Project overview
This was a collaborative project involving universities from across the UK. It is designed to explore how employability skills are developed in economics programmes across the country, both in the classroom and through different forms of assessment.
This is an important area of discussion for the discipline in general but particularly in the context of subject-level TEF and its focus on graduate outcomes.
Results
Employability Case Studies
- Employability Skills: History of Economic Thought at University of East Anglia
Fabio R. Aricò, University of East Anglia - Employability Skills: Time Series Forecasting at Swansea University
Steve Cook, Swansea University - Employability Skills: Economics Dissertation at University of East Anglia
Matthew Aldrich, University of East Anglia - Employability Skills: Placement Year at Aston University
Matthew Olczak, Aston University - Employability Skills: Economic Policy at Swansea University
Brian Varian, Swansea University
Project leads
The project was run by the Economics Network and Dr Cloda Jenkins (Principal Teaching Fellow, University College London).
Research approach
This was a qualitative research project. There are two dimensions to the research:
- Establish an understanding of what employability skills means in the context of an economics degree and whether there is a common view across economics programmes on this.
- For each skill area, identify how economics departments are teaching and assessing the relevant skills. This should provide ideas on what is feasible and what challenges arise.
This was done by surveying economics programme directors across UK universities, collecting case studies, and running focus groups with lecturers, students and employers.
