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Emma Foster Donna Lee Holly Snaith

Responding to the employability agenda: Developments in the Politics and International Relations curriculum. Emma Foster Donna Lee Holly Snaith. Background. Social Science early conceptualisation 1997 Dearing Report & skills agenda 2006 Leitch Review of Skills

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Emma Foster Donna Lee Holly Snaith

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  1. Responding to the employability agenda: Developments in the Politics and International Relations curriculum Emma Foster Donna Lee Holly Snaith

  2. Background • Social Science early conceptualisation • 1997 Dearing Report & skills agenda • 2006 Leitch Review of Skills • 2010 Higher Ambitions (BIS) • 2010 ‘Employability statements’ • 2012 KIS data Including DLHE data on average salaries, employability rates, and most common type of jobs

  3. Graduate Employment

  4. Politics/IR Employability • Less than half - less likely than most peers on campus - to secure graduate-level employment • ‘Around a third in ‘elite’ HEIs, can be as low as 30% in some HEIs. • Impact on recruitment? 12.1% (more than 25K) drop in social studies UCAS applications in current

  5. “Fit For Work”: Framing employability • Skills based • ‘all labour market participants should possess to ensure they have the capability of being effective in the workplace’ (CBI, 2009) • Experience based – within curriculum: core skills, assessment, placements • Empowerment based - CV building, interview techniques, PDPs, employability learning

  6. Methodology • Sample of 20 urban English HEIs; 8 ‘elite’ and 12 ‘new’ • Comparative method – allow for various socio-economic impacts on employability • Web pages at university and department level (students’ eye view) • Interviews with academic staff in the departments

  7. Methodology (II) • Interviews (11 so far) – ongoing! • 20-30 minutes, anonymous & unattributed • Some verbal and some written • Web-based – review of webpages for all universities (20) • Thematic analysis of key terms

  8. Key Findings (1)

  9. Key Findings (2)

  10. Tensions & Concerns • Employability as business (neo-liberal) agenda • We teach students (critical) skills employers don’t want? (power relations in workplace) • Student engagement;: apathy, antipathy • Placements – less than 5% student cohort • Limited Resources/ focused around individual staff/ dependence on central support • Non-vocational nature of Politics/IR

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