CONNECTING PDP TO EMPLOYER NEEDS AND THE WORLD OF WORK

This Guide summarises the results of a major research project sponsored by QAA in 2000. The project was designed to obtain input from employers and professional and statutory bodies to support the development of Progress Files in Higher Education. The Guide focuses on the Personal Development Planning (PDP) aspect of Progress Files in particular, how PDP and the associated student support can be implemented in HEI’s to be of maximum value to students in recruitment processes and later career management. The work was made possible with the helpful assistance of four partner organisations the Inter Professional CPD Forum, Association of Graduate Recruiters, Council for Industry and HE and Institute of Personnel and Development. These bodies were central to success of the project in terms of organising appropriate meetings, contacting their members, distributing questionnaires, setting up focus groups and directing the author to information available on public websites. As a result of their efforts, the Guide draws on information from a sample of eighteen major graduate employers and seven professional and statutory bodies. A listing is given in Appendix 1. The project concentrated on large employers, predominantly in the commercial sector, with structured processes in place for recruiting large numbers of graduates on a regular basis. It did not, therefore, cover the voluntary sector, not-forprofit organisations or SME’s. Since the work is based on a sample of employers and professional/statutory bodies, it is to be emphasised that the guidance which emerges is of a generic nature. It should be supplemented with any specific information from employers not in the sample who may be of interest to a particular candidate. An accompanying file contains overhead slides which can be used to summarise or present the main conclusions. A full report from the project is available (Edwards, G. 2000) on the QAA website (www.qaa.ac.uk).