While it could be argued that one of the main objectives of educating yourself in college is to maximise your chances of getting a job, the actual pursuit of employability as a key factor is driving a centre in the University of Galway to become a global trendsetter in the field.
The University of Galway's Career Development Centre comprising a team of thirty people, focuses on guidance, information, and employability. It operates three main teams: career guidance and employability, employer engagement, and placement. The centre has a career readiness model categorising students into "discover," "develop," and "apply" phases which places them into whatever stage of employability-readiness they are in at that time.
Marie Laffey is the driving force behind this success — and is the human dynamo behind the construction of a centre that aims to provide potential and well-rounded employees for a wide variety of sectors. Marie spent 15 years working in the ICT sector, in many senior management roles for multinationals and was a self-employed Career Guidance Counsellor for seven years.
Since joining the Career Development Centre on a full-time basis in 2016, Marie has provided career support, guidance and education to a number of colleges including the College of Business, Public Policy and Law and the College of Engineering and Informatics.
She was responsible for the management of the Student Delivery team for the academic year 2016/2017 and won the AHECS Employability award in May 2017 for the development and leadership of the Transition to Employment programme which supports students with disabilities and mental health issues to prepare for their transition to the workplace.
"We focus on guidance, on information and on employability," she told me when we met in her office in the heart of the campus. Outside, students rock up to become the latest to avail of the centre which has developed quite a reputation for Best Practice across the country and the continent for the manner in which it brings the concept of employability into the heart of the academic situation.
"What we're trying to do is have the concept of employability embedded into the curriculum and in those who have placement, so their employability skills are really developed. It is helping students articulate the skills they have and help them to be prepared for that transition into the world of work," she added.
All of this is manna from heaven for employers across the west who have been gushing with admiration for the quality of potential employees who benefit from the programme. So enthused are employers that they oversee an employability award, with nearly 3,000 completions since 2018.
"More than 3,000 students have completed this award since 2018," says Marie. "There are various criteria they have to complete in terms of work experience and skills events. The skills events are run solely by the employers.
"We asked the employers what they think the students need and we ask the students what supports they feel they need; what skills are they lacking. And we marry the two together. We are a very data-driven service," she said, adding that the award is self-driven and has a sustainability element built in, in line with the university's sustainability status.
"Last year, we had more than 20,000 students attend our events, and this is bucking the trend at other universities and that's because we tailor the programmes to where the students are at in their journey of knowing their employability status," she said.
The Centre also supports nearly 2,500 students on placement across 70+ programmes. It also runs a global employability team, a digital toolkit, and various events to enhance student employability.
Along the wall of its offices are the multiple awards it has received for its initiatives and is committed to lifelong career management. Marie is an advocate for equality and inclusion and has won both national and international awards for supporting students with disabilities transitioning into the workplace.
Last year, in another initiative unique to the University, they set up an Global Employability Advisory Team, solely focused on global mobility.
"So if you're an international student coming to Ireland, we are supporting you in terms of getting you job-ready for the Irish labour market; and if you are a domestic student looking to go abroad, we support you on that. We have tools to help you figure out what the labour market is in other countries," she added.
The team has also developed comprehensive FAQs for employers to inform them about supporting international students — a facet that is much appreciated by companies who until now may not have been au fait regarding the procedures involved.
The centre has an employee relations team that is building relationships with employers who are looking for placements or looking for graduates. This week they are holding a fair where 60-70 employers from the region come to the university to meet prospective employees. They also support more than 2,500 graduates going on placements across 70 programmes. Invariably, more and more of these placements are converted into employment.
Marie's team also runs workshops on professional skills, such as writing emails and having conversations, to prepare students and indeed, graduates for the workplace
"Events are tailored to meet students at their specific career readiness stage, such as self-awareness for career exploration or mock assessment centres. The career guidance team has seen a tremendous increase in student engagement, with over 20,000 students participating in events last year."
The Career Development Centre offers a digital toolkit, including a virtual library with 100,000 interactions last year. A graduate outcome dashboard helps students understand where graduates have gone and what roles they have taken. The centre has a student platform called Pathways, which includes pathways for CV building, interview preparation, and job searching.
It also runs workshops on professional skills, such as writing emails and having conversations, to prepare students for the workplace. The placement officers, have industry experience, bringing valuable insights to students.
Marie is keen to emphasise that it is not only the larger corporates who can benefit from this programmes, as she feels SMEs are ripe for injections of new talent. To this end, the centre has a strategic partnership with Platform 94 which opens up 20 placements a year
"In a larger corporate, you might be working on a specific task in your role; whereas in a SME, you're doing everything and can open up different career path. The same goes for start-ups, where you get a broad experience that stands to you as you go forward.
She is proud of her team at the Centre and the skillset they bring to the task of increasing employability.
The centre is constantly looking for ways to improve and stay ahead in career development. Staff are committed to continuous learning and staying up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices. Its digital tools and pathways are designed to help students develop self-agency and lifelong career management skills. Marie herself is currently some way through a PhD into the impact of AI on the field of recruitment.
"90 per cent of our staff come from industry and in particular, our replacement officers have come from recruitment and that's a key thing as they bring the unique industry perspective.
"And this is really valued by the students, as they know that for example when I talk about my experience of working in industry and hiring interns and hiring graduates, because I ran a graduate programme for a multi-national, that I know the attributes I was looking for. And the students latch onto that and appreciate the richness and the relevance of the advice they are receiving."
Employers who are keen to benefit from the excellent programmes at the Career Development Centre webpage or at [email protected]
The presence of the Career Development Centre enables students and employers to think in terms of how to get the best from one another. Initiatives like the Pathways programme and the skills passport in which students can start logging their skills and articulating their employability, only add to their appeal to prospective employers.
There is no doubt that this innovative and energetic approach to enhancing employability will inform modern education practises and already, many institutions in Ireland and abroad have copied the Galway model and deem it best practice.
The Career Development Centre contributes greatly to the excellence of the students at the University of Galway as it defines their way into the world of work and prepares them for lifelong career management. Long may it continue.
