Reflecting on the Student Hub Live event #YourDegreeYourChoice

 Jay Rixon is a Senior Manager in Access, Open and Cross-curricular Innovation and responsible for the MA or MSc Open qualification. In this post, Jay reflects on a Student Hub Live (SHL) live broadcast on the 10th May entitled ‘#YourDegreeYourChoice’ and shares her highlights of the event.

 

The Open qualifications team always love a chance to collaborate with Student Hub Live (SHL) and this session was no different; one hour packed full of great conversations exploring the value of studying across subjects and how that makes you stand out in the workplace and to potential employers. 

In case you haven’t come across it yet, Student Hub Live is a series of online and interactive events open to all students and staff at The Open University. These events deliver a range of activities to support OU students in their studies and be part of our online academic community. Our session on the 10th May was focused on a key theme for our Open qualification students: how to explain an ‘Open’ qualification and articulate the value of it to employers. These were the questions we explored during the SHL session.

  • Do you struggle to answer clearly when people ask what you’re studying?
  • Are you an Open Qualification student creating your own bespoke qualification?
  • Do you wonder how you might need to describe your study to an employer one day?
  • Perhaps you feel stuck trying to reinvent the wheel with useful resources?

In our SHL live broadcast, we set out to explore which key employability skills are desirable to employers, to discuss the benefits of higher education study in the current climate, and to discover resources that are already out there which enable students to stand out from the crowd. We had Payam Rezaie and George Curry representing the Open qualifications along with Claire Corkram and other colleagues from Careers and Employability Services (CES).  We were well supported by the fantastic HJ, staffing the hot desk and Isabella who presented the show. As SHL sessions are live and interactive, we were able to pose questions for our student audience during the session, and they could engage with us via the interactive chat feed. We had some fantastic comments shared in the session by students about why they chose to study with the OU. Some students told us they decided to study with the OU because the study is flexible and they can build it around their lives, or because they don’t have universities local to them to study in person. Others explained that they are actively seeking to change their career while continuing to work part- or full-time hours.

Throughout the wide-ranging discussions, a theme of ‘standing out from the crowd’ emerged from the initial conversations, referring to the manner in which OU students gain valuable study skills such as communication, self-management, teamwork, adaptability, as well as learning how to transfer skills ‘from one area to another’ and the ability to reflect on their learning and aspirations. We were able to reassure students that they are in the driving seat of their learning, which is empowering and inspiring. OU students, and especially those studying towards an Open qualification, have so much to share with current and potential employers about what they have gained from their distance learning studies.

Claire (CES Consultant) explained that ‘agility’ is the word that is often used in the current climate, which many employers are looking for their employees to evidence in the workplace. Claire commented that “Studying in an interdisciplinary manner (across a range of subjects and disciplines) can make you really versatile to an employer; it helps make you stand out from the crowd.” For more helpful resources take a look at the Careers and Employability Services website.

George Curry (Co-Chair of YXM130) discussed the benefits of students being able to curate their learning by designing their own pathways of study, which is unique to students on an Open qualification or the YXM130 module. For example, they can choose which modules to study towards an Open qualification based on their study goals, prior learning, employment and life goals. George also explained how the OU’s free learning site, OpenLearn, enables learners to explore ‘bite-size’ pieces of learning across a wide range of subjects which can be counted as part of the YXM130 module.

There were so many helpful discussions in this live event, and I’ve only been able to share a few of my highlights with you in this short blog post. I would highly recommend watching the session for yourself, which is available on demand from the SHL website.

We ended this wonderful live event by sharing our key messages from the session with students, including:

  • Go for it and good luck; here at the OU we are here to support you’,
  • ‘Subjects and disciplines are just different lenses you can use to look at the world; try out as many as you like’,
  • ‘Invest in yourself and your career and don’t worry if you go ‘off route’.’

However, my personal favourite came from one of our student participants, who said that her studies at the OU “have made me look at the world differently”. For me, that is the real power of an Open qualification – being able to study across subjects, making connections between them and personalising that learning to your own goals and interests. This can not only be empowering but also makes you desirable to employers and helps you stand out from the crowd.

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