MEDEV

School of Medical Sciences Education Development

Introduction

An employable graduate is one who can perform those roles and responsibilities expected of those entering their profession. But what is ‘employability’ and how can medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine teachers ensure they are developing it?

What is employabilty? At the level of the individual medical, dental or veterinary student, it refers to their capability and suitability for employment in their chosen profession at the point of entry to that profession.

An employable graduate is one who can competently perform those roles and responsibilities normally expected of new graduates to the profession.

This ‘fitness for purpose’ includes a grasp of core knowledge but also has a special reference to the capacity to work effectively in their professional environment and to identify and choose a career which matches their aptitudes and aspirations.

Curriculum design

When applied to the curriculum the term refers to how the curriculum can be designed and delivered to effectively achieve these outcomes.

For example, the revised edition of ‘Tomorrow’s Doctors’, published by the GMC in February 2003, directly states that ‘The principles of professional practice set out in Good medical practice (GMC 2001) must form the basis of medical education’. Unfortunately this goal is not always achieved.

For example a recent survey by Goldacre et al. showed that many recent medical graduates were dissatisfied with the level of preparation for their jobs’ provided by their undergraduate training.

A similar pattern is suspected to exist in dentistry and veterinary medicine though more research is needed in all three areas

Employability or employable?

Not everyone is happy with the term employability and indeed it is not essential to use that particular word.

What is important is that our programmes deliver the outcomes which lead to ‘employable’ graduates.

Although substantial progress has been made there are still aspects of the design and delivery of our curricula where considerable improvement is possible.

For example, it is already true that virtually all of our students get jobs, but do they always choose or enter the specialisms they are most suited to or where there is a shortfall in demand?

Also, are they always adequately equipped with the mix of appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes to perform their roles as well as we - and they - would like?

A key strategy in developing employability is to use work based learning and it is certainly true that we already make very extensive use of work based learning in the clinical environment.

However, the quality of that experience is immensely variable as is the degree to which it is integrated with the theoretical base.

Improved strategies

There is much work still to be done in developing improved strategies and approaches to clinical attachments.

It could even be argued that in some ways the situation is deteriorating, due to intense service pressures which tend to crowd out the education provision to students.

It is equally certain that the managers and teachers of the medical, dental and veterinary undergraduate programmes are under intense time pressure and perhaps employability seems like just one more ‘initiative’ to be somehow incorporated into an already crowded schedule.

Employability is a central purpose of the curriculum rather than an ‘add on’ and enhancing employability is primarily achieved through auditing, fine-tuning and highlighting what is happening where in the curriculum.

Good learning

There is no conflict between ‘employability and good education’. Rather, ‘employability is enhanced by good learning, and can be incorporated without damaging the subject specific dimensions of learning.

Indeed, medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine programmes have always regarded the development of such qualities and capabilities as an intended outcome.

LTSN-01 has been funded by the Higher Education Academy to promote the identification and sharing of good practice in the field of employability and as part of that process we have set up a Special Interest Group to explore the most effective ways to achieve this goal.

Special interest group

From it, and going forward, we aim to identify the key priorities in the area of employability and to review strategies for raising positive awareness of employability as an approach to further enhancing the design and delivery of the curriculum.

We also hope to examine the range of resources available to support employability and consider how they might be adapted to our needs in medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine.

If you are aware of particular resources which you think might be of interest, then we would be very happy to hear from you.

Another key goal of the group is to identify and share examples of good practice in meeting the employability goals.

Again, if you are doing great things on the employability front then we would love to hear from you. Conversely if you feel you have any lessons in how not to do it – then that would be useful too!