The Mission Employable ‘Reflective Tool’

Hello everyone,

As you know, the Mission Employable Team are working hard to give Humanities students at the University of Southampton the best possible opportunities to develop their employability skills. One of the main components of these initiatives is to raise students’ awareness of the importance of developing their key employability skills throughout their time at the University. To facilitate this process, I have been tasked with creating a reflective ‘tool’ for students to complete after they have taken part in university activities. The aim of the tool is to provide students with the opportunity to practice articulating their transferable skills in a way that will be prepare them for the application and interview processes that come with entering the graduate job market.

So far, I have done a lot of research at both local and national level to find out as much as possible about what we already do in Higher Education to encourage students to reflect upon their ever-increasing skills! I’ve found information on the Nottingham Advantage Award, the Birmingham Personal Skills Award, and the Warwick Advantage Award too. At Southampton we currently offer the Graduate Passport, and certain departments offer rewards or extra credit for student participation in co-curricular activities. All of these award programmes give students different incentives for actively engaging in co-curricular and extra-curricular activities outside of their compulsory degree hours. In addition, students are also required to undertake some form of reflection activity for accreditation.

My challenge is to find a way of incentivising students to complete a reflective tool that does not currently contribute to their final degree mark. The tool must also clearly lead students to think about their employability skills, and how they can continue to improve these over the remainder of their time at Southampton. Do I create a fun, interactive online tool to encourage participation? Do we run a competition for the best reflective report? Do we offer certificates to those who have completed a certain amount of reflective work, as it evidences their learning outcomes? On the other hand, should the tool be for purely personal use? The student has access to it, can print and keep it, but does not need to share it with the Faculty? All of these questions need to be addressed as I create something that will work for our Humanities students. As you can tell, there is a lot to take into consideration!

I will keep you updated on my progress, but in the meantime if you have any ideas to contribute or questions to ask please do not hesitate to get in touch via email C.J.Medland@soton.ac.uk.

Until next time!

Charlotte