Record of Observation or Review of Teaching Practice
Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: Careers and Employability online webinar workshop
Size of student group: 30 maximum
Observer: Antonia Huber
Observee: Leila Duffy-Tetzlaff
Part One
Observee to complete in brief and send to observer prior to the observation or review:
What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum?
The UAL graduate employability support is extra-curricular, opt-in, and usually for graduates who have finished their course and embarking on the next steps after university, This session fits within a broader employability teaching framework designed to prepare creative students and graduates for real-world opportunities. It specifically addresses the current and future skills needed in the creative industries, supporting participant understanding of industry demands and fostering their readiness to navigate freelance and multi-hyphenate careers, which are common in the creative industries.
How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity?
Being outside of the curriculum, my attendees can vary and, in the past, have been up to 70 in attendance, with even more requesting the recording to catch up in their own time. This, along with our lack of CRM or graduate databased, means it is harder to know who is in the room, and if I have had touch points with them previously. The session is targeted to first degree graduates within their first year out, who will be surveyed at part of Graduate Outcomes, but open to final years, and anyone 5 years out of UAL. Therefore, the session is open to a mixed group of graduates across disciplines at different stages of their creative education or graduate career. Prior interaction may vary, ranging from detached encounters through other webinars and email support, to repeated engagements through smaller workshops, networking events, or one-to-one sessions. However, that level of individualised support would not be able to be replicated in the webinar space, and to create a sense of belonging for everyone in attendance, I would need to take every participant and interaction in that space at face value and fresh within the context of the prescribed context.
What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?
- Develop an understanding of current trends, challenges, and opportunities in the creative job market (UK).
- Identify and reflect on key skills currently in demand within the creative industries, and generally.
- Create an action plan to address personal skills gaps and align them with career aspirations.
- Gain confidence in pursuing portfolio careers or freelance opportunities that could help develop exiting skillsets, or gain new established or emerging ones.
What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?
- Track the growing skills lists based on facts, figures, and discussions from the session.
- A collaborative list of future industry trends and skills discussed during interactive elements.
- Create a personal reflection or written skills gap analysis.
- An individualised action plan for developing relevant skills.
Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?
- Ensuring engagement and participation, especially in an online setting.
- Addressing diverse needs and levels of industry experience, knowledge, and awareness within the wide-ranging group that could span from young current undergrad students, to mature PhD graduates coming up to 5 years out of university.
- Balancing general insights across the UK job market, with targeted advice for specific creative disciplines, plus responding to ones referred to by participants.
- Clarifying the London / UK-centric information and results may not be relevant to graduates based in other countries with their own set of cultural trends, economies, and different access to support or resources where they operate.
- Accessibility and inclusion challenges, such as adapting content for neurodiverse students or those with varying levels of digital literacy.
How will students be informed of the observation/review?
I am anticipating 30 or more attendees to join the online classroom. The nature of the bookings, and set up of the room, allows for participants to be fairly passive or anonymous, without it impacting the general benefits or flow of interactions throughout. I envision Antonia and Kwame to join as any participant would, and follow along in a detached way like many do, negating the need for a formal declaration that there is a review occurring, and operate in the background without impacting the mood of the online classroom.
What would you particularly like feedback on?
- The effectiveness of the session in helping graduates identify and address their skills gaps.
- How well the interactive elements (e.g., collaborative lists, group discussions) work in fostering engagement, and gleaning answers beneficial for the rest of the group.
- Clarity and accessibility of the resources provided.
- Whether the session sufficiently addresses the diverse needs of UAL’s creative student body, and graduate cohorts.
Part Two Observer 1 to note down observations, suggestions and questions:
I observed you during an hour-long online webinar which took place on Tuesday 4th of March 2025. The UAL-wide webinar has been well-attended; fifteen recent graduates logged on and seemed engaged throughout the session.
As I was joining the session (incognito) as a regular participant, I received a reminder email an hour ahead of the webinar. The email contained useful tips of how to join and stay focused during the session. I entered the online Collaborate Ultra webinar room early. There has been a welcome slide up on the screen stating the starting time and the person leading the session. You and your colleague Casius who has been responsible for technical support have already been in the online room welcoming people within the chat panel. Both, the holding slide and personal greeting, successfully reassured attendees that they are in the right place. Participants started to drop in and immediately used the welcome slide as a doodle board which set a friendly and creative tone for the session.
You started the webinar on time welcoming all participants and clearly explaining the objectives of the session. You addressed the attendees asking them to share directly on the slide which stage of their postgraduate career they are situated in which made the session nicely personal and interactive. You presented the slides in a calm and suitable pace and created a lovely flow within the webinar. I have been impressed how you managed to engage the participants by speaking freely yet staying on script and by incorporating your personal voice and light-hearted jokes. Also well done for staying calm and in the flow after losing internet reception for a minute. Casius explained and covered the short break-out you encountered in very professional manner and all participants have been fully understanding.
I have been impressed how seamlessly you incorporated the different platforms by providing links to a Padlet activity within the chat box as well as via a QR code. You also left a good amount of time for people to digest the brief and work on it in their own pace. Discussing comments which were left on the Padlet board back to the overall cohort nicely made participants feel seen and increase engagement with the content of the webinar.
The overall structure and amount of content provided felt appropriate given the hour-long session. You successfully explained the impact of political decisions on to the job market contextualising the post-degree situations they find themselves in. You clearly explained the difference between acquired skill and qualities/attributes. I found the detailed before-and-after example of how to elevate different skill sets on a CV especially relatable in order to help them enable them to reframe their experience and / or close potential skill gaps. I enjoyed the reflective slides towards the end which sent the participants off to consider short-, middle- and long-term goals and strategies to work towards them. You finished the session on time being respectful and mindful of commitments the attendees might have following the webinar.
In order to increase the clarity of the resources further I only wonder whether you could clearly denote the contents page further towards the beginning and share the slides including active links after the session.
How will feedback be exchanged?
· Make notes in the session
· Briefly talk through notes after the session
· Write up the review in your own notes,
· Set-up a meeting to talk through notes
· Send final written review after the conversation