My research question is: “How can the careers and employability delivery be adapted to better meet the needs of international students, particularly in relation to awareness and preparation for employment opportunities in their home countries?”
This is a Research project that aligns with my teaching practice and ambition to better understand the challenges international students face when navigating career opportunities both in the United Kingdom and in their home countries?
After a lot of consideration and exploration of other ideas (some of which are included in the Research section on this blog) I decided to focus on a project proposal that will offer me the potential to expand on and deploy within the curriculum on the BA (Hons) Graphic Design Communication course at Chelsea. Too often Employability workshops are viewed as extra-curricular when they should be embedded within unit delivery or as part of an assessable project.
As Menz (2020) explains,“The differentiation between academic skills on the one hand and employability skills on the other is no longer relevant or appropriate in the 21st-century knowledge economy.” Menz calls for mandatory skills development modules that unify the two. Mario Menz is a Course Leader at London Metropolitan University
The Chelsea student cohort consists of a diverse array of students from different countries including students from the UK. The challenge of this is how I am able to deliver and offer careers and employability guidance that can fairly support without bias this diverse array of design students.
This is an extensive task, for the context of this project proposal I intend to develop a small scale intervention that each student will be able to use as starting point as a way to build awareness into possible future career trajectories.
In response to a set of questions students will consider their own skills and interests and to start to think about where they may consider working in the future. Question example: Are you considering returning home to start your career in design. If you are, why have you come to this decision?
Further to this, students will be encouraged to develop their own Careers and Employability Padlet as way to build their own bespoke digital resource. This Padlet will be a useful resource in which each student will be required to populate their own data. Normally, the content of year 2 employability workshops is forgotten by the time they are studying on year 3 as they work towards their final Degree show. The aim is for this Padlet is to help eradicate this loss of information and knowledge during the transition from years 2 to 3. Ideally moving forward my intention is to embed Careers and Employability more thoroughly in the latter part of year 1 (awareness) and embedded throughout years 2 and 3.
Producing employable graduates: integrating employability into the curriculum.
As Yates (2025) states,‘Embed employability from the start — don’t postpone to the final year’. Derek Yates is an Associate Professor & Head of the Creative Lab at Ravensbourne University
________________________________________________________________________________
Bibliography & Resources
Producing employable graduates: integrating employability into the curriculum
https://ding.global/producing-employable-graduates/
(Accessed August, 2025)
Integrating academic skills and employability
https://jpaap.ac.uk/JPAAP/article/view/393/549
(Accessed August, 2025)
Kaplan report on international students’ employability needs
https://www.hepi.ac.uk/2021/10/14/international-students-need-more-relevant-careers-support-if-uk-is-to-remain-a-destination-of-choice/
(Accessed July, 2025)
British Educational Research Association (2024) Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research.
https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/ethical-guidelines-for-educational-research-fifth-edition-2024 (
(Accessed: July 2025)
The Design Council: The Design Economy
https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/our-work/design-economy
(Accessed January, 2025)
The Design Council
https://www.designcouncil.org.uk
(Accessed January, 2025)
Creative Attribute Framework
www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange/careers-and-employability/creative-attributes-framework
(Accessed January, 2025)
Creative Shift
https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange/academic-enhancement/creative-shift
(Accessed January, 2025)
UAL Insights
www.arts.ac.uk/partnerships/outreach/applications-for-ual-insights
(Accessed January, 2025)
Action Research: Closing the gap between theory and practice. Syafiq Mat Noor, University of Leeds (2020)
www.bera.ac.uk/blog/action-research-closing-the-gap-between-theory-and-practice
(Accessed January, 2025)
Creative Research Methods, A Practical Guide by Helen Kara(Bristol University Press, 2020)
www.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-research-methods
(Accessed January, 2025)
Sage Research Methods:
The Tools at Hand (Survey Questions) By: Jean M. Converse & Stanley Presser (Pub. Date: 2011)
(Accessed January, 2025)
Let’s Be Brief: Value Canvas © Let’s Be Brief (2020)
www.letsbebrief.co.uk
(Accessed January, 2025)
The Future is Clever: an Interview with Lets be Brief (2019)
www.zetteler.co.uk/news/2019/04/17/the-future-is-clever-an-interview-with-lets-be-brief
(Accessed January, 2025