RAPPORT
Providing opportunities for students As has been pointed out above, it is generally accepted that assessment can be a driver of behaviour for students and staff. If this is going to make a difference to employability, then it will need to inform action at all levels of the institution.
Institutions will need to do more than look at student employment statistics after course completion, which may be acceptably high or unacceptably low for a number of historical reasons. It could be that teaching and nursing courses appear favourable on such measures after a six month milestone but the numbers remaining in these professions drop after one or two years. If we are concerned about employability rather than just employment, then we would need to be reassured that these students remain confident in their skills, knowledge and ability to effectively compete for other graduate-level jobs.
The authors argue that employability cannot be additional to other course content but should be an integral part of the study of a student and that assessment should reinforce the value of this content. This position is no longer seen as radical, being supported by the work of ESECT a decade ago( Yorke and Knight, 2004). Employability should not necessarily be part of all assessment in the same way numeracy should not be part of all assessment, even in a mathematics degree. What is argued is that there is proportionality, and that employability needs a significant presence.
The authors acknowledge that a student will continue to make choices throughout their course of study. A critical factor is engagement, both with the expected course knowledge and the additional opportunities offered. They can choose to be engaged and benefit from a more active, independent form of learning, or choose to be more instrumental in their learning. Assessment may be an important driver of behaviour but it is only one of the many complex factors that can make a difference. At best, assessment can develop the subject insight required and enable the development of skills valued in the workplace. At worst, assessment can be a ritual to show that the lecturer and the students have done their job. Given that assessment does make a difference, the challenge is to design and deliver assessment that meets subject requirements, is supportive of the course as a community and does enhance employability.
Assessment may be a driver of student behaviour but will also make a difference to staff. For example, within the module Creative
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Problem Solving discussed above the assessment of a digital story was an artefact created by the student. We ask the reader to reflect on their own reaction when assessing a five-minute reflective video in comparison to the feeling that many of us experience when faced with a mountain of near-identical three thousandword essays.
Addressing the issues of employability within an assessment regime which might be set by university policy is a challenge, but making a course worthwhile for all concerned has always been a challenge. An engagement with employability should mean that students are required to complete assessments that are more meaningful for them and provide ways that demonstrate qualities like a‘ can do’ attitude. For academic staff, the challenge and opportunity is to produce an assessment task which has subject relevance, offers consistency and fairness, and can be motivational for all concerned.
Conclusion If graduate employment is a major reason for students investing in higher education( Tomlinson, 2008), then courses will have to consider how the skills and knowledge to be achieved make a difference to employability – a view supported by the Association of Graduate Recruiters( Hawkins and Gilleard, 2004). The qualification remains important even if only as a confirmation of course completion. The challenge is to leave the student better prepared for the future. Graduates can be expected to be asked to evidence that they can do the job on offer. Assessment is key. It should confirm learning but it should also highlight individual excellence and uniqueness. Assessment over the course provides students with outcomes and artefacts that they can take forward to employers as evidence of what they can do and that they have a‘ can do’ attitude. Individual modules such as the Creative Problem Solving example above can make a difference but it is the view of the authors that employability needs to be embedded throughout a course. This does not mean that employability begins to dominate all we do but rather that the awareness is there and a proportionate amount of time and effort allocated to it.
The process of becoming more employable as a graduate is an important one and should in itself be motivational to the student. It will give a relevance to the course if it is known that others will value it. Assessment provides a signal to the student of what is valued and the outcomes of assessment are the record of achievement. It is argued here that you need a constructive alignment of assessment with the challenges of
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