Objective:
⢠Demonstrate individual skills to inspire and guide them towards achieving professional goals with confidence.
⢠Understand how employability skills can be transferred.
⢠Identify and articulate how students can advance their understanding of knowledge, skills, and behaviours from an employability perspective.
⢠Examine and evaluate their own professional identity and how to evolve and establish themselves as professionals.
⢠Develop their skills and knowledge to discover career prospects and personal progression.
Overview: These activities will focus on developing a studentsâ proficiency to critically self-assess. This will assist students to identify existing knowledge, skills, and behaviour they and plan for their individual development to inform their professional practice and career aspirations. The activities were split into 4 1-hour seminars/workshops over a 3-day period.
Activity: The delivery of the activities features informality and discussion, requiring students to have a proactive approach to their learning.
As a facilitator of learning, teachers/lecturers should adopt a student-centric approach to the planned activities to enable them to form their own professional identity. Sequentially, the students will be given opportunities to integrate their existing knowledge and experiences and explore these with the tutor and fellow students. The content is designed to provide a semi-structured environment where students can examine their personal and professional identity to determine their career goals. The activity will develop the students understanding of skills, knowledge, and âProfessional Identityâ across a variety of disciplines. Students will actively explore their own interpersonal skills and knowledge, facilitated by practitioner/academic. Throughout the planned activities, students should reflect on experiences along with critical exploration of their career trajectory. Students are to practically apply their own experiences in a collaborative environment providing them with opportunities to discover and showcase their abilities to one another and to prospective employers to enable them to success beyond the classroom environment. Introduction- 15 mins The tutor will begin with a short introduction about the induction workshop and offer opportunities for students to introduce themselves.
Activity 1- 30 minutes The tutor will provide sticky notes where students will identify their own skills and knowledge and how this impacts behaviour. Offering a visual, students can then stick these to the board to provide an indication of their prior and existing knowledge. tutor led discussion to follow ensuring peers assess their peers skills and knowledge in comparison to their own.
Student Led Discussion - 30 Mins Using an interactive whiteboard, students will then explore the connections and differences between skills, knowledge, and behaviours. Students will be provided with a case study (available on the PowerPoint) to demonstrate the practicalities of this in a workplace environment and how these can be developed.
Define and discuss â 15 Mins The tutor will present and discuss different skills and attributes employers look for in candidates. Students will be encouraged to cross examine these with their own skills and knowledge. Student should explore how these can be developed beyond the classroom environment.
Explore and discuss â 15 Mins Students are asked to explore options of their âdream jobâ and identify key listings on a job advertisement â this can also pre set as a prerequisite. Websites include Indeed, Glassdoor, LinkedIn ect Tutor Led micro lecture â 20 Mins Students are introduced to the topic âappropriate organisational researchâ where they can make identify key areas of interest. Tutors should allow student to explore the organisation they identified a job advert from and their competitors.
Activity 2- 30 minutes Students are asked to create an infographic (individually or in small groups) using Canva about the job advert they identified including their requirement. They should include a section of what their competitors are doing and the pros and cons for working for that company.
Induction Week Reflections: 30-40 minutes or a self-study task Students were provided a gapped handout for reflecting their learnings from the teaching and exploration taken place in the classroom environment. This should be used to create a PDP and identify key actions for development whilst studying. Skill Development: As well as independent working and collaboration, student should continue to build core relationships with their peers and academics. Active encouragement of reflective journaling throughout the activities provides the student with exploratory opportunities that influence their decisions of career development. Students should acknowledge what skills and behaviours they possess and how they wish to develop these. Student should actively be encouraged to evaluate their own competencies to determine their perceived level and how to implement an action plan.
Resources: ⢠Post-it notes and pens ⢠Projector/screen for tutor prompts/PowerPoint presentation ⢠Interactive whiteboard ⢠Gapped handout of Gibbsâ Reflective Cycle ⢠Desktop/laptop and internet access.
References: Links to websites (resources) have been provided in the attached presentations Word  and Slide Deck followed by Week 2 slide deck as PDF
Key Readings to enhance student learning:
- Kolb, DA (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
- Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods. Oxford Polytechnic: Oxford
- SchĂśn, A., D. (1991) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. Aldershot: Ashgate