Integrating Key Skills in Higher Education

Employability, Transferable Skills and Learning for Life

Stephen Fallows, Christine Steven

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781135377656
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This text addresses both the issues and practicalities of key skills in higher education. It discusses the issues relating to the introduction of key skills, drawing on both the arguments and theory of why key skills should (or should not) be introduced. Case study material is included.

Part 1

Introduction to skills

1

The skills agenda

Stephen Fallows and Christine Steven

University of Luton
UK

INTRODUCTION

This book addresses issues that surround the skills debates that are current in higher education. Much of the content reflects the situation in the United Kingdom, since that is the location of the editors and the majority of contributors; however, contributions from the United States and from Australia serve to illustrate that the issues are global and the solutions transferable.

This chapter reviews the ‘skills agenda’ and begins by considering the reasons for the implementation of skills development programmes for students in higher education. It then considers the points of debate that have been common in institutions that have considered adopting or have adopted a skills development programme.

The chapter recognizes that for many of the points raised on the skills agenda there can be no definitive correct answer. The agenda sets the scene for debate within individual institutions; each has to consider the issues against such local matters as:

• nature of the student population (for instance school leavers or mature returners);
• management/organizational arrangements;
• diversity of courses offered;
• financial status of the institution;
• location of the institution;
• particular national priorities.

The intention is to give readers the necessary information from which to compile appropriate questions when the skills issue is addressed.

THE EXTERNAL CONTEXT

Internationally, the nature of higher education in modern universities is changing extremely rapidly as institutions are forced to take account of a number of major external factors. The developments described in this book derive from a number of such external factors.

• There is increasing international recognition that the transition from higher education to employment is not always straightforward. In the United Kingdom, the considerable increase in the number of students passing through the higher education system (Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), annual publication (a)) now means that the competition for established positions in traditional ‘graduate employment’ and the professions is fierce. As a consequence, the range and variety of jobs into which graduates are moving is becoming increasingly diverse.
  It is only a small minority of graduates who are able to gain employment that directly utilizes the academic content of their higher education curriculum (HESA, annual publication (b)). In some disciplines this fact is recognized from the outset by the students (for instance, very few students studying philosophy expect to gain full-time employment as a philosopher). However, for other disciplines there will be at least an initial expectation of directly related employment and students may take some time to recognize that their vocationally related degree may not lead to employment in the area. Unfortunately, academic staff, who by definition have gained employment within their discipline, may be the last to recognize this point.
  The above point applies regardless of the students' level of maximum attainment. School leavers do not expect to use directly the material studied at school when they get a job, but graduates often do and PhD graduates have often undertaken this qualification with the express purpose of gaining entry to often very limited job opportunities.
  Similarly, it is recognized in the UK that many new graduates may take as long as three years to reach employment at what they consider to be at graduate level (Connor et al, 1997, Elias et al, 1999). This situation applies to a wide variety of graduates and not only to those whose academic discipline does not have any obvious link to a particular job. Even those with vocationally related degrees can find that the possession of current technical expertise is insufficient to overcome the lack of practical on-the-job experience. Such statistics are repeated worldwide.
• It is increasingly recognized that, regardless of the subjects that are studied, the academic curriculum is essentially a vehicle through which other graduate attributes are delivered. Many of these attributes are largely constant regardless of the subject studied. For example, the essential information retrieval and analysis skills required to prepare a review of the background literature to a topic do not essentially differ from archaeology to zoology; similarly, these skills are directly transferable into a wide range of employment.
  As above, this point can be applied regardless of the students' level of maximum attainment. The PhD can be considered to be the pinnacle of student academic achievement; it is also a demonstration of the application of a wide range of skills to a particularly high standard.
• The world of employment is also changing rapidly. Permanence is no longer a significant feature: established career paths have disappeared as businesses have adopted a flatter management structure; entire industries have relocated to other areas of the world; and new technologies have made established practice and experience irrelevant.
  However, the story is not completely gloomy. New industries, often but not always technology-driven, have emerged as major employers: illustrative technology-based examples include the personal computer and mobile telephone industries. Similarly, many of those in employment today are engaged in jobs that simply did not exist 20 or even 10 years ago. As the pace of change continues to accelerate, new jobs, not yet thought of, will emerge with increasing rapidity whilst old jobs will inevitably disappear.
• Graduates are increasingly expected to ‘hit the ground running’. The proportion of new graduates who will be given the chance to spend per haps months ‘learning the ropes’ as graduate trainees is already much reduced and this proportion will decline still further. This fact will become increasingly apparent as the number of new graduates joining small to medium enterprises (SMEs) continues to rise. SMEs are already the main engines of growth in the UK economy and provide around 45 per cent of non-government jobs (Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), 1999). It has been suggested that SMEs will become the main employers of graduates and it has been estimated that in the very near future as many as 70 per cent of vacancies filled by graduates will be in these organizations (Bradford, 1999).

Each of the above points is a major consideration in the notion of a need for the population to be flexible and prepared for a lifetime of change and personal development. This fact is particularly true for graduates who will be expected to be the leaders of change rather than followers.

The concept of ‘lifelong learning’ is now central to official UK government thinking within the combined Department for Education and Employment (DfEE). The current (Labour) UK government has recognized that we now must live in a ‘Learning Age’ (DfEE, 1998) in which it will be the norm to engage in retraining and personal development throughout working life.

Similarly, the European Commission has for some time recognized the need to establish a ‘Learning Society’ which 1) takes account of the rapid changes that are taking place in Europe due to the internationalization of trade, the move to an information society and developments in science and technology, and 2) utilizes education and training to provide solutions through a mix of formal qualifications and personal skills (European Commission, 1995).

Higher education in particular must provide its graduates with the skills to be able to operate professionally within the environment required for the ‘Learning Age’ or ‘Learning Society’. The UK National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (Dearing Commission, 1997) noted that:

… institutions of higher education [should] begin immediately to develop, for each programme they offer a ‘programme specification’ which… gives the intended outcomes of the programme in terms of:

the knowledge and understanding that a student will be expected to have on completion;

key skills: communication, numeracy, the use of information technology and learning how to learn;

cognitive skills, such as an understanding of methodologies or ability in critical analysis;

subject specific skills, such as laboratory skills.

The Dearing recommendation reflects the views of employer organizations. Research conducted in the United Kingdom for the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) (1995) stressed the need for graduates to become self-reliant and able to take responsibility for their own careers. The AGR noted that many of the skills required of the self-reliant graduate were also those required of the self-reliant learner; the AGR thus concluded that there would be benefits within higher education from the promulgation of such capabilities.

The Higher Education and Employment Division of the DfEE noted in a Briefing Paper published in November 1997 that:

… studies of employer needs have repeatedly stressed the priority which they give to ‘personal transferable skills’. When they recruit graduates they are typically seeking individuals not only with specific skills and knowledge, but with the ability to be proactive, to see and respond to problems creatively and autonomously, and all the predicted trends in the world of employment suggest that these pressures will increase.

The DfEE agrees with the AGR that there is no conflict between the development of skills for employment and the development of skills for learning:

The processes which make learning effective in a changing higher education also develop the qualities which are needed in the changing workplace.

The above text draws largely upon the authors' observations in the United Kingdom. However, it has to be recognized that the UK experience is not unique; the observations can be made in many if not all countries around the world. The observations can be distilled down to the following four key statements:

• A degree is not an immediate passport to a ‘graduate-level’ position.
• Most graduates do not directly utilize the content of their degree curriculum during employment.
• The degree curriculum is a means through which students can gain a range of skills that can be considered to be the key attributes of a graduate.
• All graduates must be ready for lifelong learning.

AN AGENDA FOR DEBATE

The above paragraphs indicate a clear demand for students to be provided with a range of skills that will equip them for their transfer from the world of education into the world of work. The next section addresses questions such as:

• What is meant by the general term ‘skills’?
• What are the university's responsibilities?
• How should these responsibilities be met?

The answers to these questions are not straightforward and there can be no simple answers. The case examples that are presented in subsequent chapters provide verification that a range of different approaches are viable and fit for the purpose of addressing skills requirements.

What is meant by the general term ‘skills’?

From the outset it must be recognized that there is no definitive definition that may be applied in all situations. Neither is there a single, universally accepted terminology:

• ‘Skills necessary for employment and for life as a responsible citizen’ – this seems to sum up what the numerous skills programmes are seeking. To the authors' knowledge, no institution utilizes this descriptive phrase.
• ‘Transferable skills’ – this is a term in common parlance within education. The implication in the term is that skills developed within one situation (education) are also useful when transferred into another situation (employment). (One trick to make this a correct assumption is to consider what is needed in a work situation and then apply this back into education – that is utilize a process that may be termed ‘reverse transfer’. For example, it is recognized that the skill of writing reports, rather than essays, is valued by employers; so base certain of the assessments on report writing.)
• ‘Key skills’ – the word ‘key’ in this context is generally taken in the context of being important. However, the word has a useful second meaning as an instrument used to release a lock; this can be considered as a useful metaphor as these skills might help to ‘unlock the doors’ to employment.
• ‘Common skills’ – ‘common’ in this context refers to the universal nature of these skills: they are relevant to each and every student regardless of discipline and can be demonstrated within all programmes.
• ‘Core skills’ – here the implication is that the skills have to be central to the stu...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Notes on contributors
• Preface
• Part 1: Introduction to skills
• Part 2: Skills implementation – case examples
• Part 3: Conclusions
• Part 4: Guidance on ‘How to…’
• Appendix 1: Contributors' contact details
• Index