Embedding Employability into the Curriculum on the Business Management Course

John Byrne

Through work-based learning, placements, and simulated industry experiences, our approach ensures employability is seamlessly integrated into the academic journey. This model enhances student career readiness while simultaneously adding tangible value to their educational experience. 

Employability is at the heart of our curriculum, structured around real-world application and experiential learning. Our Business Management programme incorporates employability as a key pillar, ensuring that students are equipped with the skills, knowledge, and behaviours required to succeed in their careers. The curriculum is designed to provide students with progressive exposure to professional environments, following a structured developmental approach. 

Borrowing from industry have integrated a Strengths based underpinning to our approach to the development of our students. This approach was innovative because it addressed student employability outcomes from a totally different angle, by instilling confidence in each student’s unique set of strengths.  In doing so, we are developing our student’s workplace skills through strengths.   

We undertook extensive research into recruitment processes, which indicated the increasing prevalence of strengths-based approaches.  The business school partnered with strengths pioneers and early careers experts, Cappfinity, to overhaul student employability. 

While many approaches to PPD highlight weakness and gaps, Strengths highlight capabilities and potential, embracing each student’s story. Strengths are formed out of adversity, as much as success. Crucially, as well as identifying Realised Strengths, which students use frequently, the Strengths approach identifies Unrealised Strengths, Strengths which, if unlocked through practice, hold the key to their potential.   

We applied this approach to underpin a comprehensive and structured development model for employability from Level 4 through to Level 6, essentially, forming the fourth thematic pillar of the Business Management Programme. The outcomes have been improved student satisfaction, a huge leap in career readiness, placement numbers which outperform pre-pandemic levels, and a higher number of students securing roles with Times Top 100 graduate Employers. 

At Level 4, through core employability units,  students begin by exploring digital awareness and professional development. They identify, articulate, and develop their professional Strengths -profile using strengths-based coaching. The curriculum introduces them to digital presence, helping them develop LinkedIn profiles and networking strategies. Each student creates a FutureMe Plan, which serves as a personalised employability development roadmap. A mandatory careers fair and networking event ensures students engage with employers and alumni, building confidence and familiarity with industry expectations. This closely aligns with the goals of the University Careers service that students EXPLORE their professional identity and possible careers at level 4. 

In Level 5, core unit students move on to creating a professional identity through employability and managing their digital footprint. They engage with live application processes, including CV writing, application letters, and interviews. Simulated recruitment cycles prepare students for real-world hiring processes by immersing them in assessment centre activities. LinkedIn engagement becomes a structured part of their learning, ensuring that students develop an online professional identity through meaningful professional updates. Activities which may otherwise be viewed as optional, e.g. careers fairs and enhancement week, are fully embedded in reflective essays, making engagement with these a compulsory part of the student experience.  This closely aligns with the goals of the University Careers service that students at level 5 should be able to CREATE opportunities.  

At Level 6, all students complete work-based learning and professional practice. The curriculum ensures all students undertake a synoptic work-integrated project rather than a traditional dissertation. The project provides flexibility, allowing students to choose between a consultancy project with an external organisation, participation in a young enterprise or start-up initiative, or involvement in a sustainability or community impact project. The work-based learning component is compulsory, ensuring that all students gain professional experience before graduating. In this sense, the experience of a full time undergraduate closely aligns with that of an apprentice, completing work-based projects which focus on Knowledge, skills and behaviours. Simulating professional activity, just as those in work have a PDR meeting, each final year has to have the equivalent meeting (and Strengths based) with their personal tutor in order to ensure that they are engaging with graduate career planning, and this is further assessed and embedded through a small reflective piece. 

Impact 

Taking as an example the BA (Hons) Business Management programme  which was amongst the first to pilot the new approach, since 2021, the number of students from this programme securing placements with Times Top 100 Employers has skyrocketed:  

• 2021-22: 2% (Pre-Strengths) 
• 2022-23: 15%  
• 2023-24: 30% 

Over 5,000 students have engaged and the positive response from students has fed into feedback 

In student feedback surveys 

• 98.5% of first-year students agreed or strongly agreed that the programme had helped their personal development – Internal Student Survey, March 2023 
• 97% of second-year students agreed or strongly agreed that the programme had helped their personal development – Internal Student Survey, March 2023 

The proportion of the cohort securing year-long placement has doubled over three years.  

Understanding strengths has been a catalyst for students to engage with career support, evidenced through engagement with the extra-curricular and co-curricular RISE Scheme, with students in the Department for Strategy, Enterprise and Sustainability far exceeding other departments with a score of 66.9, the next highest scoring was 37.2.  

The impact of our employability-focused curriculum is evident through student success stories, employer engagement, and graduate employment rates. Our students consistently report increased confidence in their career readiness due to the hands-on, work-based learning embedded in their studies. Industry engagement has significantly strengthened, with many students securing placements, internships, and full-time roles. The Careers Fair and networking events have proven to be essential stepping stones for students, providing direct interaction with potential employers and alumni who share their professional insights.  Employers have praised the structured approach to employability, citing graduates as well-prepared, commercially aware, and equipped with industry-relevant skills. They have also benefited from the opportunities our approach has offered to engage with our students, through shout-outs, careers fairs, workshops and as invited assessors at our assessment centre. The programme’s emphasis on experiential learning, from business start-up to live consultancy, has translated into a curriculum that produces highly competitive and capable graduates who seamlessly transition into the workforce.