How is Employability Embedded in the Psychology Curriculum at UW?

This research project sought to explore the theme of employability in the psychology curriculum in partnership with students, with a key aim of establishing how individual modules have embedded support for employability (e.g. module content, assessments, class-based activities, opportunities for research participation, guest speakers) to enhance the development of knowledge, skills and experience across the programme. The project was undertaken to focus on a range of modules since course developments were implemented in 2013, which involved moving away from the use of a standalone work-based learning module, where the focus on developing employability skills was previously concentrated, and moving towards embedding employability in all modules across levels 4, 5 and 6. The impetus for this initiative was to ensure that the single honours programme and the range of related course pathways in psychology developed a strong focus on employability across a range of occupational contexts including health, business, counselling, forensic, education, clinical and sport. This research adopted a qualitative design using semi-structured interviews with module leaders on the psychology programme at UW to explore module content, assessments and opportunities to develop skills and gain experience. Content analysis of the data is in progress to identify how employability is embedded across the programme. The overall findings and implications of the research will be presented and discussed