Surfacing skills… in a Strengths-based card sorting session
What is it?
Within the new Embedding Employability Framework, reflective practice is recognised as a key tool to 'empower students to articulate both skills and knowledge value of their degree' alongside 'active learning and meaningful assessment'.
The use of self-reflection tools encourage students to measure their learning along the way, using a systematic approach to develop good reflective practice habits that will enable them to navigate their long-term career path in an ever-changing labour market.
Card sorts are a well-established tool used with students by career practitioners in Higher Education to facilitate self-reflection on different aspects of Self including Strengths, Interests, Skills and Values. They can be a helpful learning resource for promoting self-awareness, articulation of personal attributes, personal development/career planning and to facilitate students in the construction of their own narratives and personal branding.
The Strengths Profile Cards used in this session are produced by Cappfinity who have spearheaded the development of Strengths-based recruitment methods for many UK graduate employers.
This lecture or workshop is typically led by a Careers & Employability Manager from Careers, Employability and Opportunity but co-designed with the academic leading the course / academic team supporting the degree programme.
How does it work?
A lecturer identifies a need for a light touch self-reflection activity to build self-awareness and self-confidence amongst students in the aim of encouraging their engagement in career exploration. This may be related to indictors that they are not developing sufficient career readiness, such as low performance in the Graduate Outcomes Survey or low numbers in the Careers Registration responses indicating they are engaged in career exploration whilst at university.
The University recognises that time-poverty is a challenge faced by many of our students trying to juggle study with part-time employment, commuting and caring responsibilities with little or no bandwidth for extra-curricular activities to build self-awareness and self-confidence. Therefore, the most inclusive approach to providing this support is to embed within the curriculum.
The lecturer can contact their Careers & Employability Manager to agree on the length and timing of this session. This could be run in a one-hour lecture slot or, as with the Case Study, a two-hour slot allows time to add greater interactivity and disciplinary related career exploration.
Careers practitioners have developed and regularly use a number of different card sorts within employability teaching.
The Strengths Profile comprises of 4 quadrants:
- Strengths defined as what I can do well plus love to do/energised when using this
- Unrealised Strengths defined as what I could be good at in future plus love to do/am energised when using this
- Learned Behaviours defined as what I can do well but not do enjoy using/find mentally draining
- Weaknesses defined as I can’t yet do well at plus, I don't enjoy using/find mentally draining
Each pack contains illustrated strengths cards for each of the 60 strengths, with an icon on the front and development guidance relative to each quadrant on the back.
Students can work individually, in pairs or in small groups to work through the list of 60 Strengths cards to categorise their Realised Strengths, Learned Behaviours, Unrealised Strengths and Weaknesses by assessing how each one matches their current ability level and mental energy level. Working and discussing with peers who know each other well may help to establish ownership of Strengths that the student lack confidence to recognise in themselves.
They are advised to start by selecting Realised Strengths by:
- Choosing all those that they enjoy doing/find mentally stimulating. This should reduce their list to Realised and Unrealised Strengths, removing all learned behaviours and Weaknesses.
- Choose from the remaining list all those cards that match what they are currently ‘good at’.
- To prioritise their current key Strengths, they could be encouraged to identify 5 to 10 top strengths.
- The facilitator can suggest that students take a photo of top Strengths (and other categories) to further reflect on after the session
The shortlisting process can be followed by peer discussion on the following topics:
- Consider how they currently use these Top Strengths in study and other activities. Do they have a good balance, i.e. are they using them sufficiently to maintain their mental energy or could they increase their use to raise mental energy levels?
- Consider future choices in university to assess if there will be new opportunities to use their Top Strengths
- Consider how Top Strengths match to any future career plans.
In longer sessions there may also be time for further reflection and discussion on how to develop Unrealised Strengths:
- How and to what degree have they used Unrealised Strengths?
- What indicators lead them to feel that these could be developed into a Realised Strength?
- Why do they want to develop them?
- Can they identify opportunities to use these more frequently?
Does it work?
Card sorts are a useful introduction to reflection and relatively easy to use for most students. They are useful in peer-learning activities and can facilitate 'reflection on-action' without pushing them too far out of their comfort zone. They can also increase self-awareness and career direction and unlock potential through reflection on life and career goals that they find energising. This can lead to the realisation of their authentic best self.
Card sorts generally tend by well-received by students in sessions as they are seen as a ‘fun’ method of reflection and facilitate peer discission. The Strengths Profile is a particularly positive and enjoyable example which showcases strengths while allowing students to admit what they don’t like without judgement. The Strengths model also focuses on celebrating students’ individual strengths whilst perceiving underdeveloped areas as Strengths that are not yet ‘realised’ rather than a deficit model which focusses a lens on skills gaps.
The Strengths Profile tool is particularly useful in building career readiness in students, especially where sufficient time has been allotted for discussion and reflection to enable participants to identify and build evidence of their Strengths. The result being that they can confidently share their Strengths success stories and will be equipped with a positive language to use in applications, interviews and assessment centres (and to help them prepare for interviews and assessment centre in affirmations and other prepping activities).
Strengths-based recruitment has been adopted by many graduate employers over the last 2 decades. Therefore, in addition to the increase in self-awareness, use of the Strengths Profile will help to prepare students and graduates in their job search as it will increase their familiarity of the recruitment language used widely in the UK and beyond.
What do I need?
Contact your Careers & Employability Manager to organise delivery of a Strengths-based card sorting activity within teaching . Or discuss possibilities for the development of new card sorting activity that matches the employability needs of your students.
References and further reading
The role of card sorts in employability learning, Val Butcher
Reflection in Learning and Professional Development: Theory and Practice, Jennifer Moon 2000