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The University of Southampton
Careers, Employability and Student EnterpriseStaff

Good Practice Centre

Sharing best practice
Sharing best practice

In this section:

Latest Research and Innovation

Access key research, literature and resources

Useful resources and guidance

How can you make a difference to your students? Where to start and how we can help.

Models and Tools

Find out more about models and tools that can be used to support good practice on the topic of Employability.  Find out more about the Graduate Capital Model and the Career Readiness Test how they can be used to help students develop lifelong skills and assess their career readiness

Employability in Practice

Examples of good practice and innovation from across the University

 

Latest Research and Innovation

Higher Education Academy

As well as their free resource pack (Embedding Employability) the Higher Education Academy website includes a range of employability research. In 2017, the HEA supported the publication of Employability: A review of the literature 2012 to 2016 (2017). Examining 187 pieces of research, it gives a detailed insight into how the subject of employability has been addressed during a four-year period with key implications for higher education providers, academic and employability practitioners.

However, key patterns in the literature suggest that effective strategies include:

Employability and Assessment

JISC includes advice about how to align employability and assessment, as well as some example case studies of good practice in assessing employability.

 

Useful resources and guidance

We are currently building this section. Once complete you will find resources relating to good practice.

 

The Graduate Capital Model

The Graduate Capital Model was originally created by Dr Michael Tomlinson, Associate Professor, in the School of Education. It builds on his extensive research in the field of employability. Careers and Employability have adapted the model to meet the needs of students at the University of Southampton by creating a set of learning outcomes suited to our students.

Tomlinson defines capitals as ‘key resources that confer benefits and advantages in the labour market’ (2016). Importantly for us, Dr Tomlinson thinks that there is scope for capitals to be reflected upon and developed to better serve students during and after their education. 

There are five capitals in Tomlinson’s model: Human Capital, Social Capital, Cultural Capital, Psychological Capital and Identity Capital.

Introduction to the Graduate Capital Model

Find out more about the Graduate Capital Model and the 5 capitals

Making use of the Graduate Capital Model

Help students to develop lifelong skills

The Career Readiness Test

An online test for students to assess their career readiness in line with the Graduate Capital Model learning outcomes

To find out more and make use of the Graduate Capital Model and the Career Readiness Test, please contact:

careers@soton.ac.uk

We welcome comments and feedback about the content and application of the materials from colleagues at the University of Southampton and beyond.

All use of these materials should be fully acknowledged as the Intellectual Property of the University of Southampton. The original concept being Dr Michael Tomlinson's (Tomlinson, M.B. (2017) 'Forms of graduate capital and their relationship to graduate employability', Education + Training Vol.59 Issue:4, pp338-352) and subsequent material including the Learning Outcomes and Career Readiness Test being created by Mccafferty and Port (2017).

 

The Career Readiness Test

An online test for students to assess their career readiness in line with the Graduate Capital Model learning outcomes

 

Excellence in Employability

We are currently building this section. Once complete you will find examples of practice from across the University that have had a demonstrably positive impact on students. Examples will include a combination of Faculty-led initiatives and those developed and delivered in partnership with Careers and Employability.

17th May 2017 - Enhancing Employability: Sharing and Developing Innovative Practice

You can now watch videos of each session and download the presentations from the day via our intranet

Do you have an example to share? Please get in touch.

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