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Towards an efficient approach for examining
employability skills
Dr Stephen Garrett
Senior Lecturer in Applied Mathematics
Department of Mathematics
University of Leicester
www.le.ac.uk
The problem
• Employability skills will be the focus in post-2012 HE
world
• Traditionally confined to a small number of specialist
modules and final-year project
• Is it possible to:
a. embed skill development throughout; and
b. efficiently assess some skills in traditional
written exams?
Employability skills
• Bartram’s Great Eight Competencies
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Leading and deciding
Support and cooperating
Interacting and presenting
Analysing and interpreting
Creating and conceptualising
Organising and executing
Adaptive and coping
Enterprising and performing
• Here we concentrate on those assessable in
examinations
Designing a test exam question
• Open-ended exam question, no right/wrong answer
• L3/7 Theory of Interest module
• Control: “mini project”
• Two cohorts: BSc and MSc students
– BSc have extra exam question
– MSc have mini-projects
The (paraphrased) question
• You are the financial adviser to a small shoe making business
in Scottish Highlands
• Here’s some re assets and income
• Here’s a number of business and investment opportunities
• Recommend which to invest in, report the discussion and
result
– BSc (exam) statements with justifications
– MSc (project) 3000 word report to client
Common skills
• Despite different requirements re reporting, common skills
are being tested:
1. correct interpretation of information provided
2. correct choice of mathematical tools
3. accurate use of mathematical tools
4. justification of approach and of recommendations (and
appropriate communication style throughout)
5. clear statement of the recommendation
• Linked back to Bartram in the report
Was the exam question as “good”?
• Efficiency?
– Time to mark: 10 mins (cf 30 mins)
• Relevance?
– Interpretation: common errors/successes
– Choice of tools: common errors/successes
– Mathematical accuracy: common errors/successes
– Justifications: common errors/successes
– Communication
– Clarity/concluding statements: some did some didn’t
Conclusion
• Some employability skills can be tested in traditional
exams. This is efficient.
• Some cannot
Recommendations
• Programme level adjustments required:
– We should continue to run dedicated skills modules (group
work, presentations), which appropriate workload
allocations for assessments
– We should look to embed skills as thoroughly as possible
across all modules and assess in traditional exams (openended problems, computational tasks, present questions
in unfamiliar ways, etc)
Going forwards
• New BSc Mathematics with Actuarial Science
programme
• Chance for further study
• How best to teach employability skills?
• Are academics best placed to do so alone?
Questions?