Jackie’s blog

Just heard that I was successful in my application to become a Learning Fellow of the University (see previous posts). Yippee! Am really chuffed because you can only have a Fellowship if you can prove you are an excellent teacher. So now it’s official - I am an excellent teacher. Cripes, sounds really big headed, me thinks I need to get over myself! Anyway, now I have to make a positive contribution to professional development within the University by delivering my project before April 2010. I am going to be producing e-learning materials using the Articulate Pro Presenter software. It is not a huge project but as I only work here one day a week it can’t afford to be. It is really exciting and I have to admit to feeling really chuffed about it. So, will keep you posted …

This week I am going to be talking to a bunch of media students at the university about the importance of their final year project for their future careers. Sound strange? Well, when applying for jobs in the graduate labour market you have to be able to make yourself stand out in some way. You need to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Many graduate recruiters are also keen to see that you have some relevant experience - relevant in that it is in some way connected with the work they do. Choosing a final year project that takes you into areas that overlap with or are of interest to potential future employers is one way to make your CV stand out from the crowd.

When checking student’s CVs nowadays I find myself looking for what I call the ‘nuggets of gold’ and the ‘differentiators’. These are the things that the employer will be interested in and also the things that make you different/a stronger candidate than the competition. For example, one girl I worked with had been working as voluntary adjudicator in a forum for computer games enthusiasts. She introduced activities to stimulate interest in the forum such as quizzes and league tables. When she went after a job with one of the big games developers they were really interested in this aspect of her CV. The chinese students I see often don’t think to use their language skills to go after jobs with companies developing IT with Chinese businesses. Speaking fluent Mandarin is, I would suggest, a huge differentiator.

Having a final year project or dissertation which explores an area of work that you would like to go into after your degree makes real sense. So many students fail to see the connection and so miss a chance to stand out. This is what I will be telling them this week, alongside showing them the Phil Cooke video. Let’s hope they get it!

Having now got to grips a bit with facebook I have started checking out the photos on my ‘friends’ profiles. Incidentally I lot of my friends are young graduates as not too many people of my generation seem to have cottoned on to facebook or similar yet. Anyway, the photos - most of them show bright young things, pouting, posing and hugging each other in night clubs, bars or parties. They ooze boozy love and happiness. The girls in particular don’t just like their girlfriends, they hug and kiss them. Everyone looks so chilled. It wasn’t like that in my youth. We were much more restrained (not on the getting hammered bit but I don’t remember us hugging all the time). I think this looks much better and I can’t wait to see how this generation (Generation Y) shapes our future society. Peace and love man!

Came across a really good article on the web the other day entitled 13 things I wish I learned in college, college meaning university as it is an American article. It very succinctly highlights the disparity between skills learnt at university and skills needed in the graduate workplace. For example:

• Long essays versus short reports
• information loaded presentations versus message based presentations
• independent study versus teamwork
• CVs as life story versus CVs as targeted sales tool
• tutorials versus interviews
• partying versus networking
• it’s up to you to attend versus personal accountability
• get money, spend it versus earn money, manage it
• do what you’re told to do versus use your initiative
• focus on passing the course versus set yourself goals and achieve them
• wear what comes to hand versus dress for the part
• getting a degree versus getting a salary commensurate with your talents
• quitting jobs versus resigning and getting a good reference

It is worth a read. Many of our HE courses are still delivered in a passive ‘I’m the teacher, listen to me and then go off and work it out yourself’ way. Some argue this breeds the independent thinkers we need but I’m not so sure. I hear the comments from people like Tony Watts (who I respect enormously), warning against creeping vocationalism and I recognise that there is a role for education for education’s sake but this is not so much about what we teach our students, but how they are taught it. By not addressing some of the issues highlighted above aren’t we sending our graduates out into the labour market place with only half the tools they need in their employability toolkit?