Can students be ‘nudged’ to develop their employability? Using behavioural change methods to encourage uptake of industrial placements

ABSTRACT

Preparing students for employment involves encouraging ownership of their employability and engagement in opportunities that can help them improve it. Industrial placements play an important role in this but declining numbers of students are undertaking them. Using data collected over a three-year period at a Business School in a UK university, this paper will explore an intervention based on nudge theory designed to increase the uptake of these placements. Drawing upon behavioural science, it will explore nudge theory and its criticisms. It will discuss the concept of employability, including the tensions between the necessity of promoting students’ ownership of theirs and the inherent assumptions that they will engage in opportunities to achieve this. Critical assessment of how the nudge intervention worked will be provided, demonstrating how almost half of those ‘nudged’ responded positively, thereby successfully increasing the uptake of placements. It will identify soft outcomes, notably the breaking down of some typical behavioural barriers to placements and encouraging students to think reflectively. It will offer recommendations for replicable practice in other universities; specifically a model for developing nudges not only in relation to employability but within higher education more broadly. It concludes by proposing a new pedagogic definition of employability.

KEYWORDS:

• Employability
• nudge theory
• higher education
• work placement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julie Fowlie

Julie Fowlie is Deputy Head (Education and Student Experience) at Brighton Business School. She is interested in improving the student experience, with a focus on helping students develop their employability. Julie leads on a number of student engagement initiatives and is was responsible for the academic module undertaken by Business School students whilst out on placement. Her research interests include the use of LinkedIn and formation of pre-professional identity, alongside success at work and university.

Clare Forder

Clare Forder is the course leader for the Integrated Foundation Year progammes at Brighton Business School. She leads on foundation year and final year modules on developing professional practice in business and is interested in all aspects of employability. Clare also supports student engagement activity within the Business School. Her research interests focus on areas of employability such as pre-professional identity formation, LinkedIn, and inclusivity.