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Curriculum Design Toolkit – Integrated Curriculum for Employability
September 2017 saw the launch of a new Employability Plan, which can be found on this blog, on the Delivering our Employability Plan page. The plan was developed in response to the University vision to be the world’s leading applied university and to ensure a step change in performance by 2020. To find further data on the university’s current position, visit The Source, the University’s insight and data portal.
It is essential, in order to support the Employability Plan, to ensure that Career Readiness, Digital Skills for Employability and opportunities for Applied Learning (Live Projects and Enterprise), which are the elements to assist successful graduate employability outcomes, are incorporated within curriculum design. These are the foundation of the Highly Skilled Employment (H.S.E) agenda and as such reflect the curriculum design principles of the Hallam Model. More information can be found on the Hallam Model Sharepoint Site.
This Integrated Curriculum for Employability Toolkit aims to provide learning activities for Career Readiness, Applied Learning and Digital Skills for Employability that are designed to be used with any discipline subject. These learning activities span the whole student journey through their H.S.E modules. The following video and text describe the Integrated Curriculum for Employability toolkit in more detail.
The journey starts with activities for Open Days, where we encourage our prospective learners to be curious about their chosen discipline in practice, about higher education and where it can take them and about the possibilities of the digital world in relation to their course subject.
The next stop is Pre-Arrival and Welcome Week – Transition into Sheffield Hallam, where you can find details of the on-line transition model. This innovative model has been designed to give new learners an authentic context to a topic from their subject discipline. It involves learners undertaking authentic tasks and apply their own knowledge and experiences. Finally, a link to professional practise is provided through video interviews with professionals who put the topic into a real-world context. Presenting three simple steps called~ Orientate, Apply, Connect.
Then, into Level Four where we offer learning activities to support the student’s first steps into real world application of their discipline-subject, which is often experienced through a Live Project supported by the University’s Venture Matrix team. Other learning activities offer ideas for you to help develop student’s self-aware and to be open to exploring new ideas; along with digital technologies that benefit their studies, work and life situations.
The Short Placement at Level Five is where students experience real-world performance and professional practice, they delve into and relate self to the wider world and get the opportunity to use digital applications in a professional context. We offer learning activities that help you prepare your students for their Short Placement experience, whether this be with an employer or exploring their own business ideas on an Enterprise Residency. We also provide a Virtual Short Placement Learning Resource that can support your students whilst carrying out their work experience.
The Toolkit also provides learning activities that will help you get your students ready for their Sandwich Placement (Applied Professional Diploma) including a Virtual Sandwich Placement Learning Resource that can support your students whilst carrying out their work experience.
The Toolkit offers insightful learning activities for you to build upon the student’s level 5 Short Placement and/or Sandwich Placements experience. These Level 6/Level 7 (Integrated Masters) learning activities help your students capitalise on the professional connections they have built, plan and take professional career steps.
At Level 7 (stand alone Masters) our learning activities suggest how you can help your students become the professional they want to be in their chosen field and build on their professional identity.
In addition, we also provide a Transition Model framework to help you support students make a positive transition through each academic year. The discipline-subject is at the heart of this framework with the student’s work experience used as a tool to assist them in their reflection on their learning journey from year to year.
The materials have been informed by colleagues from the areas of Careers, Applied Learning (Live Projects and Enterprise) and the Digital Skills team. Although, we are always there on hand to support our colleagues in the Colleges, our aim is that this site becomes a Community of Practice, where we can support each other in transforming the lives of our students and preparing them for their lives beyond University.
Find out more about what these elements of H.S.E are, the models that inform them and how they look in practice via the links below: