Click icon to add picture

Integrating Employability into Information Literacy

Alice Cann

Subject Liaison Librarian (Business, Economics and Finance)

Brunel University London

Topics

• Why employability?

…and is that what I’m talking about?!

• What we’ve done/hope to do

• Business School Level 1 market research and financial data seminars – before and after

• What we’ve learned and future plans

Brunel University London

Why employability

• Functional role

• Value of Information Literacy in developing skills and experience in:

• Problem solving

• Critical thinking

• Analysing data

• Commercial Awareness

• Experience of using specialist databases:

• To find information for job applications/interviews

• To demonstrate knowledge/certification to potential employers

Brunel University London

What we’ve done/hope to do

• Working with Placement and Careers Centre

• Cross promotion

• Joint workshops

• Employability LibGuide

• Workshops in our LibSmart programme

• Finding Company Information/Researching Employers

• Getting Started with Bloomberg

• Inclusion in HEAR report?

• Include employability within current sessions

• Researching Employers café

• Inclusion of workshops and lectures in Business Life employability programme

Brunel University London

Introduction to Management Enquiry

• Brunel Business School

• Study skills module

• Company report assignment

• Big opportunity for us

• Journals lecture and seminar

• Market Research and Financial Data lecture and seminar

Brunel University London

Market research lecture

• Lecture

• Follow up on literature searching experience for previous assignment

• Relevance of this to employability

• Database demonstrations

• Need to make this less of a lecture – more discussion

Brunel University London

Seminars - What we use to do

• Database demo/reminder of lecture

• Worksheets with databases activities

Problems:

• Little link to assignment or employment

• Diminishing interactivity

• No worksheets!

• We were bored of it – and it showed!

Brunel University London

Seminars – the new normal

• Students in 3 groups

• Researching 3 companies

• Present findings at the end

• Team work

• Initiative

• Experience presenting

• Understanding value of the databases

• Awareness of variety of resources

Group Activity

You need to find……. Where you could look ……

1. A strength from the SWOT analysis 2. A new product or service 3. A marketing strategy

Business Source Premier, PassportBusiness Source Premier, Passport, MintelBusiness Source Premier, Passport, Mintel ,journals

4. Market or brand share in consumer electronics or particular market

5. Number of employees (last 5 years)6. Sales revenue (last 5 years)7. Sales growth (last 5 years)

Passport, Mintel Market sizes (GMN)

OsirisAnnual Report(s), PassportAnnual Report(s), Passport

8. Main areas of business for your allocated company

9. Name of a competitor 10. Name of a director

Osiris, Business Source Premier

Osiris, Business Source Premier, MintelOsiris, Business Source Premier

17 April 2023 9www.brunel.ac.uk/library

Short presentation to the rest of the class:Which database did you use?How easy was it to find the information?Did you have any problems?Any tips you can share

Each of 3 teams in their groups to look for the following information in relation to the companies:AcerAppleHewlett Packard

Brunel University London

A learning experience for us

• Hard to let go of structure, but worth it

• You must know how to find ALL the answers (even if you’re not controlling how the students will)

• Let students decide how to present their findings (but they must do it!)

Brunel University London

Plans

• Make the lecture more practical – get students thinking about information literacy and employability

• Avoid repetition of content between lecture and seminar

• Find ways of getting all students inputting in seminars

• Promote further training

• Be prepared to change the seminars again

Brunel University London

Alice CannSubject Liaison LibrarianBrunel Business School andDepartment of Economics and FinanceE alice.cann@brunel.ac.uk

www.brunel.ac.uk/library Twitter @BBSLibrarian