A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

110 ❘
Teaching, supervising, learning
are required to reflect on module skills and attributes, possibly through personal
development plans.
• Students are made aware of exactly how the skills and attributes practised in a module
are relevant in dissertation or project research, and work placements.
• The value placed on the acquisition of skills and processes as well as knowledge is
recognised through the assessment of the majority of skills.
• Every level 1 undergraduate can articulate the skills gained in each module in their
curriculum vitae and letter of application for a vacation or term-time job.
• Every level 2 and 3 undergraduate is aware of and knows how to use the skills and
attributes from a module as evidenced in a curriculum vitae and letter of application,
and has had an opportunity to articulate these skills as practise for an interview.
• Taught and research postgraduate students can articulate the skills gained in
their curriculum vitae and letters of application for a graduate, vacation or termtime
job.
• Research postgraduate students understand that being able to articulate the skills
gained through their research training and research experience, in their curriculum
vitae and letters of application, will help to secure graduate employment in university
and non-university sectors.
OVERVIEW AND CONCLUSION
This chapter has emphasised the benefits to students of being consciously aware of how
they approach tasks as well as the knowledge that they gain from them. It argues that the
ability to reflect on how you operate will both benefit current degree performance and
build lifelong learning skills.
It suggests that tuning the curriculum (Knight and Yorke, 2004: 179) through many
small-scale, awareness-raising activities and employability-aware reflection can be very
powerful. In addition, specialist modules may be offered. While this is an important and
valuable approach it runs the risk of being a packaged unit, with students missing the
broader relevance of all modules to their employment and lifelong learning. As curricula
evolve, whole modules are more vulnerable as staff move to other projects, whereas
embedded discussion and reflection on module-learning processes and skills are likely
to survive for the long term.
Generally it is thought that graduates will be more effective in the workplace and make
a greater impact in their careers if lifelong learning skills and deep learning are part of
their practice. Many degrees prompt the development of these approaches, students have
some autonomy and responsibility for their own learning (Boud, 1988), and there is shift
towards the tutor as adviser and facilitator (Stanier, 1997). University learning may be
moving in ways that help employability, but do students realise that there is a change, and
do they appreciate the value of reflecting on how they learn as well as what is learned?
Methods for integrating engagement must be backed up by positive support from the
teaching community. Researching a career opportunity is as effective a way of practising