Maximising the employability benefits of environmental fieldwork for a diverse student body

Peasland, Emma

Abstract

Fieldwork is a signature pedagogy of subjects including biosciences, geographical and earth sciences and environmental sciences and provides benefits for students’ academic, social and professional development. The opportunity for students to develop employability-enhancing transferable skills alongside subject-specific knowledge and technical skills is frequently highlighted as a benefit of field-based learning. However, some students choose not to participate in fieldwork, and the extent to which those who do recognise the employability-enhancing benefits is unclear. Furthermore, there are gaps in knowledge related to whether opportunities to enhance students’ employability are intentionally integrated into field-based learning and whether employers think fieldwork participation provides adequate evidence of employability. This thesis sought to address these gaps by providing a multi-stakeholder perspective of the employability-enhancing benefits of field-based learning. The pragmatic paradigm underpinned the research, and mixed methods were adopted comprising quantitative and qualitative questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed differences in fieldwork motivation between students who opted out and those who chose to participate and provided insight into the reasons some students opted out. During fieldwork participation, students demonstrated that they could identify numerous technical and transferable skills that they developed through their fieldwork participation and many of them recognised that these skills could enhance their employability. Staff who design and deliver field-based learning recognised it could contribute to students’ professional development and provided opportunities for students to develop valuable skills. However, they focussed more on subject-specific than transferable skills, which were sometimes overlooked. Lastly, employers indicated that fieldwork can develop the skills they seek, and that fieldwork participation could provide acceptable evidence of skills development in applications and interviews. Based on the findings, I propose a model that can be used to inform future fieldwork practice to maximise the employability-enhancing benefits of fieldwork for as many students as possible.

Citation

Peasland, E. (2020). Maximising the employability benefits of environmental fieldwork for a diverse student body. (Thesis). University of Hull. https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4922296

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Nov 22, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 25, 2025
• Keywords: Biosciences
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4922296
• Additional Information: Biosciences; Biological and Marine Sciences; University of Hull
• Award Date: Sep 24, 2020