Enhancing Employability in Music: An Ethnographic Study into Students' Work-Based Learning Experiences

Dr Simone Krüger, Senior Lecturer in Music, Media and Cultural Studies, School of Media, Critical and Creative Arts, Liverpool John Moores University
Dr Siân Lincoln, Senior Lecturer in Media Studies, School of Media, Critical and Creative Arts, Liverpool John Moores University

Disciplines: Music

Status: Complete

Start date: 1/7/2008

Outcome format: Report

Outcome available: Yes

Employability… is a set of skills, knowledge and personal attributes that make an individual more likely to secure and be successful in their chosen occupation(s) to the benefit of themselves, the workforce, the community, and the economy. (Little 2006:2)

Employability is one of the most frequent buzzwords used in discussions surrounding the student experience in higher education today, which often seek to assess the impact of education on students’ transformations and acquisition of those skills that are particularly sought by potential employers. To this end, the project aims to implement and critically evaluate specific practice for the enhancement of student employability in higher education. Situated within the general subject area of music, the project will focus on students’ acquisition of skills relating to arts administration and management, and assess the impact of such learning experiences on their employability in the music and creative industries more widely. Specific focus will be placed on students’ experiences during work-based learning (WBL) placements, which run from Sep 08 until April 09 and offer opportunities to students enrolled on third-year modules to participate in the planning, organising and running of the Annual Conference of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology (to be hosted by LJMU’s Popular Music Studies unit from 16 – 19 April 2009; for further details see http://www.bfe2009.net).

Thereby the project serves a dual research and teaching function, namely by raising awareness of the opportunities that work-based learning affords to music education at universities, and, through applying ethnographic research in university education, enhancing educators’ appreciation of ethnography for studying and understanding students’ complex and multifaceted learning experiences within the context of employability enhancement. To this end, the proposed project will integrate teaching and research into a meaningful relationship (for discussions on the teaching-research nexus, see Jenkins and Healey 2005; Jenkins, Healey and Zetter 2007) by fostering a proactive approach to the learning and teaching of students in higher education. The findings of the project, which will be widely disseminated both in print and online, will be of relevance to other subject areas, thus enhancing and supporting learning and teaching within the context of employability across the higher education sector. 
  
More specifically, the project will:

Conference presentations

Simone Krüger and Siân Lincoln (2010) "Enhancing employability in music: an ethnographic study into students’ work-based learning experiences." Liverpool John Moores University Learning and Teaching Conference 2010, Liverpool, 20 April 2010.

Annual Conference of the Higher Education Academy, June 2010, University of Hertfordshire.

Report