The History Passion project is investigating the role of passion in teaching, what inspires and sustains it, how it is demonstrated in interactions with students, and what impact it makes. What makes a university historian into a passionate teacher? What difference does passion make to our students anyway? What contribution does it make to preparing graduates to make a good living in the 21st century?

Incorporating surveys, reviews and interviews, the project will build an archive of pedagogic life-stories and other materials to reflect the passion found in university history teaching and enable richer conversations about its significance and value.

David Nicholls has written an update to his 2005 HEA publication "The Employment of History Graduates" which includes up-to-date information and examples to inspire our community and prospective students asking the question - "What's the Use of History?"

The update can be found along with David's original work on 'The Employment of History Graduates' and 'The Employability of History Students',  in the History Subject Centre's eLibrary ... The Employability of History Students ... or view the project page for more details.

Adding Value: Improving the Numerical Skills of History Undergraduates

- details the key findings of a three-year investigation into the teaching of numerical skills in history programmes at a time when the decline in numerical competency amongst undergraduates is of major concern.

As this project reaches its conclusion, details of the investigation into curricula, possible requirements and examples of support and best practice will be shared here.

The History Subject Centre is funding The Assessment of work place learning in UK undergraduate History programmes, at a time when opportunities for work place learning (WPL) are increasingly being offered in History courses.

Although there is a vast literature on work-based learning, there is comparatively little written on the assessment of this form of learning. This project aims to address this omission and offer examples of best practice to support the central importance of assessment to teaching and learning.

Take a look at the project's interim report: January 2011

Employability in the History Curriculum will follow the transformation of a Community history module into a broader 'Employability-focused' module: combining WBL, placement within the history/heritage sector, and career management skills.
As an interesting counterpart to the History Passion Project, the new module intends to include talks by academics, private and public sector specialists on how they reached their positions. What are the differences between their academic history degrees and their work in history? How did their degree prepare them for the work, and what are the current issues in their field?

The Hull History Partnership Scheme will work to enhance the provision of History education in the city of Hull, in schools and higher education.

It aims to show how the History community can work together to recession-proof History graduates and aid in the revitalisation of recession-struck inner city communities. The project has received Subject Centre funding for the development and embedding of an 'Applied History: Work and Community' module.

The project findings so far were presented at our Annual Conference, April 2011. Take a look at the presentation details.

This section will include a series of online training resources that are being developed as 'off-the-shelf' tools for history departments.

Numerical and database skills are increasingly valued in the workplace, but these resources will have at their core the enhancement of research and analytical skills for historical study.

The aim is to enable departments to incorporate relevant, history-based excel database skills training into their modules.