In the new world of higher education, getting noticed by the people with power is becoming much harder. I can remember a time when bagging a paper in a decent journal got a round of applause in meetings. Now you need to do a lot more than get published and be sensible in the classroom. You need to be an all-round citizen, showing how you’re doing something for the university community and for its students.
If you really want to stand out, then my advice is to look at employability, one way we can truly change the lives of our learners.
While “work readiness” has become a standard part of higher education, what has the impact been? There’s been no real shift in the number of universities exceeding their Destination of Leavers employability benchmark; no improvement in terms of attitudes among employers, and poor OECD skills figures which show only a quarter of university and college-educated people in England and Northern Ireland attain the top level for literacy.
So the heat will increasingly be on senior management in universities to demonstrate what it’s providing in return for taxpayer cash, thereby justifying high tuition fees. Employability will be a focus, and represents a real opportunity for an early-career academic to shine..
How to become an employability expert
• The first task is to give yourself the kind of up-to-date insights into relevant work areas that will set you apart.
Most academics haven’t had a role in industry, and will be relying on second-hand and sometimes outdated material fed indirectly to them. Be bold, push for an applied research or knowledge transfer type of sabbatical, where you can spend time in industry. You want to be working within practical settings, talking to professionals, getting a sense of their challenges and issues, and building up contacts with people who might contribute to programmes and projects later.
• Try to get professional input into what you do in the academic sphere, through inviting contacts on to advisory boards, looking into professional recognition of what is taught, and bringing in external oversight of projects. Consider the potential for formalising the role of external examiners from the world of work and what they can bring in terms of reality-checking.
• Think hard about the detail of the curriculum. We’re all pretty skilled at delivering content around academic learning outcomes, but we need to focus more on what’s genuinely going to be relevant now and next year, and help demonstrate the importance of what we are teaching.
Remember that the conversation has moved on from straight, general employability to the specifics: getting students and graduates into actual work by ensuring they can demonstrate graduate-level attributes and behaviours.
• Initiate and get involved with new ideas around employability. At Brunel University London, for example, we run a festival at the end of each academic year, with a whole personal development programme to take students to the next level. They prepare actively for the coming year by attending a boot camp to prep for placements, going to workshops on writing skills, social media and networking, and sharing their reflections on their goals.
And this term we’re starting up a scheme to offer pro bono clinics for the student community, which will then be scaled up to offer advice to the wider public. The project is starting with the obvious – legal advice – but the plan is to broaden this to accounting, marketing, how to put on an event. Input will come from students and academics across departments, not only from vocational areas.
• It’s worth working closely with student unions. Many of them are now trying to take a more active role on employability and it’s good to show joined-up thinking around a common goal or campaign.
New academics have much to offer
We need new thinking in employability if we’re going to make progress on delivering genuine work-readiness and improving the appeal of graduates to the full range of employers.
HE needs diversity of thinking on these issues. New academics coming into the sector with no knowledge of the “good old days” have a great deal to offer to any forward-thinking institution; they are a vital resource that should be harnessed and channelled.
Don’t worry about being inexperienced – this lack of experience can be an advantage, as it means you ideas are not prejudiced. In the rapidly changing environment of HE we’re all “early career” in many ways, and an absence of preconceptions might well turn out to be your strength.
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