Pedagogy for employability - Higher Education Academy

Contents
This guide constitutes a revised and updated version of the Pedagogy for employability publication
first published in 2006. This original publication was produced under the auspices of the Higher
Education Academy and the Enhancing Student Employability Co-ordination Team (ESECT),
and formed part of the Learning and Employability Series, a set of publications offering guidance
and information to staff in higher education institutions involved in the enhancement of student
employability.
This publication has been updated with the practitioner in mind – those teaching in the classroom
and those engaging with policy and student interactions in other ways, such as careers guidance
and learning development workers. Practitioners are our focus, as we discuss the policy and
institutional context that frames the environment within which people work. The early sections of
this publication are intended to illuminate the possibilities and constraints that operate in different
national, institutional and departmental situations, having a direct impact on the way that teaching
and learning takes place between practitioners and students. Case studies of learning and teaching
that support the development of student employability, in the classroom, through distance and
part-time learning and in co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, are provided throughout the
publication. In the later sections of the publication we focus particularly on the curriculum and
learning and teaching practice. You may wish to move around the publication rather than reading
it from start to finish.
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The economic and policy context for the different nations is explained in Section 1 starting
on page 6.
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The different ways that individual institutions have responded to this and the implications for
individual practitioners of the institutional context are discussed in Section 2 starting on
page 10.
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Definitions of employability are discussed in Section 3 starting on page 19.
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The emergence of models for employability development is discussed in Section 4 starting on
page 21.
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Curriculum design and development across departments and courses is discussed in Section 5
starting on page 30. This includes:
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learning and teaching practice;
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assessment;
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work-based and work-related learning;
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staff engagement;
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pedagogy;
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strategy.
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