Career Development Learning and Employability in Practice – Examples from Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK

The embedding of Career Development Learning (CDL) into the curriculum is an important collaborative effort between Employability Services and academic teams. This session will explore the journey underway at NTU and discusses the development of an ‘Employability: Teaching Toolkit’ to support academic colleagues. We will share examples of how these crucial aspects of learning are addressed in practice with students and highlight how Employability Services are working collaboratively with course teams to support the student journey.

The Synthesised Model of Reflection: A vehicle for scaffolding and assessing the Employability Redefined Taxonomy. A pilot among Psychology students

The Synthesised Model of Reflection is a new model for assessing reflective writing which is being piloted among Psychology students. The model allows for the Employability Redefined Taxonomy to be integrated, to scaffold students’ holistic learning and development, providing a clear guide of domains to reflect upon. Students can track their lifelong learning, as well as incorporate learning from lifewide experiences simultaneously. This longitudinal model, which synthesises multiple experiences into a single written reflection, is aimed to support students’ holistic development. Preliminary ideas from the Level 4 and Level 7 evaluations will be shared.

Building an Unseen Anchor: Strength-Based Narrative Career Counselling for University Students

“Feeling lost” is a common career concern shared among university students that resulted in them suffering significant emotional distress (e.g., anxiety, fear, helplessness, hopelessness) and being stuck in career development. Traditional career guidance focuses on linear job matching of defined work environments and is limited in addressing the emerging landscape and emotional dimension of career development. The strength-based narrative career counselling model underscores the dynamic interplay of vocational psychology, mental health, and psychotherapy, which attends to the importance of enabling students to actively extract meaningful inner strength from facilitated career stories, thereby fostering individualized solutions to emotion-laden career dilemmas and a grounded sense of self in the unsettling dynamic and boundaryless nature of the work realities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biography

Ms. Cassie WHITE

Ms. Cassie White is School Employability Manager for Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in the UK. In this role Cassie supports academic colleagues across the School with the integration of learning to support employability within the curriculum at undergraduate and postgraduate level. In addition to this role Cassie acts as module lead for the Diploma and Certificate in Professional Practice awards and helps to co-deliver on employability learning content across the curriculum. Cassie also directly oversees the work of a small team tasked with developing our institutional offer in terms of work integrated learning projects with students. Cassie is an accredited strengths practitioner and enjoys supporting and encouraging students to recognise their own values and qualities when reflecting on their future career opportunities.

Ms. Carla CAMPBELL

Ms. Carla Campbell is Curriculum Content Manager within Employability Services at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in the UK. Carla is a qualified careers professional with over 14 years’ experience working in higher education, further education, and business outplacement support. In her work at NTU Carla currently leads in the design and delivery of career development learning, with a focus on embedding employability into the curriculum across all courses. Most recently Carla worked with Dr Doug Cole to create Developing with NTU, a new student facing and research informed piece of work that acts as scaffolding for learning across all courses and subject areas. Carla is currently in the process of mapping this to employability delivery and an approach to curriculum planning.

Dr. Iain WILSON

Dr Iain Wilson is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology within NTU Psychology. He specialises in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning within Psychology, with particular interests in employability learning and written assessments. Iain is currently working on a sabbatical, in the 2022-23 academic year, which is evaluating a new model for assessing reflective writing; the Synthesised Model of Reflection, as well as developing resources to support the teaching, learning and assessment of reflection. His other areas of activity include leading on the Scholarship Innovation Forum (SIF) for Reflective Practice and Writing in the School of Social Sciences, as well as leading support for fellowship applications to the Higher Education Academy (HEA) in NTU Psychology. Iain has previous experience as Course Leader for the MSc/PGDip Psychology Conversion Course (BPS accredited) and contributes to specialist teaching on employability-focused modules as well as Occupational Psychology modules.

Dr. Lan-Sze PANG

Dr. Lan-Sze PANG is currently part-time Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Counselling and Psychology at Hong Kong Shue Yan University and maintains a private practice specializing in postmodern career counselling. Dr. Pang served as Director of the Doctor of Psychology in Counselling Psychology programme and is the founding director of the Practice-Based Evidence (PBE) Lab at HKSYU, where she was also involved in the preparation and launching of the first and only Master of Social Sciences in Counselling Psychology programme in Hong Kong and was the first Assistant Director of the programme. Dr. Pang received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, and also Master’s and PhD degrees in Counselling Psychology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Dr. Pang’s clinical and research interests include strength-based narrative career counselling and assessment, career and identity development of college students, midlife adults and ethnic minorities, change process in psychotherapy and clinical supervision, psycholinguistic phenomenology in psychotherapy encounters, indigenization of multicultural counselling training, and experiential training in psychotherapy. Dr. Pang has designed and delivered a series of career workshops for international students in the United States, taught vocational psychology and counselling courses at the bachelor’s and master’s levels, and been invited to offer strength-based narrative career workshops for university students at various academic institutions in Hong Kong.