Surfacing skills… in working world insights
What is it?
Students can build their career readiness by watching videos in which UofG Alumni demonstrate the real world use of their disciplinary and future skills.
Aligning Employability to disciplinary learning makes it more relevant and engaging to students. Building this into the curriculum at an early stage allows students sufficient time to reflect on how skills are used in the workplace. This can increase their confidence and encourage career exploration from an early stage which can in turn increase Career Readiness levels in students by the time of graduation.
How does it work?
The development of a series of short, bite-sized videos of UofG alumni for use in teaching materials as part of laboratories/tutorials or at the end of lectures. Students can be encouraged to engage with these videos through light-touch assessment such as answering questions covered in the video or even just by completing the viewing of the video housed within Moodle.
Where funding is available, the creation of the videos can work well as a Student-Staff Partnership, involving the student partners in the sourcing of speakers, communication with speakers including preparation of scripts, and the filming and editing of videos. Most videos will maintain relevance for a number of years before needing to be replaced to reflect changing disciplinary and professional (future skills.
When searching for alumni on LinkedIn either via
- a People search for the organisations and/or
- use the University of Glasgow Alumni Tool.
Using your list of target companies, ask your CEM for help from the Employer Engagement Team who can ask their contacts with the organisations to help find alumni. You could also ask if they have any other current contacts who might be keen to help source alumni in their organisations.
On LinkedIn, use the University of Glasgow Alumni Tool to trawl through all recent graduates in your programme.
Once created, the videos will provide a non-time intensive activity for students (possibly as homework) that can achieve immediate workplace-contextualization of the knowledge imparted in lectures, labs and tutorials.
Does it work?
It is known that engagement with alumni can improve students’ career discernment and increase understanding of practical applications of coursework (Larsson et al 2022). This paper echoes the experiences of UofG staff in that alumni engagement provides quick and easy access to a large-scale network across many professional sectors and tends to be a low –cost resource.
In the associated Case Study {ADD LINK TO CASE STUDY} , feedback gained from students via questionnaires and listening sessions indicates the positive impact of this approach amongst Level 1 students.
What do I need?
Sourcing Speakers:
- Contact the Development and Alumni Office who can generate a list of alumni who fit within the parameters you set. They will contact the alumni on your behalf and will introduce those who agree to get involved.
- Ask your Careers & Employability Manager for support in finding relevant graduate recruiters where recent graduates have gone on to work.
- Sign up for LinkedIn Premium if you can afford it as you can search for longer and write longer introductions to potential contacts. The first month is free and current cost (August 25) is around £30 per month after that. It is quick and easy to cancel when access is no longer needed.
References
“Documentary-Style Educational Video for Online Learners: Student Perceptions of an Innovative Approach to Learning”, PhD Thesis, Northeastern University.
Larsson, Carl F., Marshall, Brooks; Ritchie, Bill, (2022), “The alumni project: Fostering student-alumni engagement in the curriculum”, Journal of Education for Business, 97:4, 253-260, DOI: 10.1080/08832323.2021.1932704
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC); TNS BMRB, “Public attitudes to chemistry” (2015), Research report, available from https://www.rsc.org/policy-evidence-campaigns/outreach/public-attitudes-chemistry/