Employability: Real WoRLD Project Initiative

Employability at GCU: The Real WoRLD Project

Work-related skills for employability

Welcome to the website for the Real WoRLD project. Real WoRLD stands for 'Realising Work-Related Learning Diffusion'. Work-related learning is a key component of Glasgow Caledonian University's Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy. One of its strategic goals is to build students' competencies in the skills demanded by employers in a knowledge economy.

The project aims to raise the profile of employability across the university through encouraging all schools to embed work-related learning activities into their programmes, use innovative approaches in learning and teaching to enhance their students' professional skills and engage with employers on a regular basis.

News

Real World Employability competition for Student Leaders open for applications

The Students' Association is teaming up with GCU Lead to provide Student Leaders with a unique opportunity to put work related skills into practice.

Learning for the Real World – a film about work-related learning in the Law curriculum

This film was funded by the Real World Project. It is the result of a collaboration between Elizabeth Ather, the winner of Real WoRLD’s employability competition, and Claire Wason and Evelyn Ross who are fourth year students on the LLB programme.

International conference presentation (Austria)

Sabine McKinnon presented the results of the Real WoRLD pilot study at the European DEHEMS (Development of Higher Education Management Systems) Conference at the Vienna University of Economics and Business; view website

Employability Competition winners

Success for the winners of Real WoRLD's employability competiton. view Caledonian Magazine article

International Conference presentation (Greece)

Sabine McKinnon presents the results of the Real WORLD pilot study at the 7th International Conference on "New Horizons in Industry, Business and Education" on Chios Island in Greece; view slides.

International Conference presentation (Warwick)

Sabine McKinnon presented a paper on international students' perceptions of employability skills at an international conference "Internationalisation of Pedagogy and Curriculum in Higher Education: Exploring New Frontiers" at the University of Warwick.

The paper was entitled: "A mismatch of expectations? An exploration of international students' perceptions of employability skills and work-related learning" It will be published in the conference proceedings shortly.

New European research

New European research on "Competences for competetiveness" (C4C) published.

New guide for students, published by the CBI and the NUS

Working Towards Your Future: Making the Most of Your Time in Higher Education

Recent event on 13 May 2011 : Learning for the Workplace: Embedding Employability in the Academic Curriculum

The event was a great success. Over 60 delegates from 15 universities, two colleges, JISC and the HEA attended the day. They came from a wide variety of subject disciplines and institutional contexts. Everybody was happy to share their ideas and experience and present good practice examples.

The event was opened by Professor Mike Mannion, Vice Principal and Pro-Vice Chancellor at Glasgow Caledonian University. The keynote presentations in the morning were delivered by Sabine McKinnon (Lecturer in Employability and Real WoRLD Project Manager) view slides (PDF format); Professor Ian Hughes (Visiting Professor at the University of Leeds) view slides (PDF format) and Professor Bruce Wood (Director of the Centre for Creative Industries at Glasgow Caledonian University) view slides (PDF format).

In the afternoon a wide variety of workshops gave delegates the opportunity to discuss their practice in more depth. The feedback from participants has been excellent, for example:

"great speakers-all relevant and useful"
"the event provided great insight into employability and the issues surrounding it in Higher Education. It also provided examples of employability in practice"
"excellent presentations followed by lively discussions"

view photos of this event

Real WoRLD Project funds innovative employability projects

The Real WoRLD Project is pleased to announce that four projects from three schools have been successful in the bidding process for the Real WoRLD internal development funding award. They are: School of Life Sciences: Bio Employability Exit Initiative (Frances McInnes); School of Law and Social Sciences: Employability Outside the Courtroom: Real World Skills in Legal Research (Rhonda Wheate); Caledonian Business School: Developing Employer Engagement on the Business Suite of Programmes throught the Creation of an Employers Forum (Alec Wersun); CBS Entrepreneurial Teaching Initiative (Anne Smith).

Real WoRLD Project manager Sabine McKinnon says: “Many innovative approaches to learning and teaching are not put into practice because of a lack of funding. Even small amounts of money can make a difference to the student experience. We are therefore delighted to be able to support our colleagues in the schools.” The results of all four projects will be showcased in a Real WoRLD event in the new year.

New third sector internship project launched

Last week (25 November 2010) saw the launch of the four-year programme to develop up to 300 student internships in third sector organisations. Ninety people from third sector organisations, academic staff, students and other interested organisations attended the event at the Mansfield Traquair Centre in Edinburgh:

http://www.scvo.org.uk/uncategorized/third-sector-internships-scotland-launched-2/

Real WoRLD Project Manager Sabine McKinnon represents Glasgow Caledonian University on the project steering group. For further information about the project, please consult the project website http://www.qmu.ac.uk/TSIS/

Real WoRLD chosen as good practice example for Public Policy Exchange Forum in London

Sabine McKinnon was invited to present Real WoRLD as a good practice example at a Public Policy Exchange Symposium in London hosted by the Centre for Parliamentary Studies.The symposium was entitled "Universities Challenged: Is Our Higher Education Sector Fit for the Future?" view Public Policy Exchange Forum for further information

Report on the Real WoRLD pilot studies

'Closing the Gap: The Benefits and Challenges of Embedding Work-Related Learning in the Taught Curriculum'

HEA ICS Conference paper

Sabine McKinnon and June McCrae presented a paper at the HEA ICS Conference entitled: "Enhancing employability of computing students"

(view What is employability? page)

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