'Usemyability’ (UMA). An Investigation Into Whether an Online Employability Skills Audit Can Enhance Students Understanding of the Term Employability

This project was completed as part of the students as
academic partners (SAPs) initiative. The project aimed to
ascertain the current level of understanding surrounding
students’ employability skills and how they may be improved. It was expected that through the use of an
online self-audit tool ‘usemyability’ (UMA 1) students
would be able to establish a benchmark from which to
track their development across a range of 16 benchmarked employability skills. A baseline questionnaire was completed by 31 University of Worcester (UW) students to investigate their existing knowledge surrounding the concept of employability.
Results suggested that students had a limited understanding of the term employability. Notably, students regarded employability as simply ‘getting a job’ (9 students suggested this) or ‘having skills’ (12 students noted this). Skills listed focussed around personal attributes (including reliability and confidence) illustrating discrepancies in what students think employers look for (attributes) and what employers actually look for (skills, literacy, being ICT efficient for example) (Archer & Davison, 2008). The UMA audit allowed students to document their skills and work experiences to date, as well as further educate students on employability skills. Students stated benefits associated with completing the UMA audit and provided relevant examples in support of this. A number of limitations to the project, including timing and length of the audit were identified by students. Further limitations identified by the researchers included the timing of the study within the academic year, low participation rates and attendance of participants on the day of the presentation of employability skills. A greater response sample is required to generalise the impact of the UMA audit on a wider scale.