THE HULL HISTORY PARTNERSHIP

1. THE HULL HISTORY PARTNERSHIP THRIVING IN DIFFICULT TIMES: WORKING TOGETHER TO Enhance THE employability OF history graduates Judy Burg & amandacapern

2. THE HULL HISTORY PARTNERSHIP - VISION

3. THE HULL HISTORY PARTNERSHIP - MISSION • The vision (2009): a triangulated partnership that works to the benefit of all partners • Objectives: • to promote and enhance the History teaching and learning experience across the 6th form-HE transition in Hull and the East Riding; • to provide training opportunities for young people wishing to develop careers in History teaching (primary through to HE), archives and heritage work, research in the academy and the workplace and work on public and community History projects; • The HHP embraces sixth form students, undergraduates and postgraduates in training and mentoring opportunities provided by contributing partners; • to promote pedagogical communication between the providers of History teaching in Hull and the East Riding.

4. DEVELOPMENTS 2010-11 • HEA [History Subject Centre] Teaching Development Grant: • Part-time administrator – Laura • ROUND TABLE MEETING of representatives from History Department, the Hull History Centre and circa 8 heads of history at schools and colleges in the region to discuss future collaborations in the Hull History Partnership (January 2011) • PILOT PROJECT FOR EMBEDDING EMPLOYABILITY IN THE CURRICULUM Competitive bursary scheme → 6 internships (Hull University Undergraduates working in the Hull History Centre) – pilot scheme for new Level 6 module to address employability of UG History students – Applied History (September 2011) – lessons learnt about scalability • Sixth form work experience week (summer 2011)

5. Experience of the Pilot Project – Kiri & Rhian • Primary school teaching (Year 1 – 5-6 years) – ‘Lady Hotham’s cookery class’ (circa 1850 woman’s recipe book) • KS1 syllabus – numeracy (adding and timing) and literacy (words matched to pictures) • Creative arts – picture drawn • Healthy eating • Life in the Victorian period • Greener society – how to buy local produce • Response of interns - eye opener about work commitment needed for teaching • Successes? • The interns – they have both secured PGCE places in a difficult times - they both said that interviewers were impressed that they had lesson planning experience and experience leading a class independently • The HHP – the KS1 project filled a gap in the HHC education outreach and offered HU an employable-graduate success story • Problems and challenges? • The logistics of finding somewhere to hold a cookery workshop

6. Experience of the Pilot Project – Joseph & Katy • Archive cataloguing→ sorting, structuring, listing and summarising a deposit of modern political papers – about 8-10 box deposits for each • Learnt how to • catalogue to spreadsheet • Carry out data transfer to HHC database • Research and summarise provenance and context/background of deposit • Overview of conservation needs and techniques • Successes? • One intern described herself as ‘relieved’ at finding ‘at last’ a career she would like to pursue – applying to archives management courses conservation • Both report enjoying the ‘intimacy’ of working with archival material and the finite nature of the task • Problems and challenges? • Ensuring that the less committed intern remained engaged with the task • Ensuring that the data was adequate for public consumption

7. Experience of Pilot Project: Mike & Becky • Mike working on community education → creation of a web resource showcasing the Maister archive • Learning journey for primary school teachers for use in lesson planning – going on My Learning website • Regional history • Business history & economic history – wealth creation and family history • Great story – counting houses by the River Hull and fire of 1743 • Historical geography – move of the city • Successes? • Accepted on to MA courses at Durham and York • Research skills main gain • Also, selecting • Public history - processing for an identified audience (transferable skill) • Problems and Challenges? • Lots of archival material - Identifying and selecting to purpose • Becky working on 17th C women’s recipe/medicinal books) • Mary Thompson (1670s) • Perdita MSS • Wellcome Library • Successes? • Clarified decision to do MA – interested in archives as material artefacts and plans to do conservation training (internship run alongside voluntary work with bookbinder) • Learning etiquette of archive use • Note-taking skill – selection of the factual from the archive (more so than when told what to read for a module) – fed back into Special Subject dissertation work • Problems and Challenges? • Mine – how to stop her researching!

8. Problems to resolve • Scale – 6 interns fine, but module will have 18 – will it still work? – solution = timetabled progress meetings • Timetabled lectures, inductions etc = fine • The differing level of past experience of students problematizes induction to archives/museums/teaching e.g. Rebecca had already done two years with a bookbinder and worked on documents in Treasure House, Beverley ERO and Joseph had work at York Minster Archives in summer – level of information required unclear • Success seen with pilot scheme will be diluted in the module by going through University quality procedures – the 6 interns were selected from an application process, but the 18 interns of the module will just have gone through our ballot system • Embedding employability in the curriculum faces challenges that are not faced by free-standing intern schemes • Still worth doing? Ask me this time next year!

9. Applied History Module (Level 6) • The first full undergraduate module to be taught collaboratively by the Department of History at the University of Hull and the Hull History Centre • L & T Strategy – complex framework • SEMESTER 1 • Lectures on theoretical Principles in public history, teaching history in schools, history in the archives, museums and heritage sector, oral history and the preservation of public memory, the cultural uses of History • Comprehensive induction to introduce students to the module, give them the skills and knowledge needed for placement at the HHC • Organising students into one of three streams for placement and project work (lesson learnt from the pilot – makes embedding employability in the curriculum manageable: • Archivist, Conservationist and Heritage Sector Stream • Education Stream • Academic and General Research Work Stream • SEMESTER 2 • ‘The Eight Hour Day’ pattern of work on one day a week for several weeks • Small group tutorials in the three streams to support project work • Individual exit strategy interviews • Assessment – Applied History (My Career) Portfolio (100%)

10. History Student Employability • Students need: • Awareness – of self and of job roles – on which to base career choices • Information on how to research a career path and pursue chosen career • Opportunities to develop and demonstrate skills in the real world • Relevant experience and achievements to contribute to a distinctive CV • Opportunities to demonstrate commitment to pursuing chosen career • Outcomes for students • Broad coverage of issues, real-world knowledge and experience relevant to field • Specific output of the (My Career) Portfolio – to describe and present to potential employers and to use as base for explaining skills application in the workplace • Feedback and endorsement from an employing organisation (in this case the HHC) • Confirmation or clarification of career choices Reflective learning + career skills

11. The Hull History Partnership – the wider vision • Part of a range of activities in History @ Hull – HHP aimed at V100 and associated programmes but also: • Maritime History at Blaydes House → workshops for schools on regional history • Slavery and diaspora studies at the Wilberforce Institute → History city trails, school workhops • Archaeology → summer digs in partnership with EH at Brodsworth • Art History → exhibitions of school art and UG internships digitising slide collections • Thriving in difficult times? • Who exactly?– HEIs plus the class of 2012 • Need to go on inspiring UG students in History but no longer sufficient to do that without embedding employability on the curriculum – WE OWE IT TO THEM!