Employability Conference

The Biomedical Science course has a number of excellent employability activities and initiatives embedded within the curriculum. As the module coordinator for both the work based learning and Biomedical Science work placement modules my submission focuses on the benefits of placements for enhancing employability skills in our graduates. The session will focus on the best practice already in place within the Biomedical Science Work Placement module, such as real world experience in the industry of interest, employability skills  (communication, professional responsibility, autonomy, initiative, timekeeping, prioritisation to name just a few) and the challenges faced by our students that choose to pursue this route. The greatest challenge students face, other than cost of living, is that of belonging. The initiative I have set up looks to address this by creating an online community for these students whilst on placement. Students will be able to share their experiences and help each other in virtual study groups allowing peer-to-peer learning. It is my hope that this will help students forge new, lasting relationships whilst on placement regardless of geographical location leading to better reintegration to University upon return.

We all know that the combination of student fees and the cost of living crisis means that the majority of students have to take part-time jobs to fund their studies. These roles tend to be low-paid, flexible jobs such as retail or bar work. 

One of the consequences of this is a reduced amount of time to get relevant, industry- specific work experience on their CVs. 

The SME Business Unit aims to build collaborative relationships with external organisations that want to work with our students. 

Our presentation will outline 2 key services of the SME Business Unit: The Entrepreneurs in Residence (EiR) programme and our Student Engagement in Knowledge Exchange (SEKE) support. 

The University has 40 award-winning entrepreneurs in its EiR scheme, all of whom volunteer their time to support student enterprise and employability activities. We will give an overview of our past EiR initiatives and explain how this service can be accessed to benefit student employability across the University. 

We will then talk about the Unit’s role in supporting SEKE activity within the Faculty of Business and Law, including our Business Consultancy Project module, which helps students gain real-world experience during their degree.

Across traditional lab-based science subjects, including biological sciences, most learning is discipline specific and focussed on developing scientific skills and knowledge. However, employers are increasingly demanding that graduates have additional skills, including the ability to recognise their own skills and limitations, a skill that can be structured around reflection. Reflective practice is standard practice in people-centred professions, but is seldom used in more lab-based subjects. This year, I trialled including a reflective element in a piece of coursework to encourage students to think about the decisions they made while working in a group, and to support the conscious use of feedback as feed forward. The reflective element supported a wider assessment strategy including formative and summative elements, group work and peer marking of work that was discipline specific (lab reports). Students were generally supportive of the assessment, feeling that is gave them a voice and a place to justify their thinking, although some students found talking about their own decision-making processes difficult. While the current trial was small, it showed promise in supporting a different type of thinking among students and could form the start of a wider program of reflective development across a science degree, which may support employability in science graduates.progress reviews and will use their first-hand experience to offer an insight into the unique perspectives of the degree apprentice.