In times of employment crisis, the profile of University graduates becomes a prominent point of reference for employability. Enterprises employ high-qualified graduates educated in their disciplines, but who also possess a range of skills that are crucial in complex and dynamic environments.
Although Higher Education claims to develop graduates with such properties, only few Universities have articulated their graduate profile. Even fewer have explicitly stated what the means are by which they achieve that. Unfortunately, University graduates world-wide hold a degree and a transcript solely indicating performance in courses.
Our University, the University of Sheffield and we, as its International Faculty, have built and applied an innovative way to map all curricula and extra-curricular activities onto our graduate profile. The University of Sheffield has a clear view of which attributes compose our graduate, such as ethical researcher, creative thinker, entrepreneurial problem solver, efficient planner and time manager, flexible team worker, etc.
A direct link of those attributes to their employability is provided through the Sheffield Graduate Award, offered to students who have demonstrated skills by taking part in various activities such as enterprise, volunteering, etc. as well as the Higher Education Achievement Record (HEAR).
Few years ago, we created an explicit annotation of knowledge, transferable and cognitive skills gained through each programme of studies. Such branding is achieved by badges which map the Sheffield Graduate attributes onto learning outcomes; then, we "decorated" our unit syllabi and extra-curricular activities with those colourful badges.
From time to time, I take the opportunity of walking around our premises in the company of our many distinguished guests and I usually stop by at the following poster which hangs on our wall in two places (quiz: where?):
I am always amazed to see our guests holding their "smart" phones and taking a picture to take back to their home institutions. This is exactly when I feel deeply proud of the original and innovative way we came up with, to link the attributes to badges and eventually develop a graduate employability profile. At the same time though, I feel equally frustrated when I look at syllabi in which badges are mistreated as a bureaucratic routine and students who appear to be totally unaware of the issue.
Our purpose is novel; never doubt that! It takes some to believe in it and some time to find ways to promote this good practice. If there are any ideas, we will be glad to hear them. For the moment, let's talk about them in class while we go through the syllabus.
Let us all have a wonderful academic year!
Petros Kefalas
IFDLT
Although Higher Education claims to develop graduates with such properties, only few Universities have articulated their graduate profile. Even fewer have explicitly stated what the means are by which they achieve that. Unfortunately, University graduates world-wide hold a degree and a transcript solely indicating performance in courses.
Our University, the University of Sheffield and we, as its International Faculty, have built and applied an innovative way to map all curricula and extra-curricular activities onto our graduate profile. The University of Sheffield has a clear view of which attributes compose our graduate, such as ethical researcher, creative thinker, entrepreneurial problem solver, efficient planner and time manager, flexible team worker, etc.
A direct link of those attributes to their employability is provided through the Sheffield Graduate Award, offered to students who have demonstrated skills by taking part in various activities such as enterprise, volunteering, etc. as well as the Higher Education Achievement Record (HEAR).
Few years ago, we created an explicit annotation of knowledge, transferable and cognitive skills gained through each programme of studies. Such branding is achieved by badges which map the Sheffield Graduate attributes onto learning outcomes; then, we "decorated" our unit syllabi and extra-curricular activities with those colourful badges.
From time to time, I take the opportunity of walking around our premises in the company of our many distinguished guests and I usually stop by at the following poster which hangs on our wall in two places (quiz: where?):
I am always amazed to see our guests holding their "smart" phones and taking a picture to take back to their home institutions. This is exactly when I feel deeply proud of the original and innovative way we came up with, to link the attributes to badges and eventually develop a graduate employability profile. At the same time though, I feel equally frustrated when I look at syllabi in which badges are mistreated as a bureaucratic routine and students who appear to be totally unaware of the issue.
Our purpose is novel; never doubt that! It takes some to believe in it and some time to find ways to promote this good practice. If there are any ideas, we will be glad to hear them. For the moment, let's talk about them in class while we go through the syllabus.
Let us all have a wonderful academic year!
Petros Kefalas
IFDLT
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