The opportunities and challenges for employability-related support in STEM degrees

Abstract

This research explores the opportunities and challenges for incorporating employability-related support into STEM (Sciences; Technology; Engineering; Mathematics) degree programmes, based in part on recent research (O’Leary, 2016a) outlining that significant variations in employability-related support exist across the STEM disciplines. These issues were highlighted at a recent conference on STEM pedagogy (O’Leary, 2016b) and this paper explores them in more depth. While O’Leary (2016a) finds that Engineering and Sciences are performing relatively well on employability-support matters, in comparison with Social Sciences and Humanities, there is still room for improvement across STEM programmes. The research suggest that students’ employability can be enhanced through a combination of the content of the curriculum and the development of key student capabilities and characteristics. To achieve this, it is necessary to address several issues; the development of academic staff, the use of external speakers, the provision of business and management expertise, cross-disciplinary approaches and the integration of professional services into the curriculum. In addition, the most effective gains from a cross-Faculty viewpoint may exist in what may seem unlikely liaisons; for effective employability-related support, the Sciences and Humanities think along the same lines; while Social Sciences & Engineering think along another line. Therefore, improvements to the provision of such support may be better achieved by such non-traditional cross-Faculty partnerships. An approach based on the “3E’s” is suggested: Enhanced Learning & Teaching; Employer-engagement; and Embedding into the Curriculum.

The Role of Self-Efficacy as a Mediating Variable in CareerEDGE Employability Model: The Context of Undergraduate Employability in the North-East Region of Nigeria

“…Furthermore, this study found that generic skills were a strong predictor of employability, which is consistent with previous studies [77,79]. Other studies have demonstrated that to gain generic skills, students must constantly practice communicating with others and participating in group activities [80].…”

“…These results confirmed that graduates who secure employment in professions that make good use of the skills and information acquired during their university studies are often successful in the graduate labor market. Furthermore, this study revealed that working experience was a significant predictor of the employability, which is consistent with the previous research of O'Leary [77]. Though the experiences of the graduates in this study were found to vary, they all indicated a significant need for employability-related support to be included in undergraduate degree programs.…”

Student perceptions of quality in higher education: effect of year of study, gender and ethnicity.

“…This suggests that in this university students recognise and value the multiple types of learning experiences offered to them. This matters because teaching methods which encourage complex learning enhances employability (Nicol, 2010;Knight & Yorke, 2003), an expectation of higher education (O'Leary, 2016;Swingler et al, 2016;Blackmore et al, 2016). Students need to understand how important graduate attributes are, acknowledge what skills they are developing through different assignments, activities and tasks, and why it is important that they can demonstrate them (Green et al, 2009).…”

Profile-Relevant Employability of University Graduates: Social Network Data Analysis

“…Во многих странах мира большая доля выпускников трудоустраивается не по профилю образования, что приводит к нехватке специалистов в определенных отраслях и ставит под сомнение эффективность инвестиций государства в образование. Все это объясняет большое количество исследований по всему миру [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] в области трудоустройства выпускников. В России, в частности, также предпринимались серьезные попытки анализа качества трудоустройства выпускников вузов страны и их результаты легко доступны [17][18][19][20].…”