Abstract:

The Transform-EDU research project was a four year research project that was awarded €1.4m in funding from the Irish Higher Education Authority. A primary purpose of the study was to develop a suite of training modules and workshops to enable students to enhance their social and emotional competencies; hence, to foster graduate attributes associated with employability, and career success in their discipline. These were made available to students throughout their programmes of study. Mindfulness workshops were offered to first year students and focused on promoting self-awareness, intercultural awareness, and stress management. In Year 2 of study, learners were offered group-based emotional intelligence coaching workshops. In their final year of study, students were offered a work-readiness module with a practical focus to enable them to demonstrate mastery of key social and emotional skills for employment. This final year module was delivered in conjunction with employers and included employer–delivered seminars and workshops. On completion of the module, students were offered the opportunity to attend a mock, competency-based interview with an employer in their field of study and given feedback on their performance. A wealth of data was collected and analysed throughout the study. Data analysis confirmed that the study was a resounding success. Students at every level of study benefitted from engagement (there were statistically significant increases in mindfulness and decreases in perceived stress for first year students; there were statistically improved emotional intelligence scores for second year students; and feedback from both employers and students was positive with respect to the work-readiness workshops). Specifically, employers stated that they would be more likely to hire students who had completed the workshops that were offered and following the mock interviews, a majority of employers (70%) rated students as 'employable', an increase from 58% found in similar previous research (Jameson 2019). It is strongly recommended that social and emotional skills development and work-readiness workshops be embedded in all third level programmes.

Keywords:

Graduate employability, emotional intelligence, wellbeing.