Royal Veterinary College - Employability

“Embedding Employability into the BSc Curriculum”
HEA funded SEP October 2014 – July 2015
Charlotte Lawson, Claire Russell, Gemma Ludgate, Alistair Spark, Imelda
McGonnell, Mike Whelan, Rachel Lawrence, Chantal Chenu, David Bishop-Bailey,
Charlotte Burn, Michael Waters, Kirsty Fox, Donald Palmer
Student Reps: Matthew Weir and Elizabeth Myers
[email protected]
RVC Strategic Plan 2014-2019
Aim of the project: to increase students’ awareness of their
employability (or “graduateness”)
Objectives for the project:
1. To develop an online questionnaire “employability health check” for students to take at
different stages of the course and mapping of the BSc curriculum to employability attributes
First year – awareness
Second year – application
Third year - articulation
2. To develop an online reflective tool – the ePortfolio
for students to reflect on acquisition of employability skills,
to be used as part of the tutorial system,
to provide space in the cloud to gather evidence for future employers or
postgraduate providers
3. To capture baseline data
Current awareness of employability in our BSc students;
The desired attributes in new graduates from post graduate employers /study
providers and how our graduates perform compared to those from other courses
Values and skills our alumni feel they gained from our BSc programme
Long term goals for the project (five year plan)
To roll out employability health check and ePortfolio across all
UG and PG courses;
Develop KPI based on baseline data from undergraduates,
alumni and employers;
Continued development of our online tools, tutor and mentor
capabilities in employability, and careers advice tailored for our
students;
Increase graduate level employment for all RVC new graduates
and ultimately ensure that they are able to pursue their career
goals and aspirations as they change over time.
Outputs
• Interviews and focus groups to gather baseline
data
• Development of Employability Healthchecks
for all years of the BSc, extended to Masters
programmes and developing PGR version
• Development of ePortfolio available to
everyone with an rvc email
• First cohorts have taken the EHC.
RVC ePortfolio
https://rvc4life.rvc.ac.uk/eportfolio/
Employability skills
Attitudes
Skills development
Capability for career self
management
Subject specific skills
Locus of control
Digital skills
Opportunity analysis
Analytical and problem solving
Goal setting
Effective written and oral
communication
Online presence
Research design and methods
Growth mind-set
Team working
Career decision making
Numeracy
Resilience
Leadership
Relevant professional
experience
Presentation skills
Skills self-awareness
Organisation/time management
CVs and applications
Ethical issues, legislation and best
practice
Values Self-awareness
Creative thinking
Interviewing
Scientific integrity
Emotional intelligence
Attention to detail
networking
Practical skills and H and S good
practice
Employability Health Check
https://learn.rvc.ac.uk/mod/quiz/attempt.php?attempt=259426
***
**
*
BSc1 EHC data October 2015
Locus of control
Attitudes
Goal setting
Growth mind-set
Resilience
Values self-awareness
Skills self-awareness
Emotional intelligence
Opportunity analysis
Career decision making
Online presence
Capabilities
Attributes
Relevant professional experience
CVs and applications
Interviewing
Networking
Digital skills
Effective written and oral communication
Leadership
Transferable
skills
Team working
Organisation/ Time management
Creative thinking
Attention to detail
Research and design methods
Analytical and problem solving skills
Subject
specific skills
Numeracy
Presentation skills
Ethical issues and scientific integrity
0
10
50
0
Practical skills and health and safety good practice
BSc2 EHC data October 2015
***
**
*
Locus of control
Goal setting
Attitudes
Growth mind-set
Resilience
Values self-awareness
Skills self-awareness
Emotional intelligence
Opportunity analysis
Career decision making
Online presence
Capabilities
Attributes
Relevant professional experience
CVs and applications
Interviewing
Networking
Digital skills
Effective written and oral communication
Leadership
Transferable
skills
Team working
Organisation/ Time management
Creative thinking
Attention to detail
Research and design methods
Analytical and problem solving skills
Numeracy
Subject
specific skills
Presentation skills
Ethical issues and scientific integrity
40
30
20
10
0
Practical skills and health and safety good practice
Ongoing/Future plans
• Better join-up of Year 2 and Year 3 careers weeks and
tutorials to ensure that there is good signposting of
careers, career planning
• students have the opportunity to develop their
employability skills with support and signposting
• Use of ePortfolio is encouraged for group work and
archiving of practical write-ups
• Students encouraged to retake EHC during the
academic year to enable reflection on development of
employability skills
Lessons Learned/sharing good practice
• Utilised a cross services working group structure (academics,
student support, registry, eMedia, educational researchers) with
student involvement at every level
• Enabled the project to proceed at a very fast pace
• This structure will be used in future projects to enhance the student
experience within the RVC.
• Our team was a core group of members and we co-opted further
expertise at relevant stages of the project.
• Having key contributors to the project being utilised at different
stages helped the project to move forward with but also having a
core team helped to maintain an overview of the project ensuring
that it has achieved its aims.