Good Practice Case Study - Business and Management

This new Level 4 core module was created to cover personal, professional and academic skills and to give a firm foundation for all students for the BA (Hons) Business and Management (with optional placement) degree. Employability skills are taught from day one. For example, we discuss their motivations for the degree and beyond to enable them to start their journey of taking the employment opportunities the university has to offer. In the first few weeks, they are required to create a CV as the foundation for their futures. The three assignments associated with this module are employability-led, including students needing to undertake either voluntary or paid work which they need to reflect upon and write a structured report. The module was designed in conjunction with the key student support departments across the university, including BaL Study Skills, the Careers and Voluntary Services and the Student Union.

This module is the foundation and in Level 5 and 6 there are employability modules and extracurricular activities that build on what is learnt and experienced at Level 4. The Level 4 module requires students to undertake work experience for their Assignment 3. Students have undertaken voluntary experiences with children in the community running afternoon school clubs, or work experience on a Greek Island as a waiter. In previous academic years, we found that some students didn’t have any experiences to add to their CV’s at Level 5, ready for their placement year, and consequently were not passing through the recruitment rounds. The Level 4 initiative enables both home and international students a level playing field as the work experience is designed to add value regardless of UK resident status.

Within the first Assignment, we look at the personal motivation of the students and require them to imagine themselves post-graduation, what kind of organisation they want to work for and what steps are they going to take to get there. We introduce them to writing concise and relevant CV’s (which international students have previously struggled with). We discuss hard and soft skills and their place so the students understand employers' adverts and job descriptions.

Assignment 2 is a reflective written assignment based on a personal observed customer service encounter. Again, a shorter assignment but it is to draw the student into a work situation and observe real experiences, so they can identify skills in other people which links to another core L4 module about organisations and people.

The module design has been two years in the making. The university announced its new strategic imperatives for 2025, and it was decided within our school when reviewing our offering for the Business and Management degree, that we wanted students to become involved in the local community through activities such as volunteering. We also wanted Portsmouth students to be proud that they had taken all the offering the university had to give, to enable them to enter the job market being confident, not only they knew theories relating to business and management, but they had lived experience to talk with authority about how they worked in practice.

As mentioned above, this module is a collaborative approach heavily involving the Volunteer, careers and placement offices that support BaL for the employability aspects. In the workshops, the teaching staff employ an active style of learning, where we put knowledge and skills into practice inside and outside the classrooms. This enables the students to grow in confidence and gain valuable experience that employers are looking for.

As personal tutoring is also embedded within this module, the PT’s gets to know the students very well and work with the students to help them reflect on their skills and give them the confidence to apply for roles which they might not have considered.

Plan, Plan and Plan - in plenty of time. Everyone is busy and trying to get people delivering when you need them, is easier the earlier you do it. Also, listen to your colleagues. We work across the Business and Management course planning when assignments are due to avoid pinch points for the students. The module leaders also communicate about supporting students academically and personally. A collaborative approach helps with the planning but also the buy in and communication across the first year of the course.

Even though this is a new module in 2023/24 we can look at the data collected by the Careers Centre when the students completed a compulsory employability questionnaire when they began in Sept ‘23. We can track this data annually as they move through the course comparing it to previous years. Once graduated we will be able to use more data to statistically prove its success.

We are also using anecdotal feedback from the students via the course reps and traditional feedback which the faculty collects. It is also intended for students to give feedback in structured conversations which is part of their workshop schedule of work.

The whole module covers all the Graduate Hallmarks but the ones which are specifically around employability are:

Social Citizenship

Hallmark 4. - Be responsible, respectful, informed and active global citizens
This means you have developed a cultural intelligence and an understanding and appreciation for diversity. It means you have a commitment to, and responsibility for, inclusivity, social justice, ethical practice, wellbeing and sustainability.

Hallmark 5. - Be effective team players
This enables you to provide leadership and also to support the success of others.

Hallmark 6. -  Have an enterprising and innovative spirit.
This enables you to create value to others through recognising opportunity. This allows you to bring original thinking and productivity to the groups and communities to which you belong.

Personal Competencies

Hallmark 9. - Be able to work in a range of environments.
This enables you to respond positively to new situations by being aware, flexible, adaptable and realistic in your expectations.

Personal Development

Hallmark 10. - Be self-reflective, embrace challenges and seize opportunities for development

This means you can be proactive in recognising and addressing personal and professional development needs. This enables you to be confident to make informed career and life decisions, and achieve personal growth.

Graduate Hallmarks