Introducing graduate employability skills to year 1 chemistry students : reflecting upon impact
Gibson van Mil, Lorraine and De Pascale, Egizia and Thomson, Patrick I. T. and Walker, Sarah and Scott, Fraser J. (2024) Introducing graduate employability skills to year 1 chemistry students : reflecting upon impact. Journal of Chemical Education, 101 (8). pp. 3003-3012. ISSN 0021-9584 (https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.3c01287)
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Abstract
Employability skills training is an important aspect of undergraduate chemistry degrees to ensure good graduate outcomes for students. In response to changes in the employability skills literature and to maintain good graduate outcomes, we redeveloped our Year 1 curriculum to include a dedicated graduate employability skills training (GEST) set of activities. They were designed and created to invoke transformative approaches to learning, peer group working and self-reflection on developing graduate attributes and employability skills. Our assessment of the effectiveness of the GEST focused on year 1 students’ perceptions of engagement and relevance of the bespoke training compared to the rest of their curriculum in developing the target skills. In general, it was shown that the dedicated GEST was well received for students self-identifying as a woman (including transgender woman), mature students, students from a low socioeconomic background, and students without a graduate parent or guardian; in all cases students recognized opportunities for a range of skills development. This contrasted with student cohorts who self-identified as a man (including transgender man), students with reasonable or significant work experience and students with a graduate parent or guardian who perceived no-little skills development as a result of engagement with GEST compared to the rest of the curriculum. Recommendations include better communication to articulate skill development opportunities in dedicated employability focused activities and across theory and practical modules in the curriculum, and to perhaps create dedicated employability activities for students who have less employability experiences, less science capital, or those who come from a low socioeconomic background.
ORCID iDs
Gibson van Mil, Lorraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1461-5359, De Pascale, Egizia, Thomson, Patrick I. T. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9831-9199, Walker, Sarah and Scott, Fraser J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0229-3698;-
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Item type: Article ID code: 89823 Dates: DateEvent13 August 2024Published11 July 2024Published Online21 June 2024AcceptedSubjects: Education > Theory and practice of education > Higher Education
Science > ChemistryDepartment: Faculty of Science > Pure and Applied Chemistry
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > Strathclyde Institute of Education > EducationDepositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 02 Jul 2024 15:08 Last modified: 05 Oct 2024 00:41 Related URLs: URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/89823