< backEmployability enhancement for new students approaching a work experience year.

 case_study_oxford_brookes.pdf

 This case study aims to evaluate the impact of incorporating employability skills into a first year undergraduate module designed, in part, to prepare students for work placement. The term ‘employability’ is used in its wider sense to encompass knowledge, analytical and learning skills as well as job-application/seeking skills. The project explored student perceptions of the importance of employability skills through a self-completion questionnaire administered with two cohorts of students at the beginning and end of a first year module ‘Understanding Hospitality Businesses’. There were 150 student participants in the first cohort and 130 in the second.The results demonstrate that students rate ‘subject knowledge’ highly in terms of enhancing employability when they arrive at the university and after the module, but that a significant increase in awareness of the importance of job-hunting skills occurs through embedding activities such as analysing employer needs, CV preparation and interviewing skills. By embedding such skills into the structure of the module they are generally accepted as a valid part of student learning and may result in a more employable candidate in terms of knowledge, business skills and in job seeking capabilities.

Charles Whittaker.
Oxford Brookes University.

Use the above link to see the full case study report.