Webinar: Building Inclusive Employability across the Whole Student Experience

This live webinar took place on Wednesday 1 May 2024. Watch the session on demand below.

Graduate outcomes have become an important aspect of higher education’s value proposition to society, seen through its primary inclusion in regulatory mechanisms, such as the Access & Participation Plan and Teaching Excellence Framework in English providers. This perception is evidenced through the increasingly diverse intake of students entering university, who are seeking to achieve HE’s promise of social mobility, despite the huge financial burden accrued. However, the traditional methods of employability development through extracurricular activities, internships and placements, are inaccessible to the vast majority of these students. Therefore, it is essential for universities to take a more inclusive approach that prepares all students with the confidence and capability for career and lifelong success.

This webinar will introduce practical strategies through which universities and HE professionals can take an inclusive approach to employability development, via their own practice as well as through collaborative working across the university environment.

About the speaker

Aranee Manoharan is Senior Associate Director for Careers & Employability at King’s College London. With experience across the areas of teaching, student experience, and educational development, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), she is a Senior Fellow of the HEA. Specialising in inclusive curriculum design, she is experienced in working with a range of professional and academic teams to implement high-impact pedagogies and assessments that are delivered in collaboration with community & industry partners to facilitate real-world learning.

A committed advocate for equity and inclusion, Aranee has contributed to addressing structural inequalities impacting refugee and ethnic minority communities in the areas of health, social, education, and human rights for nearly 20 years. Within HE, she serves on a number of advisory groups, including the Institute for Student Employers (ISE) EDI Working Group; Advance HE’s Race Equality Charter Governance Committee; and as a Board Director for AGCAS, where she leads the social mobility, widening participation, and regional inequality portfolio.