Employability & Personal Development Planning Conference 2010

Employability & Personal Development Planning Conference 2010

Employability and Personal Development Planning Day Conference
14th January 2010
University of Worcester

The University of Worcester is pleased to offer a Day Conference on Employability and Personal Development Planning on Thursday 14th January 2010 which will, through keynotes, showcases and short parallel workshops:

  • Examine the latest research on PDP in the region,
  • Explore the potential of PDP as a means of developing student employability,
  • Share and discuss the variety of PDP and employability provision across the University.

Keynote speakers:
Ms Brenda Little, Principal Policy Analyst, Centre for Higher Education Research & Information, Open University
"Blurring boundaries…whose learning is it anyway?"

Brenda Little is a Principal Policy Analyst in the Open University’s Centre for Higher Education Research and Information (see www.open.ac.uk/cheri for further details on CHERI’s work).  She is currently managing the UK’s input to a study of Changes in Networks, Higher Education and Knowledge Societies (CINHEKS), part of the European Science Foundation’s Higher Education and Social Change collaborative research programme. She directed the 2009 HEFCE-funded study into Student Engagement, and co-directed the interim evaluation of Lifelong Learning Networks, also for HEFCE. In recent years, she has  completed a number of studies looking at relationships between higher education and work, including a study for Foundation Degree Forward on the impact of Foundation Degrees on students and the workplace, a study to assist the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s development of a strategy for workplace learning, and a study for the Higher Education Academy looking at students’ learning through work placements.  She managed the UK’s input to a European Commission-funded study of graduates and their roles in the knowledge society, and was a member of the HEFCE-funded national co-ordination team for enhancing student employability (ESECT).  In previous CHERI work she has investigated several aspects of progression to, and through higher education (including prospective students’ perceptions of higher education; work-based progression; student engagement with work and studies and impact on attainment), and with John Brennan, Director of CHERI undertook a wide-ranging review of work based learning in the mid-1990s (commissioned by the (then) Department for Education and Employment) which culminated in the publication ‘A Review of Work Based Learning in Higher Education’ which remains highly relevant to current debates in higher education.

and

Professor Ros Foskett, Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Worcester
"Embedding employability in the student life-cycle"

Ros Foskett started her career teaching geography in schools and FE followed by a period of self-employment as a curriculum consultant. She has worked in Higher Education since 1990, firstly in a College of HE (variously as lecturer, programme manager and Dean), and then at the University of Southampton where she held several senior roles including Associate Dean for enterprise and innovation in the Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences and institutional lead for employability and employer engagement. She is currently Deputy Vice Chancellor and Professor of Higher Education at the University of Worcester.

Her teaching specialism is in post-compulsory education and training. She has also been involved in a number of research projects at Southampton and Worcester. These have included participation in higher education, partnerships between universities and business, career and education decision-making, and leadership and management capacity building in African universities.

If you are travelling to the conference the following information may be useful:

Visitors can find a map of the campus at

http://www.worc.ac.uk/documents/U_of_Worcs_3D_Site_Map_(8-06).pdf .

By Car

Visitors travelling by car should use the long stay car park (car park M near the Severn Gate entrance) at a cost of £2.00 per day.

By Rail

Worcester is served by two train stations:

Worcester Foregate Street
is situated in the City Centre and is a twenty minute walk from the University and some five minutes by taxi;

Worcester Shrub Hill
is a thirty minute walk from the University and some ten minutes by taxi.

By Bus
Worcester Bus Station is situated in the Crowngate Shopping Centre in the City Centre.
The numbers 31, 31a, 31b and 31c Henwick Park Services operated by First and Diamond travel through the St John's Campus, stopping outside the Students' Union building.

If you have any questions please contact Flo (e.floisand@worc.ac.uk)