Getting The Job Done: Using Authentic Assessment Techniques In Extra And Co-Curricular Activities (Eccas) To Improve Law Students’ Employability Prospects

Abstract

Authentic assessments are closely aligned with activities that take place in real work settings, as distinct from theoften artificial constructs of University courses. While the traditional ‘paper-based’ assessment strategy provides a pragmaticsolution to the problem of a general lack of time and resources to grade students en masse, the authors believe that the use ofauthentic assessment techniques, in accredited and University-run extra and co-curricular activities (ECCAs), are perfectlyplaced to improve law students’ employability prospects. By delivering authentic assessments methods in ECCAs, acombination of formative and summative techniques used throughout the assessment processes improves studentperformance, which thereby has positive cross-impact into improving critical reasoning, team-working, self-confidence andpublic speaking skills – all highly prized by employers in many different disciplines and working environments. Byexamining recent employability data, and cross-referencing them with trends in student participation with ECCAs, theauthors demonstrate that authentic assessment improves law students’ employability prospects in a variety of sectors – notjust in law.