Pop-up shops for increasing employability and contributing to civil society in times of austerity

This chapter discusses a learning and teaching unit pop-up shop rooted in experiential learning. This pop-up shop learning activity aims to increase employability and educate young learners how to contribute to civil society. The discussion offers a reflection on how lecturers’ roles are changing in response to the austerity informed UK policies and HE measures. Universities are increasingly required to generate larger numbers of enterprising, employment-ready graduates. Increased monitoring of the efficient use of public spending in HE has seen the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) bringing more focus on employability rates, which in turn help to determine university rankings. These rankings put pressure on HE senior management, which is then passed down through the hierarchy to lecturers. The detailed guidance on how to run pop-up shops offers a pragmatic answer to the outlined challenges to inspire lecturers to develop their learning and teaching strategies. Particular attention is paid to developing reflective skills in learners.