The role of social enterprise in student employability: the case of SIDshare, a co-curricular student led social enterprise

ABSTRACT

Within Geography, as in other disciplines, the neoliberalisation of Higher Education has led to an increasing curriculum focus on graduate attributes with student employability as an outcome. The multiple and competing discourses of employability that shape pedagogies can at times ignore social enterprise and enterprising skills that are too often neglected within geography curricula. In this contribution we draw on our experience working with SIDshare, a co-curricula student run social enterprise operating as an NGO (non-governmental organisation), to show how enterprising skills nurtured through student communities of practice have enhanced employability. Drawing on a series of semi-structured interviews undertaken with graduates who previously participated in SIDshare we analyse how their engagement contributed to graduate employment outcomes. SIDshare had increased not only the development of enterprising skills and entrepreneurialism but also encouraged the development of transferable, so-called “softer skills”. These included strong interpersonal skills, team skills and good working relationships as well as professionalism developed through participation in an extracurricular student community of practice alongside engagement with external partners. Effectual and causal reasoning skills were developed further encouraging entrepreneurialism. Graduate interviewees clearly demonstrated that their career success had been aided by their involvement in the co-curricular student led social enterprise, SIDshare.

KEYWORDS:

• Employability
• enterprising skills
• communities of practice
• social enterprise
• international development

Acknowledgements

A version of this paper was presented at the University of Sheffield Learning and Teaching Conference 9-10th January 2020. We are grateful to participants in our session for their questions and feedback. Thanks also to Ruth Healey for her helpful comments on the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/guidance/teaching-and-learning/enterprise-and-entrepreneurship#overview.

2. SID represents Sheffield International Development.

3. https://fieldcentre.org.uk/.

4. https://apex-live.shef.ac.uk/pls/apex/f?p=136:1.

5. https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/geography/undergraduate/careers-employability.

6. https://careers.dept.shef.ac.uk/studentgems/external/graduate.php.