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In public discourse and policy interventions, education has become understood as a means of preparing individuals for employment. Young people are encouraged to study for qualifications in the hopes of gaining better jobs and employers to become more involved with schools, further education colleges and universities to produce a curriculum that better prepares students for the workplace. Adult workers are also exhorted to engage in ‘lifelong learning’, ‘upskilling’ and ‘reskilling’ to respond to rapid advances in technology and as changes in labour market demands necessitate. Policy makers are setting higher achievement goals for education providers to ensure the populace is ‘work ready’ in an age of artificial intelligence. This module explores a range of formal and informal contexts, such as schools, colleges, universities, workplaces and private sector training programmes, to assess the claims made about the ability of education to improve individual prospects and collective aims of reducing poverty and inequality. Using theoretical insights and connecting with empirical research, students will gain an understanding of how social scientists have conceptualised and studied work and employees, how the nature of work has changed within the introduction of technologies such as artificial intelligence, the displacement of some types of work through automation, the effectiveness of systems of vocational education internationally and how workers are educated to serve the needs of the labour market.ÌýÌý

Integrated throughout the module are opportunities for students to examine the types of knowledge and expertise required for the future world of work they may enter. The module examines the use of artificial intelligence in different occupational sectors, and the influence and impact of technologies across countries. We consider the expertise required in the relationship between humans and technologies such as artificial intelligence and ways in which this may influence the future career choice of students. Embedded within the module is a peer review process as part of the assessment, whereby students gain experience of collaborative learning, problem-solving and engaging with artificial intelligence as a learning platform, all of which are central to employment in the 21st century.ÌýÌý

Teaching delivery:ÌýThis module is taught in 10 weekly lectures and 7 seminar sessions. Students are expected to engage with the module online activities and a collaborative peer review process to support their learning.ÌýÌý

Indicative Topics:ÌýÌý

In this module students will critically reflect, question and analyse the dominant discourses regarding the purpose of education and the relationships between education, employment and labour markets. Indicative lecture topics based on the module content in 2023/24 include:

• Adapting to the Future of Work and AI
• Neoliberalism and the Labour Market
• International systems of Vocational Education
• Learning in the workplace
• Pathways to Employment: Individual Choice or Structural Inequality
• Intersectionality and Gender as a Lens for Labour
• Issues of Unpaid and Paid Labour
• Inequality and the Labour Market
• Discourses of Employment and Unemployment: HE and Graduate Employability

Module Aims:

The module aims to

• To develop students’ understanding and analysis of the dominant discourses and corresponding critiques regarding the relationship between labour, the economy and education sectors, and the ways in which educational contexts shape specific types of workers.Ìý
• To develop student’s knowledge and understanding of conceptions of work, social reproduction and social mobility in relation to employment and how theories can be used to understand different social and educational contexts.Ìý
• To enable students to reflect on their own experiences of education and work in relation to these analytical frameworks.Ìý
• To develop students’ analytical ability to assess how normative models can be challenged through education and collective action.Ìý
• To strengthen general academic and intellectual skills in writing, communication, collaboration and gain experience of learning through peer review.ÌýÌý
• To enable students to assess the knowledge and skills gained throughout the undergraduate program and to consider their future career pathway in relation to technologies such as artificial intelligence.ÌýÌý