Strengthening Students’ Employability Skills: The Development and First Evaluation of Multiple Approaches to Group Work

Abstract

Graduates are not always ready for the workplace, and higher education lecturers are expected to develop students’ employability skills. Group work is perceived to be an effective way to develop these skills. It is not clear, however, what types of group work are most effective for strengthening the business management student’s readiness for the workplace. Three approaches to group work were developed and implemented, namely, 1. A self-allocated group that worked together outside the classroom; 2. A random lecturer-allocated group that only undertook in-class activities; and 3. A pair that worked on a long-term community-service project. The article provides detail on the theoretical underpinnings, the application of the theory and a small-scale exploration of the perceived impact of the integrated approach. In an improvement-oriented evaluation study, business management graduates completed an open-ended questionnaire six months after starting employment. The findings suggest that integrating the three approaches in one module has the potential to improve different aspects of students’ employability skills. The insights gained from the implementation of the approach and the study could serve to guide lecturers in similar environments on how to design/plan group work in order to improve different employability skills.