arrival using PebblePad. The tutors reported that this strategy had a positive impact on retention figures. If you would like to know more drop me an email - b.haywood@derby.ac.uk or 'phone me at 01332 591316.

Stories not bullet points!

We have all been to those 'death by a 100 slides' presentations. Roger Jones*, a geologist, turned accounts executive who is now a boardroom coach and corporate storyteller, suggests that stories can have a much more powerful and lasting impact on an audience. In my experience it is often the stories I have told in my workshops that students comment on, or remember when I meet them months later.


Should we not, therefore, be encouraging our students to develop their storytelling skills and their own stories; this could involve the reflection and articulation of a learning event, and provide a great opportunity to collate evidence of their skills, attributes and added value? There is a place for bullet points, and PowerPoint slides, but often it is the colour a story brings that intrigues and interests the listener, and could help our students stand out from the crowd.
* Pragmatic Storytelling For Leaders - for more information visit www.RogerEdwardJOnes.com


Roger suggests the following 'do's' and 'don'ts':

DO

• Ensure your story has a clear point or a message to convey.




• Be specific and detailed in your telling of the story. It helps to paont a picture the listeners it draws them in.




• Create the unexpected - people like to be surprised.




• A good story creates questions in listeners' minds and they want them answered.

DON'T

• Be afraid to keep it simple. The idea is to create a story that resonates with people.




• Never start by saying "I've got a great story to tell you". Just tell it. Let the listener judge how good it is.




• Don't overdo the "moral of the story" by lecturing people about what they should take from it. A good story enables people to interpret the message for themselves.

Source: www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/appointments

Involving students in curriculum developments - Pebble Pad Case Study

Working collaboratively with students, the Learning Technology Team and the Subject Careers Adviser has helped Derby students get the best out of developing their e-portfolio using Pebble Pad.
Read about the creative way students have been involved as mentors to to help their peers develop their e-portfolio. The students also produced ''how to' videos for students on how to use Pebble Pad - you can see these by following the link below:

http://www.derby.ac.uk/news/are-eportfolios-the-key-to-boosting-employability

The Graduate Market 2011 - The good news and the important news

The Good News for this year’s graduates:

• ‘The UK’s leading employers are expecting to increase their graduate recruitment by 9.4% in 2011”


• “Three fifths of employers expect to recruit more graduates in 2011, whilst a quarter plan to maintain their intake.”


• “Employers in thirteen of fourteen key industries and employment areas expect to recruit more graduates in 2011.”
  

The Important News for all undergraduates:

• “Although the total number of graduate vacancies is set to increase in 2011, recruiters have confirmed that a third if this year’s entry-level positions are expected to be filled by graduates who have already worked for their organisations –either through industrial placements, vacation work or sponsorships- - and therefore are not open to other students from the ‘Class of 2011’.


• ‘Nearly two-thirds of recruiters warn that graduates who have had no previous work experience at all are unlikely to be successful during the selection process and have little or no chance of receiving a job offer for their organisations’ graduate programmes
  · ‘Three-fifths of employers are providing industrial placements for undergraduates (typically for 6-12 months) or vacation work lasting more than three weeks’.

Source: 'The Graduate Market in 20011', pub High Fliers Research Limited, 2011

Digital Identities

How are you helping your students with their digital identities?

Employers are changing the way they recruit, many now turning to social networking sites. Could your students be missing out if they haven't developed their digital identity?

Contact me if you would like to discuss this further - 01332 591316 or b.haywood@derby.ac.uk

From a degree to a graduate job - Graduate Stories

See the Career Development Centre Website for graduate stories about their journeys to a graduate job:

http://www.gradjobs.co.uk/news/Pull-Together/160

Helping Student Reflections on Employability

Many tutors, particularly those using e-portfolios such as pebble pad, are helping students with their PDP, by building skills and capability profiles to aid student reflective activities.

The CIHE (Council for Industry & Higher Education), ESECT (Enhancing Student Employability Co-ordination Team) and the HEA(Higher Education Academy) carried out a substantive piece of work to identify subject employability profiles for employers.*

In 2009 the CIHE and HE Academy carried out a review of the Employability Competences.** The report provides an interesting overview, together with updated competences and behavioural indicators, which gives the reader the descriptive language students often find difficult when reflecting upon or articulating their learning. The competences are clustered under six competency headings:

• Cognitive skills


• Generic Competencies


• Personal Capabilities


• Technical Ability


• Business and/or Organisation Awareness


• Practical and Professional Elements

I show cased the original subject profiles at a Derby Learning, Teaching and Assessment conference a few years ago, but I still think they can provide a basis for discussion when designing skills and capability profiles for your subject areas.

I would be interested to hear from anyone who has used.

*Employability Guide BEST Subject Centre: Student Employability Profile, 2004, HEA, ESECT, CIHE

**Forbes, P & Kubler B, Thinking .... CIHE-HE Academy Employability Competences Riview, CIHE Policy Forum, February 2009, CIHE, (http://www.cihe-uk.com/)

Graduate Employment & Employability The good news and the bad news.

The good news is that graduate vacancies are continuing to rise in 20011 according to an article in the latest edition of Graduate Recruiter.
Source: Graduate Recruite Issue 59, p.4 April/May 2011.

The bad news is that "employers are sending a clear message that even strong academic performance is not enough to get candidates across the line, unless it is combined with the right skills and experience."

In the same article Liz Sayce, commissioner at the UK Commission for Employment & Skills (http://www.ukces.org.uk/), agrees employability skills are imperative: "There's no doubt that qualifications are important, but they can only take you so far. Employers are looking for candidates who can demonstrate good social skills, excellent written and verbal communication, willingness to learn, as well as teamwork and management skills. It doesn't matter what level you're at, or what sort of job you want - you ignore these so-called 'employability' skills at your peril."

If you would like to know more about the resources and help available to support students develop, enhance and articulate their employability and engage in PDP, contact the me at the Career Development Centre on 01332 591316, b.haywood@derby.ac.uk or see our website www.derby.ac.uk/careers.

Great Employability Site - check it out.

I came across a great employability site recently - www.usemyability.org

Whilst it came from an employability and disability project, it has some excellent content and links for all students, employers and staff.

Mindsets - check this out.

Working with students in a widening participation university brings with it challenges if we are to help all our students maximise their potential and investment in their education.

Carol Dweck has carried out some really interesting research around Mindsets:

• How mindsets can stand in the way of succes.


• Why talent and brains don't always bring success.


• How teaching students a simple idea about the brain can raise achievement.


• Why praising brains and talents don't foster self-esteem and accomplisment, but jeopardizes them.

http://mindsetonline.com/whatisit/about/index.html

Candidate Management Systems

Many organisations have to cope with large numbers of applicants from jobseekers. To cope with this some companies use automated candidate management systems, powered by an Applicant Tracking System (ATS); this sits behind the company website and will screen applications and CVs, and decide automatically who deserves an interview. (source: david@abintegro.com)

Advice to graduates has always been to research the job and the company and produce a CV and on line application that is unique to each job, ensuring there is a good match between their skills and strengths and those asked for by the employer. The use of this type of software in the recruitment process makes this doubly important.

If you want to know more about preparing for job applications and writing effective CVs contact your link careers adviser - http://www.derby.ac.uk/careers/careersadvice/meet-our-careers-advisers and see our website for information: http:///www.derby.ac.uk/careers

Graduate Destination News

Have you received a copy of the Graduate Destination News?

"Our graduate destinations are increasingly going to come under the spotlight. We have put together this first edition of Graduate Destination News to ask you how we can work with you to support your students into employment and to communicate to you our current offer."

Celia Beizsley, Assistant Registrar, Careers and Employment Services

Contact me on Ext. 1316 or email me at b.haywood@derby.ac.uk for your copy.

Internships - their value - paid or unpaid: "Evaluation of the Graduate Talent Pool Internships" BIS, January 2011

The recent report from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills which evaluated graduates' experiences of the Graduate Talent Pool Internships, confirms the value of participating in internships: Some key findings of the report:




The vast majority of respondents who undertook internships through the GTP Scheme:

• had a very positive experience;
• said they had gained substantially from it in terms of employability and skill development;
• felt exceptionally positive after their internships, reporting dramatic rises in self-confidence and outlook;
• 80% would recommend the experience - paid or unpaid;
• a third of the pariticpants gained long term employment with their internship employer;

For the full Executive Summary and Report see:

http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/higher-education/docs/e/11-668-evaluation-of-graduate-talent-pool-internships.pdf

ePortfolio Conference - call for papers

The 9th international ePortfolio & Identity Conference has a call for papers - deadline 31 March 2011. Link: http://events.eife-l.org/epic2011/

The conference itself is on 11-13 July, at the Savoy Place, London.

Employers Talking - great website

http://www.innovatecv.com/tv

The above website contains a range of short clips of employers talking about their sector and what they look for in applicants. Recommend it to your students - could be useful in their career research or pre-interview preparation.

Company Research for graduate job seakers

One of the things that can be the difference between success and failure or enjoyment and unhappiness at work, can be the culture of the company you work for. However, it can be very difficult to find out about the culture of an organisation unless you know someone who is working there or who has worked there.

I came across a website called Inside Buzz http://www.insidebuzz.co.uk/home.html. It provides company profiles, but also, more unusually, comments from graduate trainees and employees of the company, talking about what it is like working there. It would be useful to put this site on the radar of our final year students.

"Bridge Jobs"

See the link to the video clip of Stanford University post graduate Jullien Gordon talking about Bridge Jobs. http://bit.ly/g20kl2

Graduates nationally are finding it difficult to find opportunities for direct graduate level employment. I think it is incumbent upon the HE sector to ensure that graduates leave with insights into a range of routes into the graduate employment they are looking for, which may be less direct, but will help them to hang on to their goal and achieve it.

There are different approaches to career management. (See blog - http://pdpsupport.blogspot.com/ - “Alternative approaches to Graduate employment.” 4th January 2011)

A bridge job:

- helps you to get you from point a-b , from where you are now to where you want to be.
- is 18 months or shorter / six months of savings - covering your cost of living for your first six months as an entrepreneur or portfolio worker.
- only works you 40 hours a week. You have the other 40-60 hours to invest good energy into what you ultimately want to do.
- has a set a time period of when you are going to leave, which means you actually start maximising that opportunity and not just fill time (Parkinson’s Law)*
- can help you increase your personal, intellectual, financial and social capital, including building relationships with future customers.

* Parkinson's Law “Work will expand to fill space” http://www.heretical.com/miscella/parkinsl.html
** Shift Happens (You Tube) mentioned in above video clip http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=shift+happens&aq=f

Graduate Recruitment through peer to peer recommendations

"According to the latest Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 consumers, personal recommendations and reviews are the most trusted form of advertising. The Graduate recruitment marketplace is no different." (Graduate Recruiter, AGR, "The Word on the Street ..." Jan 2011)


The above article reports that several graduate recruiters have introduced peer to peer recommendations to their formal recruitment policy, where existing graduate employees are asked to use their extended networks to identify graduate talent.


Personal recommendations have always formed a part of the informal recruitment practices of many companies, given the high costs of recruitment. However, the formal use of peer to peer recommendations by some of the larger graduate recruiters further confirms how important it is for undergraduates to understand networking and develop the skills they need to do it effectively.

Alternative approaches to Graduate employment

Happy New Year everyone!

For many graduates at the moment there will not be a direct route into graduate level employment, and portfolio careers can be a realistic option. There are a series of short 5 min videos that might throw light on what is meant by a portfolio career - see link below: http://portfoliocareers.net/category/portfolio-careers/

The Planned happenstance approach can also provide a route to the type of work you want to do. Planned happenstance is about being open to opportunities that come your way and making the most of those opportunities. The link below is to an article that gives a good example of how this can work:
http://www.sgm.ac.uk/pubs/micro_today/pdf/050908.pdf