Involving employers in the development of the mathematical sciences curriculum

Introduction

The goal of the workshop is to review the various ways that employers can work with mathematics departments to develop curriculum which motivate and excite the students, and simultaneously improve their employment opportunities. The workshop will have case studies on statistics/data science and pure and applied mathematics. The workshop will be held on Thursday 30th June 2022 at the University of Plymouth.

The workshop will be held in person, but we will use zoom to broadcast the talks. The workshop is free to attend.

• Please register here. if you want to attend in person.

• Please register here if you want to attend via zoom.

The workshop is supported by the IMA/RSS In collaboration with ESF Smart Specialisation.

There is a short report on the workshop here.

Schedule

The program will be here when the program is finished.

• 10:00 to 10:30, Craig McNeile, Introduction to the meeting

• 10:30 to 11:15, Dr. Edmund Chadwick, University of Salford (Manchester), Employer Engagement in Mathematics at the University of Salford". See the video Maths@Work.

• 11:15 to 11:30, Coffee break

• 11:30 to 12:00 , Dr. Malgorzata Wojtys (Gosia), University of Plymouth, A case study on employer engagement in coursework.

• 12:00 to 12:15, Jo Byrne, ESF Smart Specialisation – Employer Engagement and Knowledge Exchange

• 12:15 to 13:15 lunch

• 13:15 to 14:00, Tony Mann, University of Greenwich. Employer input into final year mathematics modules – direct and indirect”

• 14:00 to 14:20, Dr. Jason Truscott, University of Plymouth, Group work. Prerecorded video

• 14:20 to 14:40, Sarah Littler, Select Statistical Services, Working as a Statistical Consultant – Technical and Wider Skills

• 14:40 to 15:00, Cofee break

• 15:00 to 16:00 Panel meeting, Members: Tony Mann, Sarah Littler and Jo Byrne

Questions for the panel

Q1 Do we need to move beyond asking employers for "skills" of graduate applicants to employers and University staff co-designing modules?

Q2 How do we make sure students with academic interests in for example: pure maths or theoretical physics, have the skills that employers want.

Q3 What is the role of the library/careers service in teaching employability skills and how do we get the students to engage?

Resources and background reading for the workshop

It may be helpful to look at the resources below.

• A key resource is booklet Employability development for HE mathematics and statistics: case studies of successful practice,

• There are many resources at the sigma Network’s Employability SIG

Please email Craig McNeile (craig.mcneile@plymouth.ac.uk) with further suggestions.

How to get to the University of Plymouth

There is information about getting to the University of Plymouth here. The workshop will be held in room 001 in the Rolle building. See the Campus Map

Other workshops

In conjunction with the Royal Statistical Society for 2019/20, the IMA launched its third call for the Higher Education Teaching and Learning Series. This workshop is part of this series.

• TBC Making Mathematics Accessible to All, Birmingham

• TBC, Effectively teaching small classes as a postgraduate demonstrator, Sheffield .

• TBC, Reflection ? Action ? Research: Enhancing Mathematical Research and Scholarship, Cardiff

• TBC, Project-based and synoptic modules, Nottingham

• 23rd June 2022, Assessment strategies for mathematical sciences in the digital era, Glasgow

Local organizing team

The workshop is organized by Craig McNeile and Malgorzata Wojtys, (Gosia),

Please contact Craig McNeile for more information at craig.mcneile@plymouth.ac.uk