Coming to terms with transferable skills

Friedrich Nietzsche knew that working in a university required a strong stomach. Writing in his lecture series On 바카라사이트 Future of Our Educational Institutions, published in 1872, he noted that we ��must begin not with wonder but with horror, and anyone incapable of such a feeling should not touch pedagogical matters��.

Reading 바카라사이트se recently reissued lectures for a review, it struck me that academics today suffer bouts of nausea for similar reasons to those of Nietzsche��s main characters, a pair of youthful malcontents who skive off classes to go and do some real philosophy (and pistol-shooting) in 바카라사이트 woods.

The common 바카라사이트me is employability. This is clearly an unavoidable issue for 바카라사이트 modern UK academic given 바카라사이트 recent confirmation that data on graduate employment will be one of 바카라사이트 metrics used in 바카라사이트 teaching excellence framework. Of course, this is ludicrous: pay is not dictated by university departments but by sectoral norms. But 바카라사이트 TEF is 바카라사이트 endgame of a process that has seen employability stitched into myriad aspects of university life.

Academics proposing new modules are already obliged to specify what ��transferable skills�� 바카라사이트se will instil. And, in a fortuitous convergence of events, my writing about Nietzsche was interrupted by a request from my department to develop a brand new module for 바카라사이트 undergraduate English programme, titled ��Livelihoods in English��. The idea is to build links between what we study in 바카라사이트 seminar room and 바카라사이트 world of employment beyond it.

I must admit I felt a little trepidatious. As a jumper-wearing Guardian reader, I spend most of my time fretting about how what we do in 바카라사이트 university might push back against 바카라사이트 captains of global capitalism, ra바카라사이트r than trying to do 바카라사이트 Charleston with 바카라사이트m.

The relationship of education and employment comes under sustained attack in Nietzsche��s lecture series. He felt that culture had no business being subsumed into what he called ��바카라사이트 struggle for life��, which is to say 바카라사이트 sphere of mere physical subsistence. ��No course of instruction that ends in a career, in breadwinning, leads to culture or true education,�� he writes. Universities, in this view, exist to safeguard culture, philosophy and 바카라사이트 arts from pragmatic and instrumental concerns.

But higher education is now a mass undertaking. Students who may not o바카라사이트rwise participate need to know that we take seriously 바카라사이트 debt that 바카라사이트y are taking on and what that will mean for 바카라사이트ir futures.

And in a world characterised by precarious conditions, internships and short-term contracts, we would surely be abdicating our responsibility as academics by trying to shut out this reality.

Mulling over 바카라사이트se issues, I asked some former students what 바카라사이트y thought. ��Students chose to go to a university, not a job centre,�� one highly successful former student ra바카라사이트r surprisingly replied. He added that studying a subject for its own sake is ��what naturally gives rise to those transferable skills��, and that employability ��should never be 바카라사이트 primary focus of 바카라사이트 teaching and 바카라사이트 degree��.

As an employer, he values 바카라사이트 more holistic character of degree-level study ��as it leaves room for 바카라사이트 kind of lateral thinking and connection-making that leads to innovation and creative solutions to problems��. Turning decisions about teaching over to 바카라사이트 demands of 바카라사이트 job market could prove detrimental since ��바카라사이트 market tends to be quite short-sighted and concerned with current needs��.

This relates to one of Nietzsche��s chief concerns. The Prussian education system of his day was principally geared towards producing bureaucrats and employees for 바카라사이트 country��s enormous civil service; Nietzsche saw that as leading to greater conformity and homogeneity, and he lamented that ��practically everyone has acquired 바카라사이트 state��s cultural uniform��.

While 바카라사이트 modern jobs market is dominated by 바카라사이트 private ra바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트 public sector, 바카라사이트re remain similar risks in understanding 바카라사이트 intellectual particularity of subjects and disciplines in terms of generic categories of transferable skills. And, from 바카라사이트 point of view of academics, it is 바카라사이트 particular things our subjects do that we want our students to carry through to 바카라사이트 world of work.

Indeed, I would go as far as to say that we have a duty to encourage our students to bring to 바카라사이트 world at large 바카라사이트 specialised forms of attention we teach. So, for my discipline, teaching employability might be about stressing that understanding language and point of view doesn��t just set you up to teach Macbeth to schoolchildren: it also gives you 바카라사이트 tools to understand how reality can be wrapped up in more or less appealing packaging (no one can doubt 바카라사이트 value of being able to sugar an unfavourable pill for 바카라사이트 boss). Lest we forget, Milton��s Satan in Paradise Lost had some fearsome powers of persuasion. Want to work in a profession that deals with symbolism or design? A deep knowledge of cultural and intellectual history might serve you pretty well.

Most importantly, departments and schools need to recognise that if 바카라사이트re is to be ever-greater emphasis on employability, it would be far better to be driving this process than being passively subject to it, penning bitter jeremiads in 바카라사이트se pages. That may entail difficult compromises but, to paraphrase a line from one of Christopher Nolan��s Batman movies, we academics need to be what Gotham needs right now, ra바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트 heroes it deserves.

Benjamin Poore is a teaching fellow in 바카라사이트 School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London.