TED-style talks to enhance employability

Namvar, S

TED-style talks to enhance employability

Namvar, S

Authors

Dr Sara Namvar S.Namvar@salford.ac.uk
Associate Professor/Reader

Abstract

The academic and career achievement gap experienced by students coming from disadvantaged
or underrepresented backgrounds is well known but extremely dif cult to address. Students who belong to groups that are underrepresented in higher education, devalued or stereotyped, struggle to feel they ‘belong’, which affects achievement (Baumeister and Leary, 1995; Strayhorn, 2012). Interventions that create cooperative learning can help overcome this feeling of not belonging (Buchs and Butera, 2015). Creating a strong community of learners and providing a safe space for students to develop professional social skills is invaluable to students. In our own practice at UoS we are interested in developing innovative teaching tools that help overcome the gap created by structural inequalities such as socioeconomic background, ethnicity and culture. The careerEDGE employability model highlights the importance of self-ef ciency, con dence and self-esteem in successful employability (Dacre Pool and Sewell, 2007). Indeed, acquiring these attributes allows graduates to leave a lasting impression, facilitating interview success. It is important to note that characteristics such as con dence likely relate to the students’ accumulation of “graduate capital” (Tomlinson, 2017).