A Certificate in Career Development Informal Assessment of

A Certificate in Career Development: Informal Assessment of Transferable Skills Jean K Gowans Deputy Director Careers Advisory Service University of St Andrews 29 June 2004

Outline • Certificate in Career Development: context • Development • Collaboration • Challenges of informal assessment • Student feedback and reflection

Certificate in Career Development: context • Career Education – twin programmes - Career information talks (occupations) - Skills insights • Employer interest in ‘enhanced profile’ • ‘Embedding, ’ ‘employability’ and lifelong learning issues • Student attendance

Development • Workshops, with high levels of participation • New Title – Career Development • Sponsorship and ‘validation’ • Model for mini-module • Apathy, IT, lures and rewards • Attendance: penultimate and final years

Collaboration • Employers • Academics • Student Enterprise • Students

Informal Assessment • Attendance – ‘credits’ given • Flexibility – in programmes and student choice – no compulsory sessions • Opens the way to new development • Strengthens partnerships • Challenges – quality/academic engagement/credibility/faculty needs

Feedback and Reflection • Popularity of the Certificate • A CV item – ungraded • Subjectivity • Credibility for model/statistics – Skills Mapping Template • Reflection – self-assessment