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.