What have you learned? Matching academic content to employability skills in an Economics undergraduate programme
Project leaders: Panos Sousounis
The project aims to create a bridge between standard material taught in an Economics undergraduate programme and the practical and employability skills conveyed to students. Through conversations between students at different levels of the programme and between students, faculty and practitioners (business people), we create a bank of digital media for wide dissemination and use in T&L in Economics, Management and/or related disciplines.
OUTCOMES AND IMPACTS
The main outcomes of the project were a roadmap (for beginners) in creating digital stories as T&L tools, and three digital stories of students discussing how their employability skills have been developed through their programmes of study.
The impact of this work is profound. Students have developed the ability to discern where and how their employability skills are being developed and, crucially, what we mean by employability skills. This is of greater benefit to those students who do not complete industrial placements as part of their programme of study.
FURTHER ACHIEVEMENTS
For educators, learning how to use digital stories to engage students with less obvious aspects of their programme of study allows for higher engagement and ultimately performance and satisfaction.
EVALUATION
Evaluation was done by means of open dialogue in focus groups of student participants and non-participants. As well as by commentary from faculty.