< backEnhancing employability through critical reflective learning.

 case_study_gloucester.pdf

The ability to really understand one’s own strengths and weaknesses and how to engage effectively in personal and career development is a vital competency in the modern, dynamic and rapidly shifting world of work. This case study addresses an important element of employability, and at the same time an increasingly significant challenge to higher education (Barnett 2000, Jackson and Ward 2004) which is to prepare students for the demands of a rapidly changing world. Such a philosophy recognises that it is not simply what students know which determines the requirements of employers, and the needs of society, but increasingly, the ability of students to acquire new knowledge and skills and to understand how they can best achieve this and develop an awareness and control of their own learning. Indeed, Edwards (2001:8) suggests that “employers are not interested in seeing extensive documented outcomes, but they do wish to see for themselves how candidates think and behave in new situations”.  This demands ability on the part of the student to reflect on their experiences and to learn from them, and this provides the focus for the intervention described here.  This case study explores the process of critical storytelling as a means of developing students’ reflective thinking skills as preparation for future employment.  The case study is concerned with how students reconstruct learning from critical incidents experienced in the workplace to extract new meanings and new learning in preparation for employment. The influences of peer support and mentoring in enhancing reflective learning are an important element of the intervention. Learning inventories also allow students to assess their strengths and weaknesses in relation to learning capabilities and emotional competence and their use is also described in this case study.

John Buswell and Angela Tomkins.
University of Gloucestershire.