Learning to Work

Enhancing employability and enterprise in Scottish further and higher

education

Contents

Foreword from the Chief Executive

Introduction

Executive summary

Section one: employability and enterprise in context

Section two: meeting stakeholders needs

15

Section three: a shared responsibility

22

Section four: putting it into practice

25

Section five: conclusions and issues for debate

37

Bibliography

40

Foreword from the Chief Executive

A key purpose of education is to improve the life chances of learners by
developing their knowledge, skills and attitudes. For almost all learners, life
chances depend greatly on how well they are equipped for the world of work.
More than ever before, people will have to manage their own career
development and be prepared to keep on learning if they are to be effective in
their chosen occupations.
The success of our nation depends on this flexibility, capability and creativity
in the workforce. Lifelong learning has a pivotal role to play in meeting the
needs of individuals as they progress through their careers and, in doing so,
in meeting the needs of society and the economy.
Learning to Work presents ideas for learners, educators and employers to
work together to create new and better learning experiences. We believe that
this means consciously rethinking the learning experiences we provide to
equip learners to meet the challenges that they will face in the 21st century as
society, the economy, the labour market, technology and the environment
change.
This paper is the product of development work undertaken by a team from our
Learning Policy and Strategy Directorate, led by Helen Gibson. The team
could not have developed it without help from a wide range of people who
have brought their own experience and perspectives to bear on the subject.
We would like to thank all those who have contributed to and greatly enriched
our understanding and thinking in relation to the issues explored in this paper.
I hope Learning to Work will help to stimulate further debate and, more
importantly, help to move the debate forward towards a shared agenda for
action.

Roger McClure
Chief Executive

Introduction
Employability is a word used widely (and increasingly) in government,
employment and education circles, but there is often little consensus about
what it means.
Even within the post-16 education sector, the word employability is associated
with a range of things, including:

post-course success rates in employment;

matching supply of provision with demand from industry/employers;

something that we do anyway after all, the vocational curriculum

is designed with employers needs in mind;

core or transferable skills;

enterprise skills;

something that the careers advisors deal with; and

an enforced government agenda that is inconsistent with academic

values and so on.

Enterprise, too, is used differently in different contexts. Within education,

some people use it to describe a can-do, will-do attitude; while others use it
in a more specific context, for example to describe the skills and attributes
learnt from trying to set up a business.
This paper aims to:

propose a definition for employability and enterprise in the context

of further and higher education;

challenge some common assumptions and show how employability

and enterprise can fit within the context of the wider purposes of
education; and

offer some thoughts on a more holistic approach for further and

higher education, which integrates many of these aspects within a
core framework embedded in the whole learning experience.

Much of the thinking presented in this paper is not new: in some institutions,
in some subject areas, the approaches that we discuss have been
commonplace for years whether or not they are recognised explicitly for
their contribution to employability and enterprise. But in some areas it is
patchy.
We hope that this paper will provide a focus for the development of a common
understanding of what employability and enterprise are about, and that it will

stimulate further discussion and debate about how further and higher
education, together with employers and other partners, can contribute even
more effectively to enhancing their learners future prospects, whatever their
background and aspirations.
This paper has been developed through a series of discussions and focus
groups involving around 100 individual stakeholders in Scottish further and
higher education and industry, and through a review of the literature available.
Many of the fundamental ideas and principles that emerged from these
discussions and focus groups were mirrored in a suite of research papers
published by the Learning and Teaching Support Network (for higher
education) around the same time, and this is reflected in the paper.
This paper encapsulates our thinking at this time. We intend to use it to guide
our own policy development in related areas and as a basis for creative
discussion and debate with representatives from further and higher education
institutions, industry, the student body and other parties who share
responsibility for this agenda.
We think the next step is a wide debate about the issues in this paper,
hopefully leading to a shared agenda for action.

Executive summary
Employability is about an individuals chances of progressing into and through
the labour market successfully, according to what they choose to do.
A persons employability at any one time depends on a combination of their
own skills, understandings and attributes and external factors and
circumstances.
The knowledge economy demands an increasingly highly-skilled, creative
and flexible workforce. Change is the only certainty for individuals in todays
labour market, and individuals need to be prepared to manage that change
effectively.
Although the labour market in Scotland appears to be working reasonably
well, there are some areas where improvements could be targeted. These
include gaps in adult basic skills, gaps in the soft skills and competences that
the labour market needs, concerns in some parts of Scotland about graduate
underemployment, the low business start-up rate in Scotland and the
increasing importance of upskilling and retraining because of demographic
change.
Learners are the main stakeholders in further and higher education, and most
learners have employability as one of their objectives. So it follows that one
of the primary objectives of colleges and higher education institutions must be
to help learners enhance their employability, building on their previous
experience, and to give learners opportunities to develop enterprising skills
and attitudes. Employers, society and government are also key stakeholders,
which emphasises the importance of equipping learners to meet the needs of
society and the economy.
There is a common perception that employability is about making available
learning provision which meets the specific training needs of employers and
industry. This is true. But it is far more than that. It is also about developing
capable people who can manage their own career development and who will
be effective in their chosen occupation as employers, employees or
entrepreneurs.
This is as much about skills and attributes (attitudes and values) as it is about
knowledge and understanding. Attributes are perhaps the most crucial of
these. Without a personal vision, positive self-belief and the motivation to
learn, a persons chances of improving their prospects is likely to be limited.
There is a strong overlap between employability and enterprise, although they
are not the same thing. Enterprising people draw on many of the skills and
attributes that are considered to be core to a persons employability, but they
are also characterised by a particular ability to create ideas, take risks and
turn those ideas into reality.
Many of the skills and attributes that make for effectiveness in the workplace
cannot be taught (in the traditional sense of the word), but they can be

learned, with the right kind of support. Much of this is already implicit in the
learning experience throughout further and higher education but is not
always recognised explicitly for its contribution to enhancing learners
employability, or consciously built into the learning experience with that
purpose in mind.
We can see from this that employability is not the same as employment. FE
and HE institutions should measure their success in meeting this objective in
qualitative terms, not simply by employment statistics.
We conclude that in order to enhance their employability, learners need to:

have the motivation and the tools to make effective and informed
choices about learning, training and employment throughout their
lives;

build up their achievements their knowledge and understandings,

skills and attributes in ways that are relevant to the labour market;

learn how to recognise their achievements and understand how

these are relevant to the labour market; and

learn how to understand employers needs, and how to make their

achievements relevant to employers.

Much of this applies as much to enterprise as it does to employability

although for those learners who aspire to set up and/or run a venture,
understanding how to bring a product to the marketplace is of more immediate
interest than understanding how to market their own abilities to employers.
It is important to recognise, in this context as much as in any other, that every
learner will be at a different stage in their life/career, and equally their needs
both practical and educational will be varied.
The learning experience can help learners enhance their employability and
develop enterprising skills and attitudes in several ways:

by consciously redesigning the learning experience in ways that

enable learners to acquire (and recognise) the skills and attributes
that are valuable in the world of work;

by consciously redesigning what we teach, how we teach it and

how we assess learners progress to support this agenda;

by providing opportunities for learners to gain, and learn from, workrelated experience outside the classroom;

by helping learners to increase their awareness of what they have

learned from their experiences and how they can use that as a tool
for managing their own learning and career development; and

through career education, information and guidance.

This is not the sole responsibility of the academic or other staff in institutions
(or educators). It requires a partnership approach, the three key players
being learners, educators and employers although ultimately the
responsibility for their development has to lie with the learners themselves.
This is a challenging agenda, particularly in terms of what it means for
curriculum design, assessment and the greater integration of experiential
opportunities into the learning experience. But there is a lot of good practice to
draw on, both in colleges and higher education institutions and more widely
(for example in schools and community education).
In the final section we identify some proposed issues for discussion and
debate, based on our findings. We hope that this will create a platform for a
joined-up approach to further development.

Section one: employability and enterprise in context

What is employability?
Employability does not lend itself to one definition. Definitions vary, depending
on:

who is defining it;

what their interests are; and

where their influence lies.

Broadly speaking, employability relates to an individuals chances of

progressing into and through the labour market successfully, according to
what they choose to do.
Hence, most definitions of employability:

assume that employability belongs to the individual; and

take into account the fact that individuals make choices about what
they do with their lives.

A persons employability at any given time can depend on a wide range of

factors. The factors are complex, and different for every person, so it would be
futile to attempt to list them all. But here are some of the more common
factors.
Personal qualities

Environmental factors

For example:

For example:

knowledge and understanding (can be

evidenced in part by qualifications);

available job opportunities;

location of opportunities;

skilful practices: ability to respond

effectively and appropriately to
situations in context (for example,
skills in communicating and working
with others);

guidance and support available;

health;

family circumstances;

prospective employers
perceptions about the type of
person they want in the job; and

culture and ethos of organisations

(for example, does the
prospective employer think the
applicant will fit in?).

self-beliefs, expectations and

aspirations; and
lifelong learning skills: understanding
how to learn, motivation to continue to
learn and capacity to reflect on, in and
through actions.

Adapted from the USEM model. See Yorke and Knight (2004a), p4

Personal qualities are influenced, to a greater or lesser extent, by a range of

deep-rooted factors such as natural tendencies, family background,
experiences of education and work and peer influence.
Although it is up to each individual to take responsibility for their own
employability throughout life, a wide range of other groups (or stakeholders)
have an interest and an input to that. This table shows some of them:
Employers
Professional
bodies
Sector Skills
Councils

Schools

Awarding bodies

Economic
Further education
Higher
colleges
development
education
agencies
institutions

Individual

Government

Careers education and

guidance providers

Community
groups

Voluntary
organisations

Local
authorities

Vocational
training
providers

Adult learning
providers

How does this relate to further and higher education?

Learners are the main stakeholders in further and higher education. They are
the people who make the real investment. They give up substantial amounts
of their time, several years in some cases, to study and for most, this also
carries a financial sacrifice, directly or indirectly, in the expectation of a better
life/career.
Learners have many different reasons for wanting to learn. These may be
social, personal or vocational, or a mixture of all of these. But one objective
that most learners share is to improve their chances of being successful in
their future occupations. So if educators are to meet the needs of their main
stakeholders, it is important that they make learning relevant to the world of
work generally and to the more specific needs of the labour market where
appropriate. By this we mean that learning programmes should be designed
so that what learners take from their learning will help to enhance their
employability. This stands for both vocational and non-vocational provision,
as we will discuss later in the report. Where learners can see how their
learning relates to their employability, this can improve their motivation to
learn and achieve.
Further and higher education is funded largely with taxpayers money and
partially with commercial income. So it also has a duty to make a positive
contribution to the countrys economic and social well-being. This means that
employers, society and the government are key stakeholders too. This
reinforces the importance of ensuring that learners are able to apply their
learning in a wide variety of contexts to meet the needs of the economy and
society.

Employability is not the same as employment. Helping learners to enhance

their employability is not only about helping them to develop the knowledge
and understandings needed for specific jobs, or helping them to write effective
CVs. What people need, if they are to pursue their chosen occupations more
effectively, also involves developing their ability to learn and to apply what
they have learnt to positive effect in new and unfamiliar contexts. The skills
and attributes which can help to enhance a persons employability (for
example, communication, team working and critical thinking) are entirely
consistent with the outcomes of what we might call good learning.
This is a particularly important point to consider in relation to non-vocational
education, where employability is sometimes seen to be inconsistent with the
principles of academic education. Seen in the way set out above, it is difficult
to separate employability from many of the other purposes of education,
such as developing active citizens and lifelong learners, and academic
achievement.
It follows, then, that efforts to enhance the quality of the learning experience,
in terms of what it can do for learners employability, should not begin with the
assumption that something more needs to be added on, but should start with
a fresh look at the core of the learning experience.
A definition of employability
There are many definitions of employability. One which we find helpful in the
context of further and higher education, and which we will use in the rest of
this report, is this:
a set of achievements skills, understandings and personal attributes
that make individuals more likely to gain employment and be
successful in their chosen occupations.2
This is about helping individuals to build on their previous experiences in
school, at work and in life. This definition relates to the personal qualities that
influence employability the factors that make individuals more likely to gain
employment and be successful in their occupations. It does not relate to the
external factors, such as the state of the labour market and learners personal
circumstances, over which colleges and higher education institutions have
little influence.
For this reason we think it would be wrong for colleges and higher education
institutions to measure their success in enhancing employability purely in
terms of how successful their learners are in gaining employment. Instead,
institutions should evaluate their contribution in terms of the progress that
their learners make, through their learning experience, in developing their
skills, understandings and attributes. This means adopting softer forms of
evaluation and using this as a basis for improving quality using evidence like
improvements in confidence and motivation, indicators relating to retention,
attainment and achievement and feedback from learners and former learners.
2

Adapted from definition proposed by Yorke (2004), p7

Employment outcomes can then be used as further evidence to inform

evaluation within the broader context.
What is the difference between employability and enterprise?
There is a strong overlap between employability and enterprise, although the
two are not the same. The labour market needs people who will be effective in
the workplace, and this is the focus of what employability is about. The labour
market also needs enterprising people. These people still need to be effective
employers or employees, but they are also the people who create ideas and
have the confidence, determination and skills to translate those into positive
action, for economic or social benefit. This is often associated with selfemployment or entrepreneurship, but these characteristics are also valued
within many employment environments.
One way to define enterprise capability is the ability to apply enterprising
skills, attitudes and values such as self-awareness, self confidence, creativity,
initiative, risk taking, communication, decision making, problem solving and
teamwork in a range of social and economic contexts.3
We will see that many of these abilities are considered to be just as important
for employability as they are for enterprise. However, some (such as
creativity, risk taking, initiative and decision making) are particularly
associated with enterprising people.
The Scottish Executive sees enterprise as a key condition for a successful
competitive economy, and it is keen that education should help to foster and
develop an enterprising spirit and enterprise skills among its citizens.
Why are employability and enterprise of concern?
The national and international context
Changes in the nature of education and the economy have raised the profile
of employability and enterprise in recent years. We now live in a world in
which:

the proportion of higher skilled occupations in the UK economy is

increasing and the proportion of lower skilled occupations is
decreasing;

the economy increasingly demands innovation and creativity, in

order to compete successfully in global markets;

qualifications, alone, are no longer enough to access employment

in most cases;

the relative importance to employers of soft skills, compared with

specific job-related knowledge and understanding, is growing;

Watt, Enterprise Education in Secondary Schools: a critical enquiry Section 5.2

10

people can expect to have several jobs, if not several careers,

during their lifetime and consequently there is an ever greater need
for people to upskill and reskill; and

increasingly, people have to take responsibility for their own

personal and professional development both in the workplace and
in times of transition.

This represents a huge shift over the past 15 years or so. While in the past,
people did not expect to have to change job or career very often (if at all),
change is now a certainty within the labour market and perhaps the only
certainty.
The Scottish context
Soft skills and competences
Recent employers surveys carried out by Futureskills Scotland4 have shown
that the job market is working reasonably well, and that employers are broadly
happy with the learners they recruit from colleges and higher education
institutions.
The exception, in terms of the workforce in general, is soft skills, where
employers across a broad range of areas have identified significant
deficiencies within the workforce.
Moreover, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in Scotland has voiced
concerns that Scotland already has a more highly qualified workforce than
the rest of the UK but appears to derive no consequent labour productivity
boost from it and comments that this should remind us that simply increasing
the volume of learning will not automatically improve economic performance.
What matters is the extent to which individuals possess competencies which
can add value and how these competencies are deployed in work or
enterprise situations.5
Literacy and numeracy deficiencies
The Scottish Executive estimates that over 20 per cent of adults in Scotland
have low levels of literacy and numeracy skills6. This is perceived to be one of
the biggest employability problems in Scotland.
Concerns about low achievement
Around 14 per cent of young people aged 16-19 in Scotland are estimated not
to be in education, training or employment.7 In some cases there are positive
reasons for this, for example school leavers who are taking a gap year. But
4

Futureskills Scotland (2003)

Confederation of British Industry in Scotland (2002)
6
Scottish Executive (2003b), p32
7
Scottish Executive (2000), Milestone 7
5

11

there are concerns that many of the people that this figure accounts for are
not realising their potential.
Concerns about graduate underemployment
There are reports that increasing numbers of new graduates in Scotland are
starting work in jobs that do not require graduate-level aptitudes. At the same
time, there have been persistent complaints from employers who say that they
have difficulties in recruiting graduates because graduates find it difficult to
demonstrate that they have the skills and attributes that employers are looking
for. While there may well be a range of factors associated with this, and
empirical research shows that this is usually much less of a problem in the
longer-term (for example, three years after graduating), the question still
remains whether higher education institutions could do more to help their
learners prepare for the world of work before they complete their studies.
Demographic change
The population is ageing. It is estimated that 80 per cent of the workforce of
2020 is already in work.8 This demonstrates the increasing importance of
fostering a capacity and motivation for lifelong learning among Scotlands
workforce and of creating relevant opportunities for retraining and upskilling.
New business start-ups
The birth rate for new businesses in Scotland is 30 per cent lower than the UK
average, and less than half that of the leader, London.9
The Scottish Executives vision for lifelong learning
The Scottish Executive believes that raising the aspirations and capabilities of
individuals, and fostering a culture where people rate success and
achievement highly, will help to improve Scotlands economic competitive
advantage and contribute to better social cohesion. It looks to education, at all
levels, to help deliver this. This is reflected in its current review of the 3-18
school curriculum and in the substantial investment it has made in the
Enterprise in Education initiative for schools, Determined to Succeed. It is also
reflected in its vision for lifelong learning, which is to achieve:
the best possible match between the learning opportunities open to
people and the skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours which will
strengthen Scotlands economy and society10.
Other issues relating to employability and enterprise
Any discussion about employability and enterprise in the context of post-16
education can easily evolve into a debate which circles every aspect of
8

Scottish Parliament (2002)

Scottish Executive (2003c), Lead Indicator 2b
10
Scottish Executive (2003b), p6
9

12

lifelong learning. In this paper we have chosen to focus specifically on the

subject of enhancing the employability and enterprise skills of learners in
colleges and higher education institutions. This means there are several other
important issues which are related but which we have chosen not to focus on
(and on which work is going on in parallel) including:

adult literacy and numeracy deficiencies this is a key focus for

many colleges, and the Scottish Executive has taken the lead to
put strategies in place to help address this;

young people who are not in education, training or employment

(the NEET group);

the current school/college review of the 14-16 curriculum, which

aims to open up vocational training opportunities to school pupils;

issues related to the pattern of post-16 provision (for example,

concerns that there are too many graduates and not enough
tradespeople/technicians in some sectors and concerns about the
net out migration of graduates from Scottish higher education
institutions); and

the development of more flexible delivery of course provision to

allow learners to engage with learning repeatedly in ways which
meet their needs.

In summary:

employability is about an individuals chances of progressing into

and through the labour market successfully, according to what they
choose to do;

a persons employability at any one time depends on a combination

of their own skills, understandings and attributes, and external
factors and circumstances;

change is the only certainty for individuals in todays labour market,

and individuals need to be prepared to manage that change
effectively;

learners are the main stakeholders in further and higher education,

and most learners have employability as one objective. So one of
the primary objectives of further and higher education must be to
help learners enhance their employability, building on their previous
experience;

employers, society and government are also stakeholders in further

and higher education, which emphasises the importance of
equipping learners to meet the needs of society and the economy;

13

a large part of this is about developing skills in learning how to

learn and in how to apply learning in different and unfamiliar
contexts. The skills and attributes which help to enhance
employability are consistent with the skills and attributes we seek to
develop through good learning generally;

there is a strong overlap between employability and enterprise in

the context of education, although they are not the same thing;

colleges and higher education institutions should measure their

success in enhancing employability and enterprise in qualitative
terms, not simply by employment statistics; and

although the labour market in Scotland appears to be working

reasonably well, there are some areas of concern including gaps in
basic skills, gaps in soft skills, underachievement among some
young people, graduate underemployment, an ageing population
and a relatively low business birth rate.

14

Section two: meeting stakeholders needs

The purpose of this section is to look at what each of the key stakeholders
want, in terms of employability, and what this means for FE and HE.
What do the key stakeholders want?
This table summarises those interests:
Learners want

Employers want

qualifications that have currency

in the labour market

people who can read,

write and add up (the
3 Rs), and who have the
skills and knowledge that
they consider to be
essential for the job and
a means of assessing that
during recruitment
people who (at minimum)
are willing and able to
learn, show themselves to
be effective in the world of
work and take
responsibility for their own
learning and development

to be capable of making a
success of themselves in their
chosen career or careers

Government and society

want
people with the
appropriate skills and
knowledge to enable the
economy to function
effectively and to meet
societys needs
confident and creative
people with the capacity
and motivation to learn
and re-learn throughout
their lives, to help drive up
productivity and enterprise
in the economy

The iceberg model, shown below, synthesises the interests of these key
stakeholder groups. The area above the waterline represents the upper row of
the table, and the area beneath the waterline represents the lower row of the
table:

The technical
knowledge
and skills required to
meet specific labour
market needs

The generic skills, understandings

and attributes that are needed to
contribute to successful personal
career development, business
success and economic and social
well-being

15

The technical knowledge and skills needed to meet labour market needs are
often more visible and more immediate (as shown in the iceberg model). And
it is important that colleges and higher education institutions aim to be
responsive to the specific needs of employers and industry. But the reach of
employability needs to extend well beyond this. For example:

a person may have attained highly in terms of academic

qualifications, but yet be ineffective in a work environment;

a person may be well-qualified for, and competent in, the job that
they do, but they may not be equipped to deal with the changes that
they would face if they were made redundant (for example, as a
result of structural unemployment in a declining industry such as
ship-building) or to meet their own changing aspirations; or

a new graduate, or post-graduate, who does not have a vocational

qualification may believe that they have nothing relevant to offer
employers, and therefore that they are unemployable or
overqualified.

So we are not just talking about meeting the immediate needs of the labour
market or meeting individuals immediate training needs important as these
are. We are also talking about helping people develop the capabilities
(including skills and attributes) that they need to be more effective in the
workplace and to have the best chance of achieving their aspirations. This is
represented in the elements underpinning the iceberg.
How can these needs be addressed?
In the rest of this section we will look at why learners achievements, in terms
of skills, understandings and personal attributes, are so important for
employability. Then in the next section we will go on to explore how colleges
and higher education institutions can help learners to develop these qualities.
Skills
As we have briefly discussed, employers want people with:

basic skills (the 3 Rs);

the skills that are specific to the job (sometimes known as

technical skills);

practical generic skills, such as using information technology and

being able to drive; and

the softer, less definable, generic skills that are vital for the
success of their organisation.

When they recruit, employers look for people who meet, and exceed, their
baseline criteria in each of these areas. Generally employers expect potential

16

employees to have the basic skills that, in their view, they should have
learned at school. (In reality, there is a significant number of adults in
Scotland who do not meet employers basic skills criteria, and this is a key
employability focus for colleges, and the community learning and
development sector, in particular.)
The extent to which applicants need technical skills varies enormously,
depending on the nature of the job. But where these skills are required, it is
relatively simple to show evidence of these from qualifications and previous
experience. This is also the case with generic practical skills.
This means that, in a competitive recruitment environment, decisions about
which candidate to recruit often hinge on evidence of softer generic skills.
There is no definitive list of the soft skills that employers are looking for
(although research has produced many lists as a guide for educators and jobseekers11). This depends on type of job, level of responsibility, organisational
culture and so on. But there are some skills which are likely to be in demand
in many, if not most, work situations. For example:

effective time management;

planning and organising;

effective oral and written communication skills;

the ability to solve problems;

being able to undertake tasks or make submissions at short notice;

the ability to work with others to achieve common goals;

the ability to think critically and creatively;

the ability to learn and to continue learning;

the ability to take responsibility for professional development; and

having the skills needed to manage, or be managed by, others

(which draws on many of the other skills in this list);

and so on. There are many other skills that we have not included in this list,
but which will also be valued highly in certain work environments. For
example:

11

as we have already discussed, some types of employment (and

self-employment in particular) place a high value on enterprise skills
the skills to create ideas and make them work including
creating, networking, initiative, leadership and risk taking; and

See, for example, The Association of Graduate Recruiters/Connexions IF Only Id Known

17

the type of employment that a graduate or post-graduate is likely to

aspire to is likely to place particular emphasis on more complex
skills, such as creative thinking and sophisticated communication
and problem solving abilities.

We would be mistaken if we reduced the meaning attached to skills to a

simplistic set of abilities that can be measured, or assessed, easily. Some
skills (such as literacy, numeracy and the use of information technology) are
relatively practical and can be applied in much the same way in any context.
For the same reasons, they are relatively easy to teach and assess.
But other skills (such as learning how to learn, communicating at a more
sophisticated level12, handling difficult interpersonal situations and finding
solutions to unfamiliar problems) are more complex and involve a greater
degree of self-awareness, judgement, confidence and so on. This involves a
more sophisticated, and often slower, learning process, where the role of the
educator shifts from being about imparting knowledge to being more about
facilitating learning by supporting, encouraging, challenging and reflecting.
These types of skills do not easily lend themselves to being delivered within
modules or short courses, or to traditional methods of assessment. Nor can
they be easily separated, or boxed, from one another. This is why it is
important to design the whole learning experience with these objectives in
mind, and we will look at this in more detail later.
For these reasons, the term skilful practice can be helpful when thinking
about skills in the context of employability.13 This helps to:

avoid the risk of focusing too narrowly on practical skills, important

as these are;

avoid the tendency to put the more fuzzy skills into individual
boxes for teaching and assessment purposes; and

emphasise the importance, not only of developing skills, but also of

understanding how to apply them appropriately in different contexts.

So if educators are serious about helping learners to enhance their

employability, they must help them to develop their capabilities in terms of the
appropriate soft skills, as well as the practical and technical skills, that
learners are likely to need. And they should give them the opportunity to learn
how to use these skills through practical experience.
There is one other crucial point to make about skills. And that is that it is not
enough just to develop the skills and become accustomed to using them. To
be successful in the labour market, individuals also need the skills to:

recognise what they are really capable of doing;

12

For example, it is one thing to be taught how to do a presentation; it is another thing to be

skilled in presenting ideas persuasively.
13
See Yorke and Knight (2004a), p5

18

make the links between their own capabilities and relevant career
development opportunities; and

present themselves to prospective employers in terms of what they

can do, as well as what they know.

Knowledge and understandings

The definition of employability that we are using refers to understandings
the understandings, including the knowledge, that learners develop through
the study of their subject. Knowledge and understanding, and the ability to
learn and continue learning, are central to the success of the labour market,
particularly in the era of the knowledge economy.
The most obvious link between knowledge and employability is in the area of
vocational education, where the learners knowledge and understanding of the
subject should contribute directly to their potential employability in that field of
work. The clearer the link is perceived to be (particularly by employers), the
more currency the qualifications that the learner gains are likely to hold in the
labour market.
Some people question how much value non-vocational education has to a
persons employability. There is no empirical evidence that leads us to think
that people with non-vocational qualifications are at a disadvantage in the
labour market compared with people with vocational qualifications. Our view is
that the value of the education experience in employability terms depends on
what the learner consciously takes from their learning, and this depends in
turn on the objectives of the learning programme and how well those
objectives are delivered. So it is important that learning programmes are
designed with the future life and employment needs of learners in mind. If:

these programmes include the skills and attributes that learners are
likely to need to develop to succeed in their future occupations (as
we think they should);

these skills and attributes are successfully incorporated into the

learning objectives and outcomes; and

these outcomes are well expressed

then there is a good chance that the learner will have gained value, not only in
educational terms but also in employability terms. This is the crux of our
argument that employability is largely about good learning.
Personal attributes
Positive personal attributes (attitudes and values) are also key to a persons
employability. A person needs to set their sights high in order to achieve. And
where they set their sights depends largely on their self-beliefs and selfawareness. It could be argued that this is the most fundamental of the three
elements that we have discussed in this section. It is about:

19

acquiring self-awareness and confidence, and increasing motivation

to learn and succeed;

acquiring a personal vision and an understanding of how to achieve

that;

acquiring an active, self-managed approach to life and work; and

focusing on achievement.

These positive attributes are also valued by employers and the labour market.
At all levels, the labour market needs people who are self-confident, willing to
learn and proactive. And there is a particularly strong focus on attributes in the
context of enterprise, as one of the characteristics which is associated with
enterprising people is a strong determination and a singular focus on success.
Just like some of the skills discussed earlier, positive attributes are not
something to be taught, but they can be learned, with the right kind of support.
The role of educators can be very important in this respect.
Skills, knowledge and attributes or capability
In some ways it is artificial to discuss skills, knowledge and attributes as three
separate entities. If the learning process is about developing capable people,
as we are arguing it is, then the development of skills and attributes, as well
as knowledge, should be totally embedded within the learning experience.
This notion is reflected in the current Scottish Executive review of the
3-18 school curriculum. One of the key outcomes of this review will be a
greater focus on skills and attitudes within the curriculum. The curriculum will
be designed around a set of values and principles, which will focus on helping
learners develop a range of generic capabilities.
And similar ideas are reflected in the Joint Statement of the Research
Councils/AHRBs Skills Training Requirements for Research Students, which
covers a range of capabilities including personal effectiveness,
communication skills, networking and team working and career
management.14
Employability and academic values
Educators are sometimes critical of the notion that their learning programmes
should promote employability, seeing it as being inconsistent with academic
values something that is designed to reduce academic learning to a
practical skills-for-jobs exercise.
This notion is challenged in some of the recent the research literature on
employability, which claims that the types of complex achievements that
14

Joint Statement of the Research Councils/AHRBs Skills Training Requirements for

Research Students at www.grad.ac.uk

20

employers value most are also the foundations of good learning, and of
academic values.15 Similar themes emerge in the work of the Boyer
Commission, which discusses specifically how American research
universities by virtue of the capabilities that are developed through good
research are in a unique position to equip their learners with capabilities that
will stand them in good stead for academic and professional careers alike.16
For example, research shows that:

effective learning can help to develop skills in oral and written

communication, self-management, being able to work
independently, teamwork and interpersonal skills, creativity and
curiosity, planning and organising and ethical practice; and

good research methods can develop all of these skills and others,
including reasoning, critical thinking, problem-setting and problemsolving, a willingness to learn, information handling (including
interpreting and evaluating), working across subject boundaries,
managing projects and leadership.17

In summary:

in the context of further and higher education, employability is not

only about meeting the specific training needs of employers and
industry. It is also about developing capable people who can
manage their own career development and who will be effective in
their chosen occupation as employers, employees or
entrepreneurs;

capability is about skills and attributes (attitudes and values) as well

as knowledge and understanding. Attributes are perhaps the most
crucial of these without a personal vision, positive self-beliefs and
the motivation to learn, a persons chances of improving their
employability is likely to be limited;

many of the skills and attributes that make for effectiveness in the
workplace cannot be taught (in the traditional sense of the word),
but they can be learned, with the right kind of support; and

colleges and higher education institutions should actively consider

the employability needs of all their learners, including those in nonvocational disciplines and post-graduates.

15

See, for example, Yorke (2004) p12 or Yorke and Knight (2004a) p6
Otherwise known as the National Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the
Research University see http://notes.cc.sunysb.edu/Pres/boyer.nsf/webform/contents
17
From a presentation by Peter Knight, quoted in LTSN Psychology newsletter (July 2004) p5
16

21

Section three: a shared responsibility

On the whole, employers do not drive the learning market: learners (and
potential learners) do.18 Learners make the choices and they do the learning.
But employers are a key influence on the learning market: after all, it is in the
interests of all that what learners are learning is relevant to the labour market.
We conclude from this that enhancing employability and enterprise skills and
attributes depends largely on individuals (in this case, learners):

having the motivation and the tools to make effective and informed
choices about learning, training and employment throughout their
lives;

building up their achievements their knowledge and

understandings, skills and attributes in ways that are relevant to
the labour market;

learning how to recognise their achievements and understand how

these are relevant to the labour market; and

learning how to understand employers needs, and how to present

their achievements in a meaningful way to employers or acquiring
the skills and attributes needed to bring a product to the
market-place.

Learners have a responsibility to make this happen for themselves, but

educators have a large role to play in:

helping them develop a vision for themselves particularly since

many learners, irrespective of age, come into learning with low
aspirations and/or a lack of confidence in their abilities;

helping them to make informed decisions about what learning is

appropriate for them particularly because most learners dont
know what they need to know, or what they need to do, to meet
their aspirations;

providing access to appropriate education and training, including

training for upskilling or reskilling;

challenging and supporting learners to help them learn;

helping them to get the best value for themselves from their
learning experience;

providing access to learning that will be worth something in the

labour market; and

18

The influence of employers in driving the learning market is stronger in cases where the
learning is designed to meet the training needs of current employees or apprentices.

22

helping them to learn how they can be successful in identifying and

pursuing employment opportunities.

Employers (from all sectors, including the voluntary sector) should also play a
key part in the process for example, by:

helping educators to make both the content and the process of

learning relevant to the world of work;

helping educators to offer relevant guidance and career education

to learners;

offering learners opportunities to enhance their learning through

direct experience of work; and

helping learners who are already in work to learn more from what
they are experiencing in the workplace.

This leads us towards a model in which responsibility is shared between

learners, educators and employers/industry, but in which individuals (i.e.,
learners) must ultimately take responsibility for themselves. In simple form,
the partnership model looks like this:

Educators

Learners

make choices
do the learning
help one
another
to learn

Enhancing
learners
employability

design the
curriculum and
the learning
experience
facilitate learning
provide
guidance

Employers/industry

inform curriculum
inform learners
provide opportunities
for experience

Other groups of stakeholders enter into this partnership from time to time. For
example: educators sometimes draw on support from external career
education and guidance providers; and partnerships with community and
voluntary groups can bring added opportunities for learners to learn through
experience.

23

In summary:

enhancing employability and enterprise skills attributes depends on

learners:

having the motivation and the tools to make effective and
informed choices about learning, training and employment
throughout their lives;

building up their achievements their knowledge and
understandings, skills and attributes in ways that are relevant
to the labour market;

learning how to recognise their achievements and
understanding how these are relevant to the labour market; and

learning how to understand employers needs, and how to
present their achievements in a meaningful way to employers
or acquiring the skills and attributes needed to bring a product
to the market-place; and

in the context of further and higher education, this is not the sole
responsibility of the staff (or educators). It requires a partnership
approach, the three key players being learners, educators and
employers although ultimately the responsibility has to rest with
the learners themselves.

24

Section four: putting it into practice

As we have seen, employers needs vary. And so, too, do learners needs.
There is no one size fits all approach to enhancing employability and
enterprise. It is for educators to reflect on the needs of their learners and how
they can best be met.
This section describes some of the activities that can contribute to the
employability and the enterprise skills of learners. Much of this will be familiar
to many institutions, but we challenge each institution to reflect on their
approach, and how they can improve the quality and value of the learning
experience.
In the last section, we proposed that enhancing employability and enterprise
skills and attributes depended on individuals:

having the motivation and the tools to make effective and informed
choices about learning, training and employment throughout their
lives;

building up their achievements their knowledge and

understandings, skills and attributes in ways that are relevant to
the labour market;

learning how to recognise their achievements and understanding

how these are relevant to the labour market; and

learning how to understand employers needs, and how to present

their achievements in a meaningful way to employers or acquiring
the skills and attributes needed to bring a product to the
market-place.

This is about a journey. Every learner will start in a different place and end in
a different place. Some learners will already be well-advanced in many, or all,
of these aspects and will have very narrow and specific needs for example,
to update their knowledge to take account of new legislation in the industry
that they work. Others will have wider needs or will be less experienced and
will need greater support to develop personally as well as professionally.
So it follows that:

further and higher education should be focused on personal and

career development as well as discipline-related knowledge and
understanding;

lifelong learning opportunities should be designed to take into

account the differing employability needs of individuals and
encourage enterprising skills and attitudes among learners;

25

senior managers in colleges and higher education institutions

should provide leadership. Every learner should have the
opportunity to benefit. Without this leadership, the result will be a
scatter-gun approach, where some learners will have more
opportunity to benefit than others;

similarly the staff, whose role it is to facilitate learning and

encourage learners, must be committed to encouraging learners in
ways that help to enhance their prospects, for example by
encouraging and helping them to reflect on and record their
achievements. Without this commitment, the only learners who aim
high and achieve are likely to be those who would have done so
anyway;

the management and staff (both teaching and support staff) of

institutions should work in partnership with each other and with
others, where they can, to provide the best support for their
learners: for example, by drawing on the input of specialist careers
staff and employers in helping to make the curriculum relevant to
the world of work; and

colleges and higher education institutions should not address

employability as an add-on, but rather as part of the quality of the
learning experience. Feedback from learners and former learners
could help to improve the quality of this experience. The On Track
longitudinal survey of former learners, commissioned by the
Funding Councils, might provide a helpful model for this.
Employment outcomes can also be a useful form of feedback for
the institution, although they should not be used as a simplistic
performance indicator.

We have identified several key ways in which colleges and higher education
institutions, in partnership with employers, can help learners to enhance their
employability and develop their enterprise skills:

by consciously designing and delivering the curriculum in a way that

enables learners to acquire (and recognise) the skills and attributes
that are valuable in the world of work;

by providing opportunities for learners to gain work-related

experience outside the classroom;

by helping learners to increase their awareness of what they have

learned from their experiences and how they can use that as a tool
for managing their own learning and career development; and

by providing career education, information and guidance.

Each of these elements should be integrated in the whole learning

experience. The rest of this section looks at each of these activities in more
depth.

26

Enhancing employability through the curriculum

It hardly needs to be said that what a learner learns through their formal
learning experience can enhance their employability. After all, the curriculum
offers learners the opportunity to improve their basic skills (if that is what they
need), learn new practical and technical skills and gain qualifications that are
required for employment in specific industries or sectors.
This is a major aspect of the work of colleges and higher education
institutions, particularly colleges. And to this end, it is important that educators
and awarding bodies have sustained engagement with employers and
industry (including professional bodies), and sectoral/regional bodies
(including Sector Skills Councils and Local Enterprise Companies) in order to
ensure that their learning provision is as relevant to the world of work as it can
be, and that employers understand the value of different qualifications. To this
end, we particularly welcome the Scottish Executives leadership in facilitating
the creation of strategic partnerships between the new sector skills councils
and the lifelong learning sector.
In this respect, employers and educators have the main role to play in the
partnership. Learners need qualifications that are relevant, and it is largely up
to educators to work in partnership with employers to ensure that this is a
reality. There is a strong tradition in Scottish institutions of bringing in
industrial expertise to teach on a part-time or ad hoc basis. This, combined
with expertise in learning and teaching methods, is a good way to help ensure
that learning is effective, relevant and up-to-date. There are also increasing
moves to enable and encourage full-time staff to refresh their experience
regularly through work placements in industry, and we encourage institutions
to build on this model too after all, the curriculum has to be grounded in the
reality of what industry needs today, and working practices change over time.
But, as we discussed earlier, there is more to it than technical knowledge and
skills. The curriculum can also offer a context in which learners can develop
the generic soft skills and attributes that contribute to success in the labour
market. And this should be a key focus across all areas of the curriculum,
both vocational and non-vocational. This is not about changing the content
of the curriculum; it is about looking at the way it is designed, and the way
learning is structured.
Curriculum design and assessment
The first challenge for course leaders and awarding bodies is to consider what
the intended learning outcomes are not just in terms of the subject itself,
and the knowledge and understandings which go with that, but also in terms
of the skills and attributes that learners will develop during the process and
to make sure that their programmes offer learners the opportunity to develop
these skills, and to recognise that they have developed them. A further

27

challenge is to plan this at programme, as well as modular, level to ensure

that learners have the opportunity to develop a balanced range of skills.19
In vocational fields, and other disciplines which are closely aligned to industry
bodies, the content of the curriculum is often guided or prescribed by the
needs of industry, and in some cases (some) generic skills and attributes
feature strongly as a result of that. Where this is not the case, the challenge to
contextualise and integrate generic skills and attributes effectively into the
academic curriculum can be greater.
Integrating generic skills and attributes into the curriculum also means
considering how they can be built into assessment strategies. In some cases
this is relatively simple, but some skills and attributes (particularly the softer
ones, such as team working) do not lend themselves well to traditional
methods of assessment. These are often developed and measured more
effectively through formative measures like self-reflection, dialogue and
formative feedback. Devising effective ways of measuring and assessing soft
skills is a distinct challenge for educators.
The evidence that we have collected from quality reviews and from our own
research shows that the contextualisation and integration of generic skills and
attributes in learning programmes in higher education institutions is consistent
and well-advanced in some areas, while in other areas it is developing more
slowly. Similarly, the HMIE report Student learning in Scottish colleges
identifies that some parts of the college sector have difficulty contextualising
and integrating core skills within programmes. This suggests that much more
can still be done, at all levels, to embed employability skills and attributes
(which are broader than core skills) into the curriculum effectively. The
development and use of toolkits (such as those developed by some of the
Higher Education Academy subject centres, for example) and the
identification and dissemination of good practice might be helpful ways
forward. This is likely to take time, and will need space for development.
The learning and teaching process
The second, and related, challenge is to structure the learning and teaching
process to help learners develop the skills and attributes that are relevant to
the world of work. For example:

employers want proactive people who can take responsibility, be it

for arriving at work on time; for acting on instructions without the
need for direct supervision; for taking the initiative and driving
forward change; for planning and managing their own learning and
development; for managing people and resources; and so on. Does
the learning and teaching process motivate learners to be active

19

For more on the subject of embedding employability in the curriculum and assessing
employability skills, see Yorke and Knight (2004a) and (2004b). This is written with higher
education institutions in mind, but the principles may also be helpful to colleges and awarding
bodies.

28

and take responsibility themselves, or does it reinforce passive and

dependent behaviours?

employers increasingly value skills in reflecting on and evaluating

personal performance and learning from feedback from others. How
well does the learning and teaching process encourage learners to
develop these skills?

employers want people who can contribute to the success of their

organisation. This generally means working towards common, not
individual, goals. While it is important to value individual
achievements, business success usually depends on group
achievements. Does the learning and teaching process value
achievement at group level as well as at individual level?

employers want people who understand the work ethic and who
can act professionally. To what extent does the learning and
teaching process reflect the ethos of working life (and there may be
more specific aspects to consider in vocational disciplines)? Will
learners find that they are familiar with working methods, or will they
struggle to meet their employers expectations perhaps because
their own expectations are based on a teacher/pupil relationship
model? and

the labour market needs enterprising people: people who can see
new opportunities, make judgements about the potential risks and
benefits and pursue those opportunities where they think there is
value in doing so. Does the learning and teaching environment
promote a spirit of enterprise or conversely, does it discourage it?

Much of this is about forms of active, self-directed and collaborative learning.

Learners that we spoke to valued the opportunities they had been given to
learn through self assessment and peer assessment, and by doing real life
projects in groups. They found that this increased their confidence and
motivation, and it helped them to see the direct relevance of what they were
learning to their employability. They also valued the use of learning journals,
which helped them to evaluate their achievements and identify areas for
further development, with the help of feedback from course tutors (and
employers, when on placement).
Although this implies a very active role for learners, educators have a very
important role to play in this process. They design the curriculum and facilitate
the learning. They can also help learners review and reflect on what they have
achieved and work out what aspects of their personal and professional
development need further work. There are tools which can help with the
process of reflecting on and recording achievements and with the process of
identifying priorities for further learning. We will discuss these further when we
look at reflecting on and recording achievements.

29

There are some good examples in higher education institutions of approaches

to learning and teaching which aim to promote active, self-directed and
collaborative learning. A few institutions are developing this as a strategic
priority, and elsewhere there are elements of this developing in pockets
usually where teaching staff have taken the initiative to do so.
Similarly, evidence from the HMIE report, Learning in Scottish further
education colleges, shows that there is a lot of good practice in the college
sector in terms of promoting learner-centred approaches such as this, but that
some work still needs to be done to help learners and educators better
understand what makes learning effective.
We have already mentioned the current review of the 3-18 curriculum, which
will be designed to lend a stronger focus to the development of generic
capabilities, such as those that we have listed, in school pupils. The Scottish
Executives Enterprise in Education initiative, Determined to Succeed, also
includes a focus on the curriculum and the learning and teaching process
and in particular on equipping teachers to introduce enterprising approaches
to learning and teaching. We expect that there will be similar staff
development needs in the college and HE sector, and we propose that this
forms part of the agenda for discussion and action.
Work-related experience outside the classroom
Work-related experience is important for everyone. The evidence that
prospective employers look for usually goes beyond what the curriculum
alone has to offer. The importance of work experience was emphasised in
both the Dearing and the Garrick reports on higher education, which
recommended that higher education should make more provision for learners
to gain experience.20
In reality, most of todays learners are already in work: be it full-time, parttime or casual work or some form of work-based learning. For some learners,
that is sufficient. But we argue that further and higher education can add value
for many learners by helping them to access, and learn from, work-related
opportunities which relate directly to their programmes of study, or which offer
them the chance to develop a range of knowledge, skills and attributes that
they might not otherwise have the opportunity to develop.
Vocational education and work-related experience
Practical experience is necessary preparation for professional practice in most
fields, and most vocational programmes offer formal accredited work
placements or other structured work-related activities which are directly linked
to the learning outcomes of the programme of study.
The HMIE report, Learning in Scottish further education colleges, found that
learners got a lot of value from these experiences. 21 Our findings were
20
21

Critical Thinking (2003), p31

Her Majestys Inspectorate of Education (2004)

30

similar: the learners we spoke to valued their work placement experiences for
several reasons:

firstly, they had found that what they learned on placement and
what they learned in the classroom was mutually reinforcing:
placements offered them a chance to put into practice some of what
they had learned in the safe environment of the classroom, while at
the same time gaining a better understanding of the real life
working environment in the sector for which they were training and
learning new skills (such as negotiation, persuasion and customer
handling). In turn, the experience of the placement helped them to
focus better on their learning objectives when they returned to the
classroom and so increased their motivation to learn;

secondly, some of the learners we spoke to felt that one of the most
valuable aspects of their work placement had been keeping a logbook. This involved reflecting on their own progress and asking for
feedback from the employer. It was valuable because it had
introduced them to reflective learning methods, which they had
since applied to their studies and other areas of their lives; and

thirdly, some learners thought that the placement scheme had

helped the employers involved to gain a better understanding of the
value of the qualifications that learners were working towards.

Employers, too, benefit from providing work placement opportunities for

students. Indeed work experience has been voted the most effective
recruitment tool in a national audit of graduate recruiters. Why? Employers
feel that direct exposure to an employer, and positive word of mouth
feedback, can be the most effective marketing tool of all. It also helps
employers to be able to see potential recruits in the workplace, reducing the
costs to the employer of more speculative forms of recruitment.
Non-vocational education and work-related experience
Structured work-related experience is also valuable for learners on nonvocational programmes both for younger learners who do not have a great
deal of experience to draw on and for more experienced learners who are
studying with a view to enhancing their career prospects.
However, despite the benefits perceived by those employers who have
engaged in offering work placement opportunities, it can be difficult to find
structured placements for large numbers of learners, particularly where the
subject discipline is not vocational. Just being in the workplace is of limited
value; the greater value, in terms of learning, comes from being given a
developmental role, or at least a certain level of responsibility, and can be
greatly enhanced by structured mentoring/feedback from the employer. Many
staff in institutions including both subject specialists and careers specialists
put a lot of effort into helping learners to access useful and relevant
experience.

31

There are other ways to develop generic skills and gain experience in a worktype environment. Volunteering and student association activities are two
examples. The Scottish Executives National Volunteering Strategy states that
volunteering empowers individuals by improving skills, confidence and selfesteem22. This is supported by evidence from a research project, conducted
by the (then) Department for Education and Employment, into the experiences
of students involved in community volunteering, which found that almost all
students involved felt their experience had added value to their personal and
professional development23.
Some of the larger higher education students associations have dedicated
units to promote and support community volunteering activities. And all
colleges and higher education institutions have a core of students who
volunteer in various ways within the institution (for example, club and society
officers, class representatives, students association officers and so on) and in
the community.
Enterprise-related experience
There are also good examples of experiential activities focused on enterprise
including social, or non-profit, enterprise. For example, the Scottish
Institute for Enterprise supports activities, open to all students in Scottish
higher education institutions, which include leadership and development
training for student officers of clubs and societies, student exchanges and an
annual business plan competition. While initiatives such as Get into Enterprise
(led by Careers Scotland) are open to some learners in the college sector,
and some colleges have very active and creative enterprise initiatives of their
own, it is worth considering how opportunities such as these could be
widened to allow all students the chance to take part. After all, the vocational
nature of learning in the college sector means that self-employment, in
particular, is a very realistic aspiration for many learners.
Accrediting work-related experience
Much of the work-related activity which learners engage in (particularly
volunteering and student association work) is not formally accredited,
although there are a few good examples of accredited community-based
programmes and summer internships.
We believe that recognising such experiences through accreditation can be
helpful for learners. The first reason is that assessment and accreditation can
be an indication of the priority attached to certain forms of learning. The
second reason is that, where accreditation is given, it is based on the
demonstrable achievement of certain learning outcomes and this process
usually involves learners in reflecting on their progress (sometimes with
feedback from employers or mentors) and capturing their learning in a
structured way. Without an incentive, such as accreditation, to prompt
learners to reflect on their experiences in this way, it can be more difficult for
22
23

Scottish Executive (2004), p32

SCADU (1998)

32

learners to see what they have learned and how that contributes to their
employability. Accreditation can also help to add weight to the value of these
experiences when they are presented on CVs and application forms. We
encourage institutions to consider this further.
In this next section on reflecting on and recording achievements we will look
at how educators can help learners to recognise and make sense of what they
are learning, both within and outwith the curriculum, and record this in a
meaningful way. This can add a great deal of value to their experiences,
accredited or not, casual or career-related.
Reflecting on and recording achievements
Employers used to ask potential employees what they had done and,
implicitly, what skills they had acquired. Now they ask what it is that students
have learned from their experience and, implicitly, how well equipped they are
to learn and continue learning.24
As we have already mentioned, learners are not always aware of what they
have learned from their experience and how this is relevant to their
employability. This applies to their experience both in the classroom
(whatever form this may take) and outside.
Tools such as progress files and personal learning plans are useful because
they can help individuals to learn from everything that they experience from
what they learn in the curriculum itself, from their work-related experiences
and from other life experiences and to piece that together. This can benefit
learners in several ways:

24

it helps to provide a focus for constructive dialogue between

learners and educators (or employers or mentors in a work-based
learning environment) and between learners and their peers in
other words, it is a tool to aid self-reflection and formative feedback,
which is ultimately designed to help learners recognise what they
have learned and what they need to work on;

it helps learners to focus on a vision for themselves, which in turn

feeds motivation;

it places responsibility on the learners to plan their own learning and

act on their plans;

it helps learners to see how they learn best (and learning how to
learn is a very important skill for employability);

it can be used as a basis for a portfolio which can be assessed;

it helps individuals to provide evidence of what they have learned in

a way that is meaningful to themselves and to prospective

Universities UK (2002), p11

33

employers. This can form the basis for a CV or application form;

and

there is some evidence to suggest that it has a positive effect on

students approaches to learning and on attainment25 (this evidence
is supported by comments made by learners that we spoke to).

Scottish higher education institutions have signed up to the QAA/SCoP/UUK

guidelines on Progress Files and Personal Development Planning, and in
Scotland the Effective Learning Framework is being developed to help
institutions implement this. Work is also underway, led by the Scottish
Executive, to implement personal development planning in schools. Although
personal learning planning is used in many parts of the college sector, there is
no similar sector-wide approach. Indeed there is no clear evidence that a
sector-wide approach would be appropriate. On the other hand, it should not
be the case that learners only benefit if they have the good fortune to have
enrolled on a programme where this approach is valued.
In both sectors there is some very good practice in some fields, particularly in
subjects where such reflective practice is commonplace in the related industry
(such as the health and caring professions). There is also some very good
practice in the community learning sector.
Some people that we spoke to were very enthusiastic about this approach to
learning. Those people tended to have had a positive experience of it
themselves, and had also seen others benefit. Others were less positive. The
key messages that we picked up from these discussions were that:

25

most learners do not see the benefit initially, and need to be

encouraged very strongly the benefits only become apparent after
some time;

peer-group mentoring (where learners are introduced to it and

supported by other learners who have benefited from it) can be very
successful;

some staff argue that it will involve extra time and resources, which
they do not have. Others argue that there is no rocket science to it
what it really comes down to is giving learners quality, focused
time to help them see what they are good at and what they need to
work at. Spending time with learners is clearly a commitment, but if
institutions are serious about focusing on the needs of their
learners, we would argue that this is essential; and

some previous attempts to introduce approaches like this have not

been successful (some people quoted the National Record of
Achievement as an example). The main criticisms given for
approaches that didnt work was that they were not owned by the
learner either because they were presented as a paper exercise

EPPI Centre (2003)

34

and not seen as a learning process, or because they were

presented as a record of attainment which followed the learner from
school to college and became seen as a record of failure for some.
We strongly support the work that is going on to implement the Effective
Learning Framework in the higher education sector, and we encourage
institutions to think about how they can best engage with this. We also
encourage colleges to consider whether there are groups of learners who do
not currently benefit from this type of support and who might do so, and how
they might draw on good practice in other subject areas (and other education
sectors) for the benefit of these learners.
Career education, information and guidance
Career education, information and guidance (CEIG) underpins much of what
we have already discussed. Career education is about equipping learners with
the motivation and the tools to make effective and informed choices about
learning, training and employment throughout life (as we described earlier)
and about understanding how to translate those choices into action.
Careers Scotland describes this as a career planning continuum; we have
described it as a journey.
Having discussed the value of progress files and personal learning (or
development) plans, it will be clear that these can play a key part in career
education and career planning. It is for this reason that careers services in the
higher education sector have played a very active role in the development of
the Effective Learning Framework.
Of course, there are also more specific aspects to CEIG, including access to
good information about career opportunities and support to develop skills in
CV writing and interview techniques.
Most higher education institutions have careers services which play a lead
role in career education, information and guidance. Arrangements for CEIG in
the college sector vary greatly between colleges. Some have specialist
careers staff, some bring in expertise from Careers Scotland and others
depend largely on subject specialists to provide career education and
guidance.
For learners on vocational programmes, their immediate guidance needs are
likely to focus largely on the sector for which they are training, and will be
provided by course tutors in collaboration with employers and employers
have a very important role to play here. But whether or not the institution has
specialist careers staff, it is important that learners on vocational programmes
have access to career education (developing the skills needed to manage
their own career development) and general (non-industry specific) guidance:
after all, they may decide to take their career in a different direction.
There are concerns in the higher education sector that many learners do not
take career planning seriously until near the end of their programmes, and

35

that this adds to the difficulties that graduates face in getting employment.
Some institutions have introduced career education modules into the
curriculum to help address this. We hope the Effective Learning Framework
will also help to address this by encouraging learners to take responsibility for
their personal and professional development throughout their learning
experience. In any case, this issue highlights the importance of integrating
career education within the whole learning experience and drawing on the
expertise of careers specialists where possible and appropriate.
In summary:

the learning experience can, and should, be designed to help

learners enhance their employability and their enterprise skills
both through experiential learning, inside and outside the
curriculum, and through supported career education and planning;

in particular, we believe that learner-centred approaches to

learning, which help learners develop their self-confidence and
motivation and which encourage learners to take responsibility for
their own personal and professional development, can go a long
way towards enhancing employability. This is particularly valuable if
learners are supported to reflect on what they have learned and
identify for themselves what their future learning priorities are;

this is a challenging agenda, particularly in relation to curriculum

design, teaching methods, assessment and the integration of
experiential opportunities into the learning experience; and

there is a lot of good practice to draw on in all the aspects that we

have discussed, both in colleges and higher education institutions
and more widely (for example, in schools and community
education).

36

Section five: conclusions and issues for debate

Conclusions
There are three broad, and related, messages to draw from this report.
Firstly, employability and enterprise should not be seen as an add-on to
further and higher education provision. Helping learners to be more effective
in the labour market should be integral to the mission and purpose and
activities of each institution. This goes beyond vocational training and job
application skills, important as these are. It is also about helping learners
learn how to learn, and giving them opportunities for experiential learning. And
it involves helping learners tie all these strands of learning together so that
they have a toolkit with which to manage their career development.
Secondly, every learner should have the opportunity to benefit from their
education in terms of their employability not just those on vocational
programmes or those who take the initiative themselves. There is a lot of
good work going on in Scottish further and higher education institutions to
enhance learners employability and promote enterprising activity. But while it
is right that there should be a diversity of approaches (after all, no two
institutions are the same, and no two learners are the same), more could be
done to embed employability and enterprise, and make it explicit, within the
learning experience for the benefit of all.
Thirdly, employability and enterprise do not lend themselves to simplistic, hard
measures of success. They should be integrated into institutional quality
assurance and improvement processes. Evaluation should draw on the
impact on learners confidence, achievements, self-awareness and
motivation. In the longer term, feedback from employers and former learners
might usefully inform evaluation. First destination employment returns might
also form part of the evidence base, particularly for shorter vocational
programmes, but they should be set within the broader context.
In the course of the report we have shown that much of what students learn in
the course of their studies, both in the formal learning experience and through
other experiential activities, contributes substantially to enhancing their
employability and promoting enterprise although it may not always be
identified as such. We have also identified some areas where we think more
could be done to ensure that this is inclusive of all learners.
Given the importance of this area, we believe the Councils should keep the
topic under review, and review progress in about 18 months.

37

Issues for debate

This paper has raised several issues where we think there is value in
prompting further discussion between Scottish further and higher education
institutions, ourselves, employers, awarding bodies, the Scottish Executive,
the quality assurance bodies, careers services, the student body and other
agencies with a view to establishing a wider understanding about:

where the bottlenecks are;

where there is existing good practice and opportunities to work with

what is already in place;

where there is scope for improvement; and

how this can be achieved, in ways that are sustainable, and who
should take responsibility. In many cases this will require
partnership action.

Here are some proposed issues for discussion and debate:

are our broad conclusions widely shared as being the way forward?

can we improve the way in which employers contribute to the

specification of skills needs in the curriculum design process?

how do we address the particular challenges for non-vocational

subjects, for which there is no single or obvious employer body to
act as a reference point on the changing needs for generic skills?

how do we rethink the implications for curriculum design, teaching

approaches and assessment to meet the challenge of creating
learning experiences through which learners can acquire relevant
skills and attributes, and integrating these into learning outcomes
and assessment strategies?

how do we educate learners to be better able to manage their own

learning and career development not through add ons but
through their core programmes, and recognising that learning takes
place in all aspects of life?

can we provide better information for learners supporting more

informed choices about the skills (generic and vocational) that are
likely to be useful for their career development and how particular
courses are designed to meet those objectives?

do we need to improve professional updating and development for

teaching staff ensuring that staff in vocational areas have an upto-date understanding of their subject, in relation to professional
practice, and ensuring that all staff are equipped to meet the

38

challenges involved in helping their learners to develop the types of

skills and attributes that we have discussed?

how do we ensure that career education, information and guidance

is integrated as effectively as it can be within the whole learning
experience?

how do we meet the different employability needs of learners

effectively in particular, managing the different needs of lifelong
learners and young people/school leavers?

how do we promote greater opportunities for learners to engage in

challenging work-related experience, and explore opportunities to
credit-rate the skills acquired through extra-curricular experience?

can we provide wider opportunities for learners in colleges to

develop enterprise skills, particularly the skills needed for
successful business start-up, and to benefit from experiential
opportunities in enterprise?

how should we measure and evaluate improvement and success

both internally within institutions and through external quality review
procedures? How might employers contribute to this?

39

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