School of Health & Wellbeing

Boosting employability prospects is a key priority for students. Many students, particularly online distance learning students, however, face barriers to engaging in employability development opportunities while studying.

Embedding employability skills within the core curriculum has several well-evidenced benefits such as fostering student engagement with core subject learning and creating a more equitable learning environment. While case studies for promoting employability in the curriculum exist, they are rarely focused on online learning.

In a project funded by the UofG Learning and Teaching Development Fund, the MSc Global Mental Health Programme team set out to increase learners' employability skills and awareness by systematically integrating those in the core online learning.

To achieve this:

• They first carried out a job market analysis to understand what core competencies were prioritised by employers.
• This led to the development of a new, bespoke global mental health employability framework.
• Informed by this, they developed a range of curricular innovations such as pairing learning materials with excerpts from job ads in order to enhance students' reflections on the range of professional skills they are developing.

We encourage colleagues to consider the contemporary and future job landscapes, and ensure the curriculum evolves to adequately prepare students for the competitive and challenging world of work.

Colleagues can access the Good Practice Guide online. To give feedback or ask questions, please contact Dimitar Karadzhov.

Dimitar Karadzhov
Lecturer (School of Health and Wellbeing)

Find out more about the MSc in Global Health

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First published: 22 August 2023