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Teaching and Learning > PROJECTS

Religious Studies: Student Employability Profiles: For Employers

• Employability Skills
• Template
• For Undergraduates
• For Employers

1. For Employers (Recruiters and Human Resource Developers)

What are the implications for employers of the changes taking place in UK higher education, changes which are enabling more and more students to develop and apply practical, work related skills during their study so that they are ready on graduation to take their place in the world of work? What does this mean for people's life long learning capability? What sort of investment am I as an employer making in graduate recruitment and staff development? Is student work placement more valuable than before? Can I recruit graduates from a wider selection of subjects? How do I manage risk in recruiting people with backgrounds different to current staff?

Competency based recruitment and human resource development have become embedded in recent years as good practice amongst employers in the public and private sectors. There are now parallel initiatives within higher education to help students develop employability skills, to raise their self awareness of these skills and to articulate and apply them to their benefit and to the benefit of employers. Increasingly, students are learning and applying work related skills during higher education, through study, work experience and extra curricular activities.

A high percentage of UK graduates choose professional roles that bear no direct relation to the subject studied at university. For them, it is a high priority to be able to demonstrate they have sound personal transferable skills of value to employers. Even for those that embark on subject related careers, there are likely to be radical job changes from time to time in the future. So for all students, employability matters.

Student employability profiles have now been developed which offer insights into the skills students are likely to have developed with degrees in particular subjects. This can help employers improve the return on their investment in graduate recruitment, work placement and staff training and development.

Employers have identified the attributes they seek in the graduates they recruit. The qualities or attributes used here have been identified and categorised by employer members of the Policy Forum of the Council for Industry and Higher Education. They are the key components they have observed in those individuals who can transform organisations and add value early in their careers (see the report Graduates Work by Professor Lee Harvey, CIHE 2001) and comprise:

• Cognitive Skills/Brainpower: The ability to identify and solve problems; work with information and handle a mass of diverse data, assess risk and draw conclusions.
• Generic Competencies: High-level and transferable key skills such as the ability to work with others in a team, communicate, persuade and have interpersonal sensitivity.
• Personal Capabilities: The ability and desire to learn for oneself and improve one's self awareness and performance. To be a self starter (creativity, decisiveness, initiative) and to finish the job (flexibility, adaptability, tolerance to stress).
• Technical Ability: For example, having the knowledge and experience of working with relevant modern laboratory equipment.
• Business and / or Organisation Awareness: An appreciation of how businesses operate through having had (preferably relevant) work experience.
• Practical Elements - Vocational Courses; Critical evaluation of the outcomes of professional practice; reflect and review own practice; participate in and review quality control processes and risk management.

2. Religious Studies - Employability Skills

Students of Religious Studies are drawn to the subject not least because it is both dynamic and diverse. Many changes and new developments have taken place in this field over the last century, with a strong focus on ethics, spirituality, power and diversity influencing individuals and institutions alike on a global basis.

Religious Studies students develop strong skills in engaging with the issues raised by clashing belief systems and understand how the conflicts that arise out of this may aide the interests of those engaged in power struggles. They are able to critically analyse and evaluate the solutions put forward for resolving these conflicts.

The main employability skills and aptitudes a graduate develops through the study of Religion are set out below.

• Religious Studies students develop an analytical approach to problems, thinking strategically rather than just tactically and are able to formulate persuasive arguments to guide problem resolution.
• The strong emphasis on analysis and critical reasoning skills develop through the study of this subject, coupled with highly developed research skills, enables Religious Studies students to work comfortably with abstract and conceptual ideas.
• Through the understanding of the power of moral authority, Religious Studies students develop a strong sense of relationship management and leadership skills. They appreciate human diversity, cultural differences and the dynamics of fairness and social equality, enabling them to better understand both sides of an argument in order to negotiate to resolve conflict.
• Religious Studies students also understand the impact of conflicting ideologies and the difference between ethics and expedience.

These quite special skills and attributes make the Religious Studies student a very desirable employee in an organisation that is confronted on a daily basis with global demands and local issues.

Add to this the generic skills of time management, planning and organising, information gathering skills, intellectual curiosity and the ability to set personal and work goals, well developed written and oral communication skills and the belief in life long learning - you have all the basic ingredients for a professional person that will make a difference to any organisation.

Religious Studies students are well equipped to enter into many different and diverse occupations. These include careers in:

• Education;
• Research;
• Law;
• Journalism and the media;
• Social and pastoral care;
• Counseling, mediation and negotiation roles;
• Government;
• Prison Services;
• Project Management;
• Training and facilitation roles;
• Charity work;
• Personnel;
• Accountancy, and so on.

Some of the above will need either further academic or professional study and those deciding to go on to do a masters degree will find their highly developed research skills are well sought after in the employment field.

Whatever career a Religious Studies student chooses they are well equipped to cope with the challenges the ever evolving employment market may put there way and with individual determination and drive, they will make a success of their chosen path.

The employability skills that can be gained by studying Religious Studies as identified by the QAA Subject Benchmark Statements are:

• The ability to understand how people have thought and acted in contexts other than the student's own, how beliefs, doctrines and practices have developed within particular social and cultural contexts and how religious traditions have changed over time. (A degree of 'cultural shock' may be involved in study of the past, as well as in the encounter with the beliefs, doctrines and practices of contemporary others.)
• The ability to read and use texts both critically and empathetically, while addressing such questions as genre, content, context, perspective, purpose, original and potential meaning, and the effect of translation if the text is not read in the original language.
• The appreciation of the complexity of different mentalities, social behaviors and aesthetic responses, and of the ways they have been shaped by beliefs and values, and conversely how beliefs, sacred texts and art forms have been shaped by society and politics.
• Sensitivity to the problems of religious language and experience, and to the issues of multiple and conflicting interpretations of language and symbols, texts and traditions. Simplistic, literalising or doctrinaire explanations are less likely to be advanced by a student of TRS.
• Appreciation of both the interconnectedness of and internal tensions within a system of beliefs and practices.
• Basic critical and analytical skills: a recognition that statements should be tested, that evidence and arguments are subject to assessment, that the interpreter's role demands critical evaluation.
• The ability to employ a variety of methods of study in analysing material, to think independently, set tasks and solve problems.
• The capacity to give a clear and accurate account of a subject, marshal arguments in a mature way and engage in debate and dialogue with respect for the opposite case or different viewpoint.
• Empathy and imaginative insight.
• Self-discipline and self-direction.
• Independence of mind and initiative.
• Ability to attend to others and have respect for others' views.
• Ability to gather, evaluate and synthesise different types of information.
• Analytical ability and the capacity to formulate questions and solve problems.
• Presentation skills, both oral and written.
• IT skills, including word-processing, communicating by email and using the web, accessing information from electronic as well as non-electronic sources.
• Teamwork skills.
• Writing skills, including accurate referencing and clarity of expression.
• Ability to attend closely to the meaning of written documents.
• Ability to read texts in a different language.

What should employers do?

An individual student may identify examples of their own skills development from this list of possible skills. These examples may then be mapped against the employers' list of qualities and attributes above, providing evidence of value to employers. Students who do this will be better prepared to make a good account of themselves in CVs and at interview for graduate jobs and work placements.

For a figurative demonstration of the Religious Studies Student Employability profile, please see the religious studies template

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This page was originally on the website of The Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies. It was transfered here following the closure of the Subject Centre at the end of 2011.