Threading Career Skills into the Analytical Chemistry Curriculum
Prof. Bhavik Patel
School of Applied Science,
University of Brighton
"Threading Career Skills into the Analytical Chemistry Curriculum"
Enhancing student employability is a key aspect of any chemistry-based degree; however, embedding such activities in the curriculum is often challenging. Increasingly evident that a discipline-specific degree alone is no longer sufficient for employers. A wide variety of approaches to provided employability skills are utilised within chemistry degree programmes ranging from invited speakers to specific modules focus on skills. However, these provide a limited experience of real-life work. The best approaches to provide an experience of real-life work are placements or experiential visits, but these are not always inclusive. Therefore, a new approach is needed to provide students with a diverse array of employability skills that also closely reflects a real-life working experience.
Within this presentation, I will highlight a variety of educational activities we have implemented that thread a variety of career skills into the analytical chemistry curriculum to enhance student employability. These examples focus on the principles of work-integrated learning (WIL), the practice of combining traditional academic study or formal learning with student exposure to the world-of-work, is widely seen as an alternative approach to provide key employability skills. Examples highlighted will focus on how to enhance practical skills as well as other core transferable skills. These educational WIL activities are applicable in any discipline of STEM, thus providing a unique and inclusive way to provide a vast array of skills to enhance employability.
Prof. Patel is winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry 2021 Excellence in Higher Education Prize. READ MORE>Link opens in a new window