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Facilitated and chaired by: Professor Tracy Scurry who is the co-convenor of the Employability, Enterprise and Work-based Learning network. For more details about the network and its activities, please click here.

This event is jointly organised by the Employability, Enterprise and Work-Based Learning Network and the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Network.

Overview

Universities are increasingly expected to produce graduates who are employable, adaptable, and ready to contribute effectively in professional settings. At the same time, opportunities for placements and internships—which are often seen as the gold standard for employability development—are becoming less accessible for many students. This raises an important question for higher education: how can universities provide meaningful employability learning experiences within the curriculum itself?

In this seminar, Kate Black will present findings from a recent Journal of Management Education paper writtern with Russell Warhurst exploring the use of an authentic experiential learning exercise, Northern Skies Coffee, designed to provide a workplace-equivalent learning experience in the classroom.

Drawing on evaluation data from students and instructors, the session will examine how authentic learning experiences can support the development of key employability capabilities, including creativity, critical thinking, teamwork, negotiation, and subject knowledge. Beyond skills development, the presenters will discuss how such activities contribute to students’ emerging professional identities, helping them to develop greater self-awareness and confidence as future professionals.

The seminar will be of interest to researchers, academic developers, and educators seeking innovative approaches to employability, experiential learning, and curriculum design. It will also provide an opportunity to reflect on the broader role of higher education in preparing graduates for increasingly complex and uncertain workplaces.

Schedule

Speaker bio

Professor Kate Black is Associate Head of School and Professor of Management Learning and Education at Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University. Her research focuses on workplace learning, professional identity, and the experiences of being and becoming a professional within contemporary organisations. She is particularly interested in informal learning, intergenerational knowledge exchange, and higher education pedagogy, including student engagement and students-as-partners approaches. Kate is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA), a Certified Management and Business Educator (CMBE), and co-Chair of the British Academy of Management’s Management Knowledge and Education community. Her work draws on innovative qualitative and visual research methods and contributes to debates about learning, identity, and academic practice in higher education and professional settings.