ARTICLE #5 || 91
91
ARTICLE | #5
Title
A case of embedding
employability in the curriculum
Author(s)
Aikaterini Koskina
Contact
[email protected]
School
Keele Management School
Faculty
Faculty of Humanities and Social
Sciences
Abstract
Employability is understood to be a
complex, multi-dimensional construct
that refers to the potential a graduate
has for obtaining, and succeeding in,
graduate-level positions. This paper
reports on an initiative designed
to embed employability into the
academic curriculum. It provides a case
study that describes and discusses
the experience of developing and
delivering an employability module
for second year Human Resource
Management (HRM) undergraduate
students at Keele University. It
encapsulates both the rationale and
the practical aspects of embedding
employability in the curriculum
Keywords
Employability, academic curriculum,
human resource management,
undergraduate
Introduction
Employability is about developing well-rounded graduates with
attributes that embrace ‘soft transferable skills’ and ‘personcentred qualities’ alongside ‘subject-specific knowledge, skills
and competencies’ (Cole and Tibby, 2013:9). It is about the
capacity of graduates to function in a job (Yorke, 2006) and
‘move self-sufficiently within the labour market to realise
potential through sustainable employment’ (Hillage and Pollard,
1998:2). Such emplo yment should benefit graduate ‘themselves,
the workforce, the community and the economy’ (Yorke and
Knight, 2006:3). Approaches to enhancing and embedding
employability vary widely across the sector and there is lack
of consensus on how best to approach this aspect of students’
development (Maher and Graves, 2010).
The literature suggests various ways of integrating employability
into the academic curriculum (cf. Bridgstock, 2009; CBI/NUS,
2011; Dacre Pool and Sewell, 2007). Perhaps the most wellknown approach is Knight and Yorke’s (2004) USEM framework
that outlines employability as four inter-related components:
understanding (of disciplinary material and how organisations
work); skillful practices (including deployment of skills); efficacy
beliefs (including student views of themselves and the prospect
for self-improvement and development); meta-cognition
(complements efficacy, embraces self-awareness, how to learn
and reflect). It is recommended that academics might take the
four key components and examine the extent to which each
is being developed in the curriculum. The USEM framework
serves as a useful starting point from a curriculum audit and/or
curriculum design perspective, but ‘there are limited examples
of this being readily, or transparently, adopted within higher
education at the present time’ (Pegg et al., 2012:23).
Based on the USEM approach this paper presents a case study
that describes and discusses my experience of developing and
delivering a yearlong employability module for HRM students
at Keele University. The case study shows how the student’s
understanding and skillful practices are developed through
different forms of learning. It also shows how reflection develops
the student’s efficacy and metacognition and relates this to the
development of subject knowledge and professional skills that
are transferable to the practice context. Finally, the case study
considers some of the challenges involved in the pedagogy of
employability, and makes practical recommendations for those
wishing to introduce a similar initiative in their own institution.