Employability: learning through partnership with employers

Description

Income generation, work-related
learning, PDP, employability, learning organisations. Can all these concepts be
linked? They can be and are as this resource for staff developers shows. The
publication is a result of experience drawn from working on a number of
projects. It shows how working with employers can create opportunities, which
can support learning for individuals, organisations and academic communities,
for example.We all recognise that work placements can provide a wealth of
learning for students, but they can also be exploited to create valuable
learning opportunities for staff, employers and departments. The publication
suggests how this might be managed and supported by staff developers, managers
and organisations using examples from practice. Work placements form only one
aspect of a whole range of work-related learning activity that forms part of a
progression of experience which can be focused under the terms PDP and
employability. The paper suggests a series of models and tools to support
discussion and the embedding of these concepts. Often the responsibility for
supporting new initiatives such as those around placements, employability, and
collaboration with employers is left with isolated individuals in the field. The
text explores how this might be brought into the systems and processes of the
organisation in order to secure valuable knowledge and experience for the
organisation. It offers case studies and ideas for how staff developers might
support this.

Aimed primarily at staff and education developers, but also of value to academic departments and managers, this text is a resource offering ideas, models and tools for exploring and embedding some of the most keenly debated issues around how we can bring employers into higher education and make employability a living part of academic activity.