JISC

SHED is delivering a ‘student/employer matching service’ which will demonstrate how professionalism can be embedded into learning pathways through enabling students to relate their learning to employer demand and expectation.  Students will give employers secure and controlled access to data by, and about them, using innovative technology. Employers will contribute to students’ progress, influencing choices of pathway and specialism, and students, employers and institutions will benefit from best match for work-based learning activities, more employer engagement and sector intelligence.    

Teaching and learning
SHED will report on and demonstrate how innovative technology can help students integrate professional learning into their University/College experience and support them to take more responsibility for their own learning, through incentivising pro-active behaviours in skill development and employer engagement. It will enhance the current drives in HE to maximise re-use of curriculum information and to develop new tools for students to engage with programme/module learning outcomes. It will enhance the experience of work-based learning by addressing the barriers to secure data sharing for bespoke workplace projects, especially in contexts where learning outcomes can be restricted because of sensitivities about communicating online about confidential material.

Information Services and systems
New mappings and standards (XCRI/LEAP2A/InterOperability) will offer institutions new practice in developing business intelligence with a service-enabled set of tools. Through use of open standards and web service technology, the services and systems developed will be lightweight and have the potential to be interoperable with other data sources using the same open standards.  

Institutional employer engagement
Demonstration of new ways to draw employers into engagement with student learning through interaction with the students themselves will also open routes into employer partnerships for institutions.  The proposal provides a re-useable, sustainable and low-cost model for advanced student, employer and institutional relationship-building.

Objectives

The main objective is to develop and demonstrate a ‘student/employer matching service’ which will provide service-enabled, personalised lightweight online interfaces for:

• The student  - “a gateway to the employer” to control access to their data, share research and career-related information to provide trusted access to employers
• The employer - “a gateway to institutional knowledge” enabling an intelligent search to trawl shared institutional and student data
•  The Institution – “an Employer-skills-demand-barometer” using intelligence gathered via an audit of background use of the services

The project team will work with student and employer groups from both institutions to establish user requirements and to pilot and test developments.  

Anticipated Outputs and Outcomes

The project will provide: 

• Institutions with a new model for developing employer engagement and routes to professionalism and employability for students
• A model for other contexts, e.g. apprenticeships, progression and lifelong learning
• New ways to engage students with employers / work-based learning
• Demonstrate new uses for interoperability standards
• Demonstrate the benefits of controlled information management

Documentation will be disseminated via the web/conferences and will include:

• A scalable model and architecture
• Web services, standards documented and made available
• Sustainability reviewed throughout
• Ongoing discussions on best practice and findings