Innovation
The redesign of the assessment strategy across a postgraduate taught programme to promote employability and provide a more authentic assessment. The diversity of assessment methods provides challenge for the students but enables them to demonstrate a range of skills with application in the world of work and practice.
What prompted innovation?
Employers in public health and health promotion demand a range of skills from graduates entering the workplace or seeking progression. In order to maximise employability the traditional essay-based assessment strategy was redesigned to use different assessment tasks, each demonstrating usable skills for practice.
What makes innovation different?
It integrates employability rather than making it an ‘add-on’ – embedding the skills and knowledge needed for public health practice. Public health identifies a competence framework for practice and linking this to the curriculum and particularly the assessment strategy is both innovative and more professionally robust.
Changes in practice
The effect of this change has been remarkable in terms of:
- Student confidence in seeking employment and attending interviews; able to take examples of their assessments with them
- Public health employers are able to recognise and rely on the utility of the programme for public health practice – both knowledge and competence elements
- Students completing the programme are able to complete part of the practitioner registration process
Impact
Student evaluations are positive, with students able to recognise the value not only in terms of employability. They also value the headstart the assessment process gives them in demonstrating their competence at practitioner level and beyond in public health.
Dissemination
This has contributed to a chapter in a 2013 National Teaching Fellowship publication entitled ‘Authentic assessment and employability – a synergy?’ It has been disseminated through the institutional Learning & Teaching Academy and shared with colleagues more widely in terms of promoting academic integrity.