PAL Leader Recruitment and Training

The term leader, which encompasses many skills and attributes, has been given many definitions in the literature. Bush (2007) links leadership with change and describes leaders as people who influence others by shaping their goals, motivations and actions.

Leadership is different from management, which effectively focuses on maintaining the integrity of a current system. In PAL, we require people to develop their leadership traits and desire leaders who promote and assist students in achieving their learn-ing goals. PAL leaders must be prepared to adapt to change, to improve the scheme and enhance the student experience. However, as academics, we are committed to providing potential leaders with resources and tools to develop their leadership and consequently, employability skills.

Leadership training is an ongoing process in our department which is not limited to the formal training taking place before starting the leadership role. This happens in various formats: formal and informal, as well as before, during, and on the job. The training aims to equip leaders with the essential skills to run a PAL scheme for lower year students; these aptitudes enhance leaders’ employability.

There are several skills and attributes which the students gain as a PAL leader;

however, our experience shows that leaders are not particularly aware of their abilities, unless they have been provided with the opportunities to reflect (Carr, Evans-Locke, Abu-Saif, Boucher, & Douglas, 2018). While reflection is a key element in writing job applications and personal statements, often graduates only start thinking about their gained skills when applying for jobs. Some universities deliver PAL training to enhance confidence, inter-personal skills, presentation style, body language, eye con-tact, understanding group dynamics, personal organisation, problem-solving, session planning, reflection, employability and identifying graduate attributes (West et al., 2017). However, the lack of information in the literature about how this training ben-efits students in their future career is evident. Efficient training supports leaders, to not only gain and refine their skills but also to reflect on and articulate the aptitudes continuously throughout their undergraduate studies.

2.1 PAL Application and Recruitment

The recruitment process is part of leadership training, where students experience writing an application to show their interest and suitability for the role. Writing a

professional and appropriate job application is the first stage of getting into one’s ideal career. Filling out the leader application is the first opportunity for most students to showcase their skills effectively during their degree. As an academic coordinator, our job is to set out and communicate the criteria, so that students would be able to evalu-ate their potential of becoming a leader and whether they apply for the role.

We release explicit information about PAL and what the leadership involves in the second semester of Year 1. At this time, students are settled in the new educational environment and adapted to university life, but it is still early enough to explore the role specification they apply for in order to make an informed decision. The informa-tion is communicated via emails, posters and short lectures, given by both academic and student coordinators. We encourage all students to apply for the PAL leader role but suggest those struggling academically to focus on improving their studies and consider applying for PAL the year after.

It is crucial to communicate the pros and cons of being in the scheme to students.

While we inform them of the numerous advantages of the scheme, they should be aware of the time commitment to prepare and deliver the sessions. We emphasise the importance of having enough knowledge of subject materials, as well as being keen and committed to supporting lower year students through collaborative learning.

Since leaders have been provided with sufficient information during the application process, to make an informed decision whether or not to contribute to the scheme, most of the applications are successful. While 30% of Year 1 students apply for the leadership role every year, only 3% of the applications are not successful, and 1% of leaders opt out from the scheme in either Year 3 or Year 4. This shows the efficiency of the approach taken to employ and retain suitable leaders.

The recruitment process is held in two stages: shortlisting applicants based on their academic performance in their subjects of interest (including mathematics and core chemistry modules) and reviewing the written applications. The application involves three main areas: why to apply, relevant attributes and skills, and the selection of the modules. It is vital to allow students to apply for the modules in which they are most confident and comfortable to support Year 1 students.

2.2 PAL Leadership Recognition and Promotion Pathway

To train students on all aspects of employability, leaders have the opportunity to be promoted from a leader to a subject leader and subsequently to a student coordinator.

Developing from a leader to a subject leader and coordinator gives students an expe-rience similar to career progression in their future jobs. Furthermore, having different job roles in the scheme keeps ambitious students motivated to progress from one role to another, which leads to improvement of the PAL scheme overall. The promotion pathway and role profiles are shown in Figure 1. The Academic Coordinator oversees the scheme without direct involvement in the day to day duties.

Subject leaders are experienced Year 3 graduates, who organise the preparation of session plans and liaise with PAL coordinators regularly, while they continue

deliv-ering and facilitating the sessions. Every year we employ a pair of competent subject leaders for each module to create session plans. The leaders who are interested in the role, apply for a particular area of chemistry which they have expertise in. Subject leaders are selected based on their academic ability and commitment to the delivery of sessions to enhance student learning.

PAL coordinators are experienced subject leaders, who coordinate the scheme in their Year 4 studies. They liaise with the academic coordinator, leaders, subject leaders and participants to organise PAL sessions. For each session they: assign one or two subjects (depending on weekly demand and impending assignment deadlines or as-sessments), allocate leaders, ensure preparing session plans, observe PAL sessions and collect attendance data for both leaders and student participants.

The two-stage recruitment process for PAL coordinators consists of an application form and an interview. The application form requires applicants to explain their suit-ability for the role. At the same time, the interview expands on this by asking potential coordinators to identify any areas for improvement or development in the scheme.

Clear development ideas show the interviewee’s commitment and vision to lead the scheme and make improvements to enhance student learning.

Throughout the delivery of sessions, leaders enhance their confidence, leadership, communication and hence employability skills. Consequently, they receive excellent reference letters from academics to apply for further studies or employment. Since student participation in PAL is voluntary, their activities are included in their Higher Education Achievement Record (HEAR) within three separate profiles: PAL coordi-nator, subject leader and leader (Figure 1). HEAR supports UK graduate applications for employment and further study, by providing a comprehensive record of student achievement, including co- and extra-curricular activities that they take part in during their studies.

Fig. 1: PAL leadership progression pathway and role profiles

2.3 PAL Training

The purpose of PAL sessions, which are different from the standard university lectures, is to provide a platform for students to seek help and ask questions about topics they find challenging. Students often have more confidence discussing scientific principles with a peer from a higher year group, rather than a lecturer. Although participants are encouraged to ask questions of leaders, a backup plan is in place to initiate discussion over a challenging topic, should the students remain quiet. PAL leaders use effective questioning techniques to promote further discussion and inspire participants to ask questions.

Leaders are trained to use their experiences of studying previous year modules and suitable techniques, to develop strategic approaches to facilitate discussions for a small group of students, providing them with strategies about how to approach prob-lems from different angles (West et al., 2017). It is noteworthy that leaders do not

“teach”; they instead guide students towards correct answers through targeted ques-tioning, adding an extra layer of peer-to-peer learning to the chemistry programmes.

Training for new leaders, which is delivered by PAL coordinators and the staff from the university’s Career & Employability services in Welcome Week, equips stu-dents with essential skills and knowledge, as well as sufficient confidence to deliver their first PAL session. Moreover, training for experienced leaders is delivered by PAL coordinators, to recap the leadership skills and attributes, as well as sharing good practice. Ongoing training throughout the scheme is vital to keep leaders motivated and allows continuous reflection on the acquired skills. Our experience shows that al-though students are aware of their abilities, they find the articulation of their expertise to employers challenging; The University’s Career & Employability services organise skills audits in which leaders learn how to identify and articulate their leadership skills to future employers.

In addition, PAL leaders are provided with various opportunities to learn new skills by engaging in departmental and university activities to enhance further em-ployability. To familiarise leaders with pedagogy, we ask them to participate in focus groups and when experienced, to facilitate one. They can choose to enhance their presentation skills by giving short lectures to promote the scheme to new students, inside or outside the Department of Chemistry. Experienced leaders are employed on Open Days to help us with promotion and recruitment activities. In this role, they utilise their communications skills to provide prospective students with information about the chemistry programmes, department and university.