Supporting DD102 Students to Develop the ‘Reflection on and Articulation of Employability Skills’

• Project Team: Ieman Hassan
• Subject Discipline: Social Sciences and Global Studies
• Theme: Employability/Careers
• Project Aim: Enhances employability and career progression
• Status: Complete
• Date: July 2018 to July 2020

The project aims are to draw on employability guidance to enable ALs through a practitioner enquiry to ‘make the components of employability explicit to students’ in order to further ‘support students in articulating their skills, values and behaviours gained and developed through their study at the OU’ (Employability Framework Draft, November 2017).

Impacts and Uses

• to extend opportunities for DD102 students to articulate their skills, values and behaviours gained and developed through their OU study as a way to improve student experience and increase student retention.
• Through a practitioner enquiry each DD102 AL will develop ways to explore their support to new Level 1 social science students in ways that demonstrate their role in making components of employability explicit to students with the impact on retention.
• Enable ALs to clarify their role in making components of employability explicit to students and the point at which they should refer students for careers guidance.

Overall Outcomes

• To improve student experience through increased promotion of the articulation of employability skills, attitudes and behaviours.
• Increase AL understanding of the link between articulation of employability skills, attitudes and behaviours and student retention.