Introduction
Purpose of the study
-
RQ1. Which pedagogical innovations focused on employability skills integration and recognition could be fostered by the Employability Skills Micro-credentialing (ESMC) methodology?
-
RQ2. How may the ESMC methodology promote employability skills visibility, transparency and trustability for employability purposes?
Background
Context and the significance of the problem
Micro-credentials as a contribution to enhance employability
Micro-credentialing employability skills in the higher education curriculum
The EPICA micro-credentialing methodology
Articulation 1
-
Inquire into their own curricular and extracurricular experiences to identify significant situations within and outside their academic contexts which could provide direct or indirect evidence to demonstrate the development of their employability skills;
-
Reflect on how the situations they had identified contributed to the development of these skills and select pieces of evidence that best illustrate their application. Each piece of evidence is presented with a description providing contextual explanation;
-
Integrate their learning by elaborating a reflective narrative that carefully explains and justifies how the overall evidence presented demonstrates their skills. A skill-specific rubric with the assessment criteria enables students to self-assess their level of development, and thus guide the justification and the presentation of the evidence.
Articulation 2
-
Writing or reviewing the presentation of themselves, including their short bios and pictures and other relevant information considered of interest to an employer;
-
Reviewing their awarded digital badges and evidence to start developing a script of a short video presentation;
-
Adding new evidence on achievements that contribute to build a more comprehensive portrait of their capacities;
-
Recording a 3 to 5-min video testimony to communicate their profile to a prospective employer following the STAR method and highlighting their experiences and achievements;
-
Customize the ePortfolio paying attention to the formal organization of all elements and to aesthetic aspects before sharing with an employer for appraisal.
Materials and methods
Research context
Research design
Data analysis
Categories | Lecturers | Students | Employers |
---|---|---|---|
Pedagogical principles | -Inquiry, reflection, integration process -Outcomes assessment | -Inquiry, reflection, integration process -Outcomes assessment | -Inquiry, reflection, integration process |
Employability enhancement | -Employability -Skills showcase -Transparency -Visibility -Micro-credentials | -Employability -Skills showcase -Transparency -Visibility -Micro-credentials | -Employability -Skills showcase -Micro-credentials -Transparency -Visibility -Bridge the gap -Recruitment |
Experience | -ESMC process implementation -Professional development -Students learning gains -Stakeholders engagement | -Learning gains -Platform -Student training -Stakeholders participation | -Appraisal process -Stakeholders engagement -Students learning gains |
Methodology Uptake | -Adoption potential -Scalability | -Adoption potential -Scalability -Proposals for future implementation | -Adoption potential |