Teaching and learning strategies for embedding key skills: reshaping a marketing programme

Information, communication and technology skills (ICT) are directly relevant to the development of graduate skills, the benchmarking of the Business and Management Subject, employer requirements for more skilled and prepared graduates, quality of education provision and the government's policy on lifelong learning (Dearing, 1997). Employers have expressed concern regarding graduates in that, "whilst new recruits may have the expected knowledge and understanding, they display a serious inability to apply that knowledge effectivelyto real workplace situations" (DfEE, 1998:30). As such, the role of higher education is increasingly to inculcate the development of the type of skills that will ultimately bridge the developing training gap between education and employability for graduates. This paper will explore the training needs identified by employers and discuss the research undertaken at Edge Hill College of HE to integrate and contextualise ICT and other key skills within an undergraduate marketing programme in order to ensure that graduate are not excluded from the workplace. The action research and implementatin of teaching and learning strategies has been undertaken through collaboration between Library and Information Services (LIS) and the subject area of Business, Management and Leisure (BML). The objectives of the research were to: Identify and define the concept of graduate skills with specific reference to ICT; Evaluate how experiential learning can facilitate the development of ICT skills; Analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of the revised curriculum; Evaluate the collaboration between LIS and BML in supporting the development of effective teaching and learning strategies. The paper will consider and evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching and learning strategies, including the design of the curriculum, the focus on experiential learning activities adn the learning materials and resources produced (including web based). It will also provide an analysis of student feedback and recommendations for future developments in key skills embedding withn an undergraduate programme