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Developing Employability Newsletter | Issue 02                                     

Welcome

The personalised employABILITY profile tool goes live!


Welcome everyone to our second newsletter. In this issue, we introduce the new EmployABILITY student starter kit, take you on a guided tour of the new site and introduce expert in residence, Professor Stephen Billett. Please pass on the newsletter to anyone who may be interested.


Professor Dawn Bennett
Australian National Senior Learning and Teaching Fellow
Curtin University

News

Engaging students in their employability development: The Student EmployABILITY self assessment tool is launched!

The major piece of work for this Fellowship is the development of a measure and self-assessment tool for employability, based on the Literacies for Life model. Trialled with engineering students at Curtin University and the University of Western Australia, the new EmployABILITY student starter kit was launched on July 31st, just in time for semester 2 in the Southern Hemisphere.
 
How does it work?

Students create a personalised employability profile designed to help them understand and explore six literacies that combine to enhance employability. The literacies empower students to make informed life and career decisions that align with personal and societal values and goals.

Every student receives a personalised profile. They can use the profile and its resources to guide their personal and professional development, returning to the tool as often as they wish. Educators who use the tool with a whole cohort can request aggregated results together with workshop materials for use with students. Support for implementation is provided through the Fellowship. For more information for Literacies for Life, visit the brief introduction for educators on our website. 
 
How much does it cost?

Nothing! The tool was created for the use of all students and it will not be commercialised.

What happens to the data?

Anonymised data contribute to a database that will help to build a picture of students thinking about their future lives and careers. Data cannot be linked back to cohort, program or institution.

HERDSA 2017


Dawn Bennett from Curtin University and Lorna Froud from the University of Reading co-chaired the expert stream in employability at the national HERDSA conference in Sydney. Colleagues worked together for an hour or two every day, reporting to a plenary session on Friday, June 30th.

The group targeted four key areas:
1. The language of employability;
2. Rewriting the metrics on graduate outcomes;
3. Distilling the key elements of good practice; and
4. Radical thinking for effective change.

You can access a summary presentation here. 
Over the coming months, the group will create a white paper in which they bring together the key themes.

Expert in Residence 

Each month we feature an expert in residence who hosts a forum on a feature topic. Please be part of the conversation and share your expertise. 

I
n August, Professor Stephen Billett asks how we can develop students’ capacities to be active, intentional and interdependent learners.

Promoting students to be active, intentional and interdependent learners has been a long-standing goal for higher education. Fostering that capacity is important for: effective study; reconciling experiences across educational, workplace and community settings; transitioning to working life and becoming effective ‘lifelong learners.' So, how should we seek to further develop higher education students’ capacities as agentic learners? Through a structured, but highly participatory process, this workshop seeks to explore and elaborate some means by how an outcome might be approached.

Stephen will also lead a workshop on August 10 at Edith Cowan University, discussing the goals and purposes behind the promotion and fostering of higher education students' agency. The workshop is jointly sponsored by ACEN WA and HERDSA. 

Please be part of the conversation and share your expertise. Each forum leads to an expert guide to which everyone in the community is invited to contribute.

For more information on this event click here.
 
Join the conversation!

Professor Stephen Billett

Brisbane, Australia
Griffith University

Upcoming Events

ISPS Conference, Reykjavik
30th August - 4th September (TBC)

International symposium: 'What is the science of performance careers?'
Participants come from the UK, Europe and Australia

ASET Conference, London
5th September - 7th September

Plenary address: "Reframing employability for the future"

Residency at University of the Arts, Finland
11th September - 29th September

Residency with the CERADA Research Centre; institutional project:
"Expanded professionalism and identities in the Arts"

Norwegian Academy of Music Conference, Norway 
1st November - 3rd November

International conference: The Protean Musician: the musician in future society
Keynote address: What does the future look like for the musician in society?

AAEE conference, Sydney
10th December - 13th December

Special session: Is integrated engineering education necessary? Co-convened with Sally Male (UWA)
Fellowship paper. “Metacognition as a graduate attribute: Employability through the lens of self and career literacy”

Residency, Leeds University
18th December - 20th December

Roll out of the student assessment tool and workshops with staff

2018 | STATE ROAD SHOWS (TBC)

The Developing EmployABILITY Initiative is a program of research hosted from Curtin University, Australia. The Initiative’s focus is the development of employability within higher education. The Initiative positions employability as a multi-faceted construct involving metacognitive literacies. These enable informed life and career decisions which align with personal and societal values and goals. You can find out more at our website or by contacting us at contact@developingemployability.edu.au
Copyright © 2017 Developing Employability, All rights reserved.


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