Dr. Aaron Cooper, University of Reading
09:45 AM to 10:15 AM, BY.01.001.
Biography:
Dr. Aaron Cooper is an Academic Developer at the University of Reading, with experience teaching in both FE and HE sectors. 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’ 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 in learning 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.
Dr. Suresh Gamlath, University of West London
13:30 PM to 14:00 PM, BY.01.001.
Biography:
Dr Suresh Gamlath is Dean of the Claude Littner Business School at the University of West London. He completed his doctoral work on Simulation Gaming and Experiential Learning. He has published and presented research in this field both in the UK and in the US. His industry career was in investment finance where he developed a professional interest in social-impact-investing and environmental funds.
Sustainability, Employability & Education
According to some estimates, 85% of professional roles that graduates in 2030 would be applying for, do not currently exist. This does not necessarily spell the mass extinction of contemporary career roles; however, it does highlight the rapidly changing nature of professions across many industries. Students, therefore, would need to be prepared to transition into a fast-moving career landscape. Sustainability offers one such example in present time. Professional roles in sustainability are being created at a rate faster than they are being filled and outpacing the speed with which education systems can adapt. The trend is global, across sectors and encompasses major disciplinary and professional areas.
Embedding sustainability skills into the curriculum and linking them to employability is needed to prepare graduates more effectively for career opportunities and new sustainability-based work environments. Universities are important sites for resolving uncertainties about climate change and gaining a critically reasoned perspective on environmental and social issues. For pedagogy to be effective in preparing students for sustainability-based careers, it must be transformative, values-based and should challenge existing norms. Students must be engaged in thinking about complex systems, using real-world-based learning.
This talk examines contemporary trends in sustainability-based careers. It contributes to the critical discussion on relevant policies; and offers thoughts on strategies to integrate sustainability into the curriculum.
