Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhlste Co-creating learning experiences to support student employability in travel and tourism Adrian Guachalla ∗ , Maurice Gledhill Buckinghamshire New University, Queen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe, HP11 2JZ, UK ARTICLEINFO Keywords: Collaborative teaching Experiential learning Student employability ABSTRACT This research evaluates the efectiveness ofamodularprogrammeofstudythataimstodevelopa range of employability skills in travel and tourism students. The module contents and assessment regime use an experiential approach and are collaboratively delivered by focusing on CV and cover letter writing techniques, job interview skills and other recruitment tools. To measure its impact, semi-structured interviews with students revealed that the experiential nature of the module engenders confdence when participating in job assessment centres. It also highlights the value of informing it through a range of perspectives leading to students with a distinctive competitive advantage. 1. Introduction The development of employability skills has been extensively noted as a critical factor shaping the Higher Education sector and underpinning student expectations of their University degrees (Asonitou, 2015; Dacre Pool & Sewell, 2007; HEA, 2017). This results from a stronger emphasis placed on students and graduates that achieve tangible results in the task of securing relevant jobs in the industries that they studied (Eurico, da Silva, & do Valle, 2015). In light of this, the case of a specifc modular programme of study that focuses on employment and employability in travel and tourism is hereby presented. The employability skills that the module aims to develop include: the ability to write efective CVs and professional cover letters, taking aptitude and psychometric tests, confdently participating in group assessments and succeeding at panel job interviews as the module mirrors current recruitment and selection schemes (Edenborough, 2005; Paulhus, Westlake, Calvez, & Harms, 2013). This programme benefts from the input of a range of perspectives that synergically deliver its contents and support its assessment strategy using a collaborative approach to delivering learning experiences (Kumar, 2007; Smith, Kemp, Moore, & Dalrymple, 2013). This is accomplished by diferent relevant contributors that co-deliver the module contents enriching the spectrum of perspectives that students learn from (Haddara & Skanes, 2007; Weisz & Chapman, 2004). In addition, an experiential approach is implemented to assess their engagement with the module andthedevelopmentofemployabilityskills,includingperformanceatjobinterviews,groupassessmentsandwrittentestsinlinewith current industrial practice (Eckhaus, Klein, & Kantor, 2017). Inviewofthisframework,theoverallaimofthisstudyistoevaluatethecontributionofthismoduleinthetaskofsupportingthe students’ journey towards employment. Given the co-creative and experiential nature of the module contents and assessment regime, theresearchobjectivesare:1.Tounderstandthevalueofusingacollaborativeapproachindeliveringemployabilitycurricula;and2. To evaluate the use of experiential learning assessment techniques in the task of supporting student employability. The pedagogical approach know as experiential learning has been widely used in tourism education research in the context of work-based learning https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhlste.2019.100210 Received 11 April 2018; Received in revised form 10 July 2019; Accepted 18 July 2019 ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: a.guachalla@bucks.ac.uk (A. Guachalla), m.gledhill@bucks.ac.uk (M. Gledhill). Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education 25 (2019) 100210 1473-8376/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T