Dr. Aaron Cooper is an Academic Developer at the University of Reading, with experience teaching in both FE and HE sectors.
09:45 AM to 10:15 AM, BY.01.001.
Biography:
Aaron also spent a number of years in the civil service as a senior social scientist, developing educational programmes and acting as liaison to contracted HE institutions.
Aaron’s current responsibility for enabling curriculum enhancement across the University includes work on portfolio review, embedding the Curriculum Framework, Employability, Education for Sustainable Development, quality enhancement, the accredited CPD scheme, and developing appropriate processes for evaluating impact.
Embedding Employability in the Subject Curriculum: Practical insights on how to please as many people as possible.
Context: There has been growing pressure on the Higher Education sector to develop employable graduates. This pressure has largely been driven by government narratives around value and impact but is now also coming from students as a result of changes to university funding and associated evolving expectation. The metrics for employability only serve to compound the problem in that it is defined as the immediate destination and measured by collating graduate outcomes. These metrics are of course unhelpfully influenced by dozens of other variables out of the control of higher education institutions and crucially they offer no clue as to the practical steps we can take as educators to generate the meaningful development that underpins those positive outcomes.
Challenge: It is no surprise therefore that this can result in disjointed approaches to employability. Without a clear vision for how employability aims sit naturally within the core business of subject specific teaching and learning, it is often rejected as the responsibility of school departments at all, or sub-contracted to support services to run solely as extra or co-curricular activities. This is unhelpful in that it leads to an artificial separation of subject learning and its potential application; further reinforcing the idea that employability is outcomes over development.
Solution: This talk looks at how the answer is in the curriculum, harnessing the power of subject learning to develop graduates confident in their ability to see the world in unique ways. It focusses on the need for a coherent approach to employability that does not separate subject knowledge and its application. Drawing on experiences at the University of Reading it will explore practical ways of generating a collaborative approach that incorporates input from colleagues, students and industry to explicitly and organically embed employability inlearning outcomes, teaching strategies and authentic assessment. Finally the session will cover all important attempts to evaluate the process, and generate meaningful impact statements at the level of development and empowerment rather than outcome.
Professor Anthony Woodman is Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost for Health at the University of West London (UWL) with a remit to drive research, enterprise, and innovation, internationalisation, partnerships, and employability.
13:30 PM to 14:00 PM, BY.01.001.
Biography:
Previously Anthony was Professor of Translation Medicine at Cranfield University, joining the University of West London in October 2011. His research discipline is molecular oncology and specifically the development and implementation of diagnostic and prognostic platforms informing care and management of cancer patients globally.
Driven to deliver transformational education, in 2019 Anthony established the School of Biomedical Sciences at UWL. This new school was built on promoting diversity in the Biomedical Sciences and particularly to encourage the continuum from undergraduate study to postgraduate research. Following the acquisition of Ruskin College, Oxford by UWL in July 21, Anthony is also supporting the resurgence of Ruskin as a beacon institution for opportunity irrespective to background.
“Supporting our students to achieve a degree isn’t enough: Transformational education must transform careers”
In early 2012 the Board of Governors at the University of West London (UWL) endorsed a proposal for all our full-time undergraduate students to be provided with meaningful work experience or placement as part of their course – The Career University because a trailblazer.
The journey UWL has undertaken over the last 10 years has been challenging and rewarding but above all has and continues to transform the lives of our students, graduates, and the wider communities we serve.
This journey is an outstanding example of how an ecosystem within UWL was established which brought the initial concept to life, refined it and ensured 1000 of UWL graduates are in rewarding positions.
In this keynote, I will review the milestones overcome – from establishing Placement and Employment Services to refocusing validation events and establishing industrial advisory panels through to volunteering and graduate internships – all through the lens of “Supporting our students to achieve a degree isn’t enough: Transformational education must transform careers”.
