With a focus on my wider creative practice, the ARP project has given me the opportunity to consider how I connect more clearly my skills, areas of interest and expertise to a deeper research culture within my teaching practice. Whilst research and development underpins my work, unit delivery and studio teaching, moving forward a greater awareness of systems, policy and existing UAL support structures will enhance and frame more clearly the delivery of my student facing work.
This learning experience has exposed me to research methods and toolswith the aim to test, refine, and align my vocational undergraduate teaching with industry demands, student needs, and pedagogical practice, ensuring graduates are well prepared for employment after graduation.
Further to my work and proposal during this unit, I am pleased to move forward with a tangible outcome and increased awareness of the challenges faced by international students. I will have further opportunities during the forthcoming academic year to test and implement my findings as follows:
Speak to and discuss this topic further with year 3 undergraduate students.(Data gathering).
Test the Intervention with both year 2 and 3 undergraduate students during term 1.
Encourage these cohorts to reflect on their skillsets, consider their first career steps and set up Padlet.
Develop ideas and content for the year 3 Careers and Employability unit that I will be leading from September 2026.
Speak to my line manager about how I can manage a teaching and research practice within my .6 fractional position at Chelsea.
Meet with the UAL Careers & Employability and Alumni teams with a view to increased involvement and visibility within my taught sessions.
Further thoughts to be considered in the future, in no particular order: include:
How can I collaborate with employers, alumni, or overseas organisations to improve students’ awareness of opportunities in their home countries?
How can I complement the UAL Careers and Employability service and delivery?
How could this improved provision impact international students’ satisfaction, career readiness, and grdautae futures?
The development of my students facing research evidence within within my teaching practice.
A (2021) study by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and Kaplan states: ‘Careers support is a big consideration when choosing where to study: An overwhelming majority of international students say the careers support (82%) and employability skills (92%) they thought they would receive were ‘important’ or ‘very important’…Yet only around half (52%) think their institution is doing well at satisfying the careers support needs of international students.’ This illustrates how inadequate careers and employability delivery is for international students, highlighting a gap in delivery. Underpinning questions around adapting service delivery to better meet international student needs—especially if we consider extending support tailored to employment in their home countries.
In response to this data (listed above) and to the results of the student questionnaire shared earlier, it would be interesting to gather a cross section of data from the International students at Chelsea.
Reflecting On My PG Cert Learning Journey
Before commencing on this third and final unit of my PG Cert studies, I have been reflecting upon this learning journey, what I have learnt, the experience of being a student, the challenges of study and in particular managing time whilst engaging with all areas of my teaching and creative practices along with reacting to family issues, illnesses and a bereavement during the latter part of my studies on this course. This could have been an ARP research question in itself.
I have asked myself, ‘could I have managed my time any better during this academic experience if I worked on one course rather than across multiple courses and universities’? The answer to that question, I would have to answer is ‘I don’t know.’ Or being really truthful, no matter what the level of on going working commitments, I would have struggled with time during this learning experience. A valuable learning experience for me to reflect upon about managing time and prioritising work within a given time frame.
Arriving in academia with 20 years design industry experience, early challenging exchanges with teaching colleagues have at times caused me to doubt ‘Why am I here?’. Feelings such as ‘less than’ or ‘an imposter’ have prevailed throughout my time and work at UAL (University of the Arts London). Coming to the realisation that I am already ‘doing it’ during my time on this PG cert course, has empowered me with a sense of ownership of my teaching practice. My aim now is to develop and enhance my teaching delivery with a clearer academic framework to supplement my industry experience, skills, and knowledge.
The teaching observations during unit 1 and the work I engaged with in response to and bias in unit 2 proved to be not only insightful but also extremely important in the development and growth of my teaching practice. My human and empathetic attributes have always been key in the delivery of my teaching. The teaching throughout this course and in particular during unit 2, has resonated with me not only in an academic context, but it also challenged me to consider what I have learnt and how I could apply it to all areas of my life.
Moving forward, my principles and an awareness of my strengths and weaknesses, how I respond to them and where possible improve on them, will be fundamental to the continued development of my teaching practice.
For this project intervention I met and spoke with six final year undergraduate 2024-25 students to discuss their experiences whilst studying at Chelsea. After these initial conversations, they responded to the questionnaire via email.
The detailed granular responses are a great examples of a collection of honest and open conversations within safe spaces. This level of feedback will give each student ownership and autonomy and data collection on Padlet as a way to chart their academic learning to support carers development and awareness.
This feedback will be very important and informative for my next steps. I am so pleased with these responses. For further details please read further into the accompanying slides.
From the outset of this project journey, my ambitions have exceeded the time sensitive realities of balancing my studies with my design studio and academic practice commitments. Teaching across multiple courses, managing the needs and wants of multiple cohorts at 3 different institutions has challenged my time, organisational skills and the level of my engagement I have been able to commit to whilst studying on this unit. Initial thoughts (included in this section) have been considered and evolved. What I have gained from this Research and Development process is a greater understanding and very importantly an awareness of where my teaching practice can be evolved. I do believe that this learning journey is the entry point into continued development and application of these findings within my teaching practice. Moving forward I will consider and review further initiatives that I can introduce to support international students. Alongside this, I will consider how I can embed existing UAL careers and employability services more visibly within my careers and employability lectures and workshops.
Initial Thoughts & Ideas
From the start of this learning jourrney, my aim has been to deliver a project with the purpose and functionality. A project that can support the development of outward facing ‘Hidden’ skills with the iaim to equip the students with a greater awarness of the Design Industry and next steps.
As Yates (2025) states,’Addressing the ‘hidden curriculum’ subtle but critical professional behaviors like communication, confidence, punctuality, and teamwork — explicitly within course outcomes’. Derek Yates is an Associate Professor & Head of the Creative Lab at Ravensbourne University
This is a previous research question example which I will come back to at a later date — Industry Connections: Can existing UAL tools be used effectively within my studio sessions to guide and inform students about areas of employment?
Their are several aspects of this tha can be applied to my teaching practice. In particular, how I frame and deploy more clearly the existing UAL tools and resources within my careers sessions — Within this project’s context, the focus would align with the Creative Attributes Framework (CAF).
I embarked on this project intending to develop the artefact that I delivered for the Inclusive Practices Unit. The artefact is; Beyond UAL — A Global Design Directory & Employability Website. It is a proposal for a website, primary purposes of this site will include the advertisement of job opportunities and a design directory database of design practices and practitioners with a focus on countries beyond Europe. The aim of which is to support a large globally diverse student cohort that are often underrepresented in employability and industry sessions that have a UK or European focus. Key to the proposal is how to connect with the UAL community and services provided, including Alumni networks, Knowledge exchange, Diploma for Professional Studies and the Creative Attributes framework.
Creative Shift and the services it provides aligns with my values and teaching practice. However, I made the decision that the development of my IP artefact might be too much to take on with this project and all my other working commitments in mind. Instead, I decided to focus on how I can enhance the delivery of my teaching using a singular mechanism to transform the structure of a project. At this point I wasn’t entirely sure what this should be and how it would look? The decision I made was to think practically, think smaller in order to achieve something tangible and transferrable from this opportunity.
Inspired by feedback from my IP unit tutor Shani-Louise Osei. Shani said, ‘Your artefact shows a thoughtful examination of how we can adapt existing tools to support progression.’ Considering Shani’s feedback, I decided to focus on how I can embed more clearly these tools into my studio Industry sessions at Chelsea. Often, these available support systems are seen as extra-curricular and are overlooked by students. Situating CAF within my industry sessions would help the students inform and structure their journey from academia to the global design industry. And importantly become aware that they have choices and possibilities after graduation.
I came to the realisation that the scope and depth of this project idea required more time that I had available. As I previously stated, this is something that I would like to explore at a later date. From this evolved a more manageable project proposal that can be used as an entry point into the the development of a greater understanding of the chalenges faced by International students.
Ethics Workshop / Sage
My unit 1 tutor feedback included the word ‘principled’ when describing my teaching in the observation. I was pleased about this, as important facets of my teaching practice encompass inclusivity, belonging, and fairness along with promoting respectful sharing and listening amongst the students. My positionality statement in which I include my family states, ‘I am a white man, married to a black woman, together we have a daughter who is bi-racial.’ This is hugely important to me and the application of my racial values when working with others and the diverse student cohorts at UAL. Being mindful of how these cohorts feel in the teaching spaces. Is there a sense of belonging and inclusion? This permeates into all areas of my practice, the visual references that I use, historical and contemporary points of reference, looking beyond Europe to include an array of examples and the consideration and visibilty of diverse teaching teams in academia and industry.
The Ethics workshop challenged me to delve a lot deeper to explore a wide range of resources. The consideration of language and how questions are constructed is something I had not fully considered before.
In the Sage Research Methods ‘The Tools At Hand’ Survey Questions I was interested to read about pretesting questions for meaning and task difficulty amongst other things. I extensively use questionnaires within creative projects to start conversations to help orientate students into the Discovery phase of a new project brief or self-initiated task. The due care and consideration of what these questions mean and why they are being used proved to be extremely useful when considering the questions for my employability workshop questionnaire as part of this research process.
When and where possible I connect personal and lived experiences to my teaching practice. My research and teaching practices are Autoethnographic. Qualitative research that explores interests, motivations, and subjective experiences was the catalyst to use the Let’s Be Brief Value Canvas within this project research as a precursor to exploring Employability. This adaptable canvas can be used to contemplate skills and interests or as a useful tool within project development.
As Kemmis, McTaggart, & Nixon (2014) say, ‘Action research integrates the processes of pedagogical transformation and theory generation. As pointed out by Elliott, action research focusses on closing the gap between the roles of theorist and practitioner; both involve theoretical and action activities, practitioners are theorists, and theorists are practitioners.’
Inspired by this quote by Syafiq Mat Noor, and in particular this line ‘practitioners are theorists’ I moved positively forward with a sense of ownership in response to my reserach question.
The resaerch process on earlier iterations of this project idea is as follows: studio observations were undertaken, and I embedded various questions into several of my teaching sessions. The questions were paper based, on reflection I would also consider the use of capturing data digitally by for example using as a Mentimeter to start conversations and capture data.
BA Interior Design: Graphic Composition Workshop (October 2024)
During the first semester of this current academic year, I have tested student facing questions and questionaries within the delivery of units, presentations, and workshops on the following courses and units:
UAL Chelsea College of Arts: BA Graphic Design Communication Unit 5: Strategic & Creative Practice and Unit 6: Collaborative & Collective Practices
UAL Chelsea College of Arts: BA Interior Design Graphic Design & Communication Workshops. Covering areas such as: presentation skills (verbal and visual), portfolio development, sharing your work with industry, compositions, working with type and images, building your online profile. Key skills that are transferrable attributes for more than one discipline.
UAL London College of Communication Unit: Professional Practice (Self-generated work and an outward facing client project).
Supported by teaching colleagues across all the courses listed, I asked for and received feedback from my teaching peers which helped me understand how to implement my aims and tasks more clearly into my workshops. Enclosed are example pages from these presentations and workshops containing questions, tasks, and provocations. The intention of these was to challenge the student to look beyond the project’s delivery and to consider themselves within the question, or to think about who the audience is, the value of an idea or their own innate values and how they can deploy these within a task or process. The overarching theme or outcome of learning is outward facing, communication and connecting with others.
Turning the lens of discovery and research on themselves (the students) proved to be an uncomfortable experience for some. However, there was a clear understanding by the cohorts in attendance that the questions and questionnaires were an insightful and useful method in which to collect their own set of data about themselves. Which can be used to help orientate them in directions that can be context specific or have a clearer understanding of their developing creative practices and an understanding of self. Often, students are not fully connected with why they are here and the opportunities available to them.
Presentation / Workshop Task Examples
Feeling slightly overwhelmed by the amount of research reports in the book: Creative Research Methods, A Practical Guide by Helen Kara, I found the accompanying presentation Creative Research Methods – Arts based methods (part 1 of 3) by Dr Helen Kara insightful and useful as an entry point into this topic. Breaking down the different research methods has been helpful to my understanding of what research can be and what it can mean within a context or question.
Creative Research Methods by Dr Helen Cara
And in particular Transformative research frameworks Transformative and Indigenous research (part 3 of 3) www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpnexrLZBT4 in which it is stated ‘people involved are likely to have different kinds of knowledge; communication is key.’ Cara goes on to talk about the Importance of Communication and the interesting insights about the research in Barcelona ‘Critical Communicative Methodology” and the resistance of the European ‘Roma’ people who felt abused through research.
‘Everyone Has something to offer, something to contribute to the research process.’ Dr Helen Cara
This approach brings a sense of democracy and inclusion to me and participants. I also find this liberating for academic spaces that I inhabit, that sometimes can feel unwelcoming or exclusive. Furthermore, I have gathered data and resources available on the UAL Creative Attributes Framework portal and The Design Council website. To be used a structure and framework for my ARP project connecting to my teaching practice.
Using my workshop questions, the aim is to align these questions to the three different attributes; 1. Making Things Happen 2. Showcasing Abilities 3. Navigating Change
Awareness of practice and career trajectories
I have chosen this topic and question to it align this learning experience with my teaching practice, whilst connecting with my professional practice including employability, connecting with the design industry, self-generated collaborative work and working with clients. Considering how to structure my outward facing academic work to connect more clearly with available UAL tools and resources whilst exploiting my practice skills and interests appeals. I currently divide my time between Design education and Design practice with a focus on Graphic Design and Art Direction, these areas intersect which inform the modes of delivery in my teaching practice.
During this workshop the aim is to create awareness and to offer the students more extensive possibilities to structure their own autonomous network with a clear focus on their own skills and interests. Rather than responding to my prompts for where to locate design practices, jobs and employment opportunities, my industry knowledge, and my industry network. Furthermore, this would be beneficial to how I can respond to time-sensitive pressures and manage my time across multiple courses, an ever-expanding student cohort whilst operating within my fractional post.
The ownership of a student’s research and practice learning journey can be further enhanced by a greater focused understanding of practice trajectory and the vocational application to a practice or practices within the creative industry. With many entry points into employment after graduation, this can feel overpowering and bewildering for students. Preparing the students for future opportunities ahead of their final year of studies in readiness to apply for internships and work opportunities, building online profiles and connecting with like-minded creatives and networks will equip students with confidence for the challenges ahead. These soft transferrable skills such as communication, time management, teamwork, problem solving, leadership and critical thinking will be required and deployed throughout a career in design.
Asking the student to consider specific practical questions such as what do you value? What are your interests, your values, defining your community and what matters to you? And very importantly in these financially challenging times, do you want to, and can you afford to stay in London after graduation? And how much do you need to earn every month to pay your bills? Whist setting tasks for students to read the about sections on agency websites and research the gender balance and diversity with an agency. With the aim for students to look beyond the work and investigate how the work is made, who is making it and the studio culture and environment where the work is made.
‘Another insightful and inspiring session today, I am feeling really engaged with these talks I wish we had you for longer this year, this is the most engaged I have felt during this course. I guess I’m just wanting to say that I’ve been really enjoying the units you’ve been leading I think they’ve been the best we’ve done so far, I’m currently doing some posters based off of the pictures I showed you last week, the film ones I took of the architecture in Liverpool, your Instagram and twitter page really inspired me to do this. I hope I will be able to talk to you soon about internships because I am new to this whole creative industry stuff, and I feel like you would be able to point me in the best direction suited to me. Thanks again really been enjoying these talks on a Monday.’
(BA Graphic Design Communication Student, 22.01.24)
My industry expertise allied with an awareness of the available UAL tools will bring greater student awareness of future possibilities, and how to think and be agile when making those all-important first steps into the creative industries.
The design economy is a major employer. In 2019 the design economy contributed £97.4bn in Gross Value to the UK economy. In 2020 there were 1.97 million people working in the design economy — or 1 in 20 workers in the UK. Of these, 1.62 million were designers.
Since completing his studies, Laurie has spent the best part of a year trying to figure out who he is as an illustrator, how he wants to approach commissions and promote himself, and what he wants his portfolio to represent. He’s made books, worked on collaborative projects and learned the basics of networking and self-promotion. He admits, though, that his initial feelings when graduating flitted between excitement and nervousness: ‘I was excited to work freely on what I wanted, whenever I wanted – but also nervous. My vision of being an illustrator was very idealised. It’s so much harder than you think it’s going to be when you’re in college.’
Laurie’s quote is a useful insight into the challenges and realisation of what ‘work’ means that face students upon graduation. Introductions to outward facing skills and employability before a student reaches their final year of studies, is a way to mitigate the anxieties that many students deal with when thinking about and finding suitable work to match up with their skills and interests. An awareness of what employment within the creative industries looks and feels like is something I have been embedding within my teaching. Commencing in Term 1, Year 2, gives the students more time to consider and explore what a career and employability mean before navigating through their final year of studies on an undergraduate degree course.
Taken from Arp Workshop 2
Furher Reflections: At this point of the development of this project idea, this slide from the 2nd ARP workshop proved to be a fundamental moment when considering what I needed to do next. The point about ‘Analysing previous evaluation of content’ eg NSS, made me start to reconsider my research process. I have exoerence of the NSS and CSS student feedback loop which is hugely important for the health and development of the course and curriiculum. Often the the quieter and international student voice will cut through this process, bringing different opinions and tone of voice. With this in mind I decide to approach this opportunity in a different way in order to incorporate much more clearly:
The Student Voice
Careers Employability
International Student Support
It is at this stage that I settled on my research question which will inform my Intervention: “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?”
Ethical Action Plan
______________________________________
Further notes and research for future reference for unit development work:
Yorke’s Employability Model comes from the work of Mantz Yorke (2006), who researched employability in higher education. His model is often referred to as the USEM model, and it provides a framework for understanding employability as more than just “getting a job.”
The USEM Model
Yorke proposed that employability depends on the interaction of four components:
U – Understanding
Subject knowledge and how it can be applied.
The intellectual depth and grasp of a discipline that a graduate brings.
S – Skills
Practical and transferable skills such as communication, teamwork, ICT, numeracy, problem-solving, and self-management.
E – Efficacy Beliefs
A student’s confidence in their ability to make things happen (self-efficacy).
Includes resilience, adaptability, and belief in one’s capacity to succeed in different contexts.
M – Metacognition
The capacity for self-awareness, reflection, and managing one’s own learning.
Includes knowing how to learn, evaluating one’s strengths and weaknesses, and planning for personal development.
______________________________________
Why It Matters
Yorke’s model emphasizes that employability is not simply about skills training, but about the interaction of knowledge, skills, personal agency, and reflective ability.
It has been influential in higher education policy and curriculum design, encouraging universities to support both academic and personal development.
Summary
Yorke’s USEM model provides a powerful lens for understanding employability as a process, not just an outcome. For international graphic design students, the most effective approach is:
Develop strong design understanding while applying it in global contexts (U).
Build robust technical and transferable skills (S).
Cultivate confidence in your abilities to adapt and present yourself (E).
Reflect and self-regulate continuously to grow and stay attuned to industry shifts (M).
By internalizing this model, students can strategically shape their career paths—whether aiming for roles in global design studios, freelance international projects, or culturally-aware branding.
Dacre Pool and Sewell proposed a practical framework called the CareerEDGE model, designed to show how graduates can become more employable by developing a blend of skills, experiences, and personal qualities.
Core Components (the “building blocks”)
Career Development Learning (CDL) – Understanding career pathways, recruitment processes, and how to plan/manage a career.
Experience – Includes work-based learning, internships, volunteering, and life experiences that provide transferable skills.
Degree Subject Knowledge, Understanding & Skills – The disciplinary knowledge and subject-specific skills gained through higher education.
Generic Skills – Transferable skills such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, IT, and numeracy.
Emotional Intelligence (EI) – Self-awareness, empathy, motivation, emotional regulation, and social skills to work effectively with others.
Reflection and Evaluation
Students must reflect on and evaluate these experiences and skills to understand their strengths and areas for development.
Reflection helps build a realistic and confident self-assessment.
Resulting Psychological Factors
Through reflection, three crucial psychological outcomes are developed:
Self-Efficacy (belief in one’s ability to succeed)
Self-Confidence
Self-Esteem
These underpin graduates’ ability to present themselves effectively to employers.
Overall Employability
Employability is achieved when graduates combine their knowledge, skills, and experience with strong psychological attributes (confidence, resilience, self-belief).
The model stresses that employability is not just about having skills, but about being able to articulate and apply them in career contexts.
Prompt “Summary of the employability model – Dacre Pool, L., & Sewell, P. (2007). The key to employability: Developing a practical model of graduate employability.” — ChatGPT (version date unknown) / OpenAI / (July 2025) / www.chatgpt.com
______________________________________
These materials will form the basis of further research as I start to think about how I will write and structure the projects that will form the new year 3 Careers and Employability unit. This is the first time I have explored and used Chat gpt as part of a research process. I was tenative at first, however I can see the benefits when prompts are targeted and appropriate entry points into further research materials.
Another interesting and useful resource by Mantze Yorke and Peter T Knight was sent to me by one of my tutors Catherine Smith. Containing a dense amount of information, structure and guidance about how to embed employability in the curriculum. This has been added to the to do list.
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
I am a Senior Lecturer at UAL Chelsea College of Arts and an Associate Lecturer at UAL London College of Communication and London Metropolitan University. Alongside my academic teaching I am a practicing Art Director and Graphic Designer with over thirty years experience. My teaching practice encompasses my experience working within the design industry sector which I am keen to embed within my academic practice. This includes: connecting the student to industry experience whilst developing their awareness of skills required within the design studio, inclusivity within the studio environment and empowering the student on a human scale to help them develop their own autonomous working practices. Underpinning these areas of interest is an empathic approach to teaching to a diverse student cohort across multiple universities and courses. Knowledge exchange, sharing insights and the understanding of soft skills are fundamental to my teaching practice and student learning journey.
The aim and intention of this blog is to share evidence of my work undertaken on this unit including process, development work and reflections followed by a final conclusion. Further to this, I intend to test and develop this work and findings during the forthcoming 25-26 undergraduate academic year. From September 2026, I will have the opportunity to be the lead tutor on a new careers and employability unit that will run for one day a week throughout year 3 on the BA (Hons) Graphic Design Communication course at Chelsea. The work undertaken during this unit will be of benefit to my work on this unit and offfer me a tangible further outcome beyond this unit.
