A presentation from the STEM Annual Conference 2014.
This oral presentation stems from the 2013 launch of the HEA publication 'Employability in Psychology a guide for departments'. The nature and 'fit' of notions of employability are considered in relation to the discipline the competencies and academic abilities it may develop patterns of employment in Psychology and undergraduate ambitions. These ambitions are explored through a qualitative (interpretative phenomenological analysis) study of individual psychology students interviewed two years apart before and after graduation shedding some light on students’ lived experience of the graduate transition.
Within STEM disciplines it is possible that the notion of employability may be reaching a status similar to that of motherhood and apple pie without sufficient critical examination or practical articulation. Here learning and teaching for employability is examined in relation to the liberal university tradition of Newman to contemporary definitions and approaches to learning and the recent history of expectations and perceptions of UK universities.
Practical implications for embedding employability in teaching assessment and the undergraduate curriculum especially in Psychology are considered. It is contended for example that theory and research in Psychology underpin the notion of employability yet the undergraduate curriculum may reflect either this material or expertise. By changing the curriculum to do so employability aims can be addressed without compromising scholarship or a focus on the discipline. 'Employability in Psychology a guide for departments' contains a large number of examples of innovative practice specific to the discipline and it is suggested that individual STEM disciplines may benefit from a discipline-specific approach to employability that translates employability into specific settings.
