On the Move: Transitioning Information Skills to the Workplace

On 2 February I attended On the Move, a free symposium hosted by UCL which explored workplace information literacy (IL). Findings were presented from recent research into how IL translates to the workplace and how university services can help prepare their students. 

Information literacy can be defined as knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner (CILIP Information Literacy Group 2018).  IL has for a long time been regarded within academic libraries as an essential skill for HE students, but it is now being recognised more widely. In 2015-16 the Quality Assurance Agency for HE (QAA) recognised employability and digital literacy as important graduate attributes (Inskip and Donaldson 2018). UNESCO has even declared it a "basic human right in a digital world" and one which promotes social inclusion (UNESCO 2017). 

Information Literacy in the Workplace: the experience of nurses

Marc Forster, Academic Support Librarian for the College of Nursing, Midwifery and Healthcare at the University of West London, opened the symposium with an overview of his research into the information activities of nurses.  His findings resulted in the identification of six different information behaviour strands.  These “personas” range from the basic “passive minimalist” to the complex “leader, philosopher and strategist.”  Conducting this research enabled Forster to engage in IL discussions at a deeper level with academics, who then began incorporating IL into their own modules and teaching.  The research had less direct impact on Forster's own delivery of IL teaching to undergraduates, where the challenge remained simply to cover the basics, due to the academic ability of the students.

On the Move: transitioning information skills into the workplace

Charlie Inskip, Senior Lecturer in the UCL Department of Information Studies, and Sophia Donaldson, a careers consultant in the UCL careers service, presented findings of their collaborative research project “On the Move.”  This project compared the information skills of UCL students with those of professionals in the workplace.  The project focused on students with an interest in finance and professionals in an insurance firm in the City of London. 

On the Move framework (Inskip & Donaldson 2018)

The research identified the IL language and behaviours of both students and professionals.  Analysis found that there was only a small overlap of shared terms used by both the academic and professional world. Information behaviours were incorporated into Forster’s six information personas, using the language familiar to each group.  The resulting framework matches the students’ skills, represented by the birds on the left, to those of the insurance professionals, shown by the sea creatures on the right. 

Overall, Inskip and Donaldson's research found that the UCL students possessed fewer higher level skills, while instructions and sources were generally found to be clearer at university than they were in the working environment.  Students tended to operate as individuals, using information to back up arguments, and generally worked at a slower pace over a longer period of time.  By contrast the insurance professionals possessed more of the higher level skills and worked in a more complex environment.  They engaged with others, used information to inform decision-making, and worked with greater speed and efficiency.

The personality questionnaire used in the research was subsequently developed into a prototype online tool for identifying information behaviours for students and professionals in the financial sector. The tool is intended to help students identify their transferable skills, and relate them to the language of the workplace, in order to communicate more effectively when applying for jobs.  Library and careers staff can also use the tool to help students develop their employability skills further by progressing onto more complex personas.

From the Library to the Workplace: how information professionals can support the development of employability skills

Megan Wiley, Head of Library Services at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, provided an overview of how libraries are currently supporting the development of students’ employability skills. The presentation was based on the literature review Wiley produced for SCONUL in 2014.  She acknowledged that the term “employability” remains hard to define and that there is still debate surrounding it.  Rather than focusing on a predefined skill set, she suggested it might be more constructive simply to think in terms of “how we can help students get jobs.”  

The SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy are very much focused on being a student and succeeding in coursework, rather than on being a professional.  The Graduate Employability Lens on the SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy introduced in 2015 addresses this by mapping the skills to the workplace (SCONUL 2015). 

Riley's 3 e's for researcing employers (Riley 2015)

The CBI employer survey results found that employers were not satisfied with graduates’ knowledge of their chosen careers.  In response to this, some institutions have developed strategies to help students research their potential employers.  See for example Tim Riley’s “3 e’s” produced for the University of Bristol (Riley 2015).

The main employability attributes which relate to information literacy include:

• Business and customer awareness  
• Coping with workplace complexities  
• Analytical skills and problem-solving  
• Ability to work socially 
• Career management & lifelong learning

Libraries have traditionally been over reliant on official sources and have neglected social information such as networking.  This is now beginning to be addressed.

Scenario-based tasks can help to engage students during library workshops, raising awareness that IL can contribute to employability skills.  Wiley used the following as an example of an activity for drama students.

Wiley, who has worked in both library and careers services, believes greater collaboration between the two services would benefit students.  In addition, offering Skills and Employability Awards can be an effective way to attract students, providing formal recognition of their additional skills.  Libraries can participate in such awards by accrediting their existing IL workshops.  As the tweet below shows, linking library IL workshops to an employability award can boost engagement (Brown 2018).

Summary

This symposium has highlighted the growing interest in employability within HE, and suggested some ways libraries can engage with this.  I believe the On the Move personality test/framework is too complex for use with most of our students, in addition to the fact it currently focuses on the finance industry.  It may be possible to develop a simplified "information skills audit", to be delivered on a one-to-one basis, along the lines of our current voluntary surgery sessions.  This will depend very much on student take up as it will not be compulsory. 

There is also scope, where relevant, for the LRC to introduce more scenario-based activities into our Information Skills sessions, such as those used by Megan Wiley, to help students recognise the practical applications of the skills they are learning.  This would require the consideration and agreement of the Teaching Task Group, and would also require more time to prepare, which would be dependent on staff having sufficient time away from the counter.

We could also investigate whether it would be appropriate to develop a stand alone employer research strategies session, aimed at equipping students with skills to research their chosen field to assist career progression. Again, this would require sufficient staff time off the counter to develop, with no guaranteed take up, even if the session is offered.   Further research and liaison would be needed, to assess the current level of careers provision at the College and the remits of other departments.  Subject to a satisfactory outcome from these enquiries, sufficient staffing levels and funding, and the successful development of inter-departmental collaboration, we might then be in a position to start investigating the feasibility of a Skills and Employability Award.

Further Information

Bournemouth & Poole College, 2017. Employability [online]. Bournemouth: Bournemouth & Poole College. Available from: https://www.thecollege.co.uk/parents/employability [Accessed 15 February 2018].

Brown, M., 2018. Couldn’t agree more about having a [sic] employability link with your workshops. Twitter #otmucldis [online]. 2 February 2018. Available from: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23otmucldis&src=typd [Accessed 7 February 2018].

CILIP Information Literacy Group, 2018. Information Literacy [online]. Available from: https://infolit.org.uk/ [Accessed 5 February 2018].

Forster, M. (ed), 2017. Information literacy in the workplace. London: Facet.

Inskip, C. and Donaldson, S., 2018. On the Move: transitioning information skills into the workplace: final report [online]. Available from: https://rilads.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/on-the-move-for-pdf.pdf [Accessed 5 February 2018].

Inskip, C., 2018a. On the Move event report. 7 February 2018. Researching information literacy and digital scholarship: Charlie Inskip’s research blog [online]. Available from: https://rilads.wordpress.com/2018/02/07/on-the-move-event-report/ [Accessed 7 February 2018].

Inskip, C., 2018b. On the Move Personality Test [online]. London: University College London. Available from: https://charlie282.typeform.com/to/d2cEmH [Accessed 7 February 2018].

Riley, T., 2015. Beyond the employer website [online]. Prezi. Available from: https://prezi.com/rksksnawtiut/beyond-the-employer-website/ [Accessed 8 February 2018].

SCONUL, 2014. A review of the literature on current practice in the development of employability skills [online]. Available from: https://www.sconul.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/Employability%20Literature%20Review%20June%202014_0.pdf [Accessed 8 February 2018].

SCONUL, 2015. The graduate employability lens on the SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy [online]. Available from: https://www.sconul.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/Employability_Lens_only_2015_0.pdf [Accessed 8 February 2018].

SCONUL, 2018. Employability toolkit [online]. London: SCONUL. Available from: https://www.sconul.ac.uk/page/employability [Accessed 7 February 2018].

UNESCO, 2017. Information literacy [online]. Paris: UNESCO. Available from: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/information-literacy/ [Accessed 29 May 2018].

Wiley, M., 2018. From the library to the workplace [online]. London: Charlie Inskip. Available from: https://rilads.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/megan-wiley-employability-ucl1.pdf [Accessed 8 February 2018].

 

[CPD 5 hours]