Employability can be defined as:

‘a set of achievements – skills, understandings and personal attributes – that makes graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy’. 

(Yorke, 2006)

The Embedding Employability in English project, funded by a HEA Teaching Development Grant in 2012-13, sought to:

• Explore the opportunities and challenges for departments in English and the wider Arts and Humanities that seek to enable students to develop vocational skills and experience work related learning in the context of their particular subject-based study.

• Develop ways in which such work related activity can be appropriately framed and supported to ensure ‘learning’ takes place, in scaleable and sustainable ways. 

As part of the project, we have worked with a number of local employers in the creative industries, marketing and administration to develop competitively selected opportunities for work related learning placements and reflection. During the first year of the project over 100 students gained experience of applying for a position: a successful cohort of 30 placement students were able to test out the skills developed in the context of their English studies in a workplace environment. Trialling and evaluating this placement activity has enabled us to develop guidance, challenges and useful case studies for others seeking to develop work related learning placements in an arts context. The links below  take you to advice on planning placements, case studies of successful placements, and resources generated by the project or which we found useful in developing our work.