1-7 February 2010

This week's Update returns to the important themes of employability and skills development.  Employability is central to student development at Leeds Met.  Last week the Employability Priorities for 2010-2012 were presented to the Quality Enhancement Committee.  Our focus is on developing a culture in which all staff take responsibility for supporting all students in increasing their life chances and in developing their skills and experience by providing integrated development opportunities coupled with opportunities for extra-curricular activities which develop modern workplace skills.  The full text will be available from the Employability Office in due course.

Among the priorities are a requirement that each programme of study should:

. seek to provide appropriate work-related and work-based opportunities for our students and employers
. involve employers in various stages of the student experience; for example coaching, curriculum design, guest lecture opportunities, course advisory panels, assessment, commercial experiences, mentoring and coaching
. support the local employer community through reciprocal relationships and joint projects.

This week's reflection shows how these principles have been put into practice through an innovative cross-Faculty partnership which benefits a leading charity while providing work experience and employability skills.

This week we are also delivering the first sessions in a project aiming to help people who have been hit by the economic downturn to develop skills for the workplace.  'Learn with Leeds Met' provides free classes, delivered in community rugby clubs, in subjects such as Web Design, Business, Events Management, Health and Sport, with sessions taking place in Keighley and Wakefield from 1-4 February.  The tutors are currently unemployed recent Leeds Met graduates.  Funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) through the Learning Revolution Transformation Fund, the project offers informal learning opportunities to people who might not normally encounter university learning, and also highlights progression routes to further study with Regional University Network colleges.  We have published a booklet to support those returning to learning on short courses: copies can be ordered from publications@leedsmet.ac.uk.

Reflection

The leading veterinary charity PDSA has been caring for sick pets since 1917 and has one of the highest numbers of veterinary surgeons and nurses in Europe.  Finance for its operations generally comes from legacies and donations.  However, purchases from its 180 retail outlets contribute significantly to funding PDSA's free veterinary services.

PDSA's retail outlet in Headingley is benefiting from a major overhaul through an innovative cross-Faculty partnership.  Final-year Retail students in the Leslie Silver International Faculty have researched and proposed the future direction of the Headingley store which includes targeted merchandising zones, new store design and an art gallery.  To launch PDSA's new focus, Andrew Edward's Level 6 Graphic Arts and Design students will have the opportunity to use their creative and enterprising skills to full effect.  Students from the University's Community Partnerships & Volunteering programme will also be called upon to collect clothes and academic books.  Working in an interdisciplinary capacity is giving our students employability skills that they will remember and draw upon for years to come.  Applied theories are being developed in a real-life project that has meaningful and tangible outcomes - both academically and from the heart - and more poorly pets will be helped back to health.

Dr Alexandra J. Kenyon
Senior Lecturer
Hospitality and Retailing
Leslie Silver International Faculty

For more enterprise projects taking place across the University, see the Institute for Enterprise project pages.
(Photo courtesy of PDSA)

Update

Congratulations to Duncan Folley, whose research paper on 'The lecture is dead: long live the e-lecture', presented at the 2009 European Conference on e-Learning (ECEL) in Bari, Italy, has been selected for publication in the associated special issue of the Electronic Journal of e-Learning (EJEL).  The paper was originally written for Duncan's MSc in Blended and e-Learning at Napier University, which he undertook with Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund (TQEF) funding.  Duncan has also been invited to join the panel for selecting next year's research papers.  Janet Finlay and Andrea Gorra from the Technology Enhanced Learning team also had a paper about podcasting, presented at the 2008 International Conference on e-Learning (ICEL), published in the EJEL special issue for the conference.  They also published a second paper about blogging in the journal together with a PhD student, and Andrea has been asked to chair a mini-track for the next ICEL conference in Malaysia.

Sally Brown
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic)
S.Brown@leedsmet.ac.uk