1 Stakeholder perceptions of employability and enhancement of work readiness in a non-placement authentic WIL module Associate Professor Margaret Jollands, Associate Dean, Student Experience, School of Engineering RMIT University, Melbourne

Why are we worried? 1 1. Graduate Destination Survey Melbourne: Graduate Careers Australia

What about work experience? 3 The consensus is work experience is the best place for students to develop employability skills However there are increasing numbers of undergraduates but falling numbers of work placements since the GFC 2,3 An alternative is authentic projects in the classroom but there has been little comparative evaluation This paper presents an alternative to work experience and its evaluation 2. Australian Education Network. (2014). Student numbers at Australian universities. Australian Education Network. Retrieved Dec 13, 2014, from. 3. Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency. (2013). Future focus: 2013 National Workforce Development Strategy, AWPA. Retrieved Dec 13, 2014, from..

Employability 4 ‘ a set of achievements - skills, understandings and personal attributes - that makes graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy.’ 1 1. Yorke, M. (2006). Employability in higher education: what it is, what it is not. York: Higher Education Academy.

What do Australian employers want? 4 4. Graduate Careers Australia (2014). Graduate Outlook 2013 The Report of the Graduate Outlook Survey: Employers’ Perspectives on Graduate Recruitment. Melbourne: Graduate Careers Australia n = 466 Misses: life long learning, career planning

How can we measure outcomes of WIL? 6 “Measurement of graduate outcomes, in particular generic outcomes is contentious and difficult…it has been found to be difficult, time-consuming or impossible” 5 “Participants were invited to complete a 45 item online survey. The questions comprised a mix of demographic items and research measures. The research measures utilised a five-point scale. Research items focused on curriculum inputs (quality of placement measures, simulation measures, and career development learning measures) and employability outcomes.” 6 5. Oliver, B. (2011). Assuring Graduate Outcomes. Strawberry Hills: Australian Learning and Teaching Council. 6. Smith, C, Ferns, S, Russell, L & Cretchley, P. (2014). The impact of work integrated learning on student work-readiness. Strawberry Hills: Office for Learning and Teaching, Sydney.

This paper reports 7 DesignNon-placement authentic simulated WIL module ResultsStudents’ self-reported perceptions of employability comparing students who undertook a work placement (n=40) with those who undertook the non-placement WIL module (n=25) Further work

Design 8 A real project from a local engineering company Scope developed jointly with the senior process engineer Resources supplied by the company (photos, drawings, PIDs) Joint group supervision and project marking Workshops on key skills with individual assessments developed by the author High expectations for attendance and behaviour. Each assessment is a pass/fail hurdle

Results 9 Survey tool – 35 individual questions on 6 employability dimensions (Smith et al. 2014) Collaboration Informed decision making Commencement readiness Lifelong Learning Professional Practice & Standards Integration of theory & practice

Results 10 Non-placement students rated themselves lower prior to completing the WIL module than placement students on – Overall I am confident I am work ready – I am able to obtain work relevant to studies – I seek out opportunities for further learning to develop my workplace or professional skills and/or knowledge – I judge the applicability of the knowledge gained in my studies to the workplace Self rating post WIL module same as placement students except for the nuanced question – I judge the applicability of the knowledge gained in my studies to the workplace

Further work 11 The work readiness survey will be administered prior to the students going on work experience placements and measured again when they return Students on work experience placements will fill out an on- line dynamic reflective logbook on workplace issues Employment outcomes will be analysed for 2015 and 2016 graduating cohort Module will run again in 2017

Conclusions This WIL module is successful in enhancing students’ self- reported perceptions of their employability skills Collaboration with an industry partner was critical for authenticity and provision of project resources Employment outcomes are needed to confirm if the WIL module is successful 12

13 OLT Final Report Jollands, M, Clarke, B, Grando, D, Hamilton, M, Smith, J, Xenos, S, Carbone, A, Burton, L, Brodie, M & Pocknee, C. Developing graduate employability through partnerships with industry and professional associations, Strawberry Hills: Office for Learning and Teaching, Journal papers Grando D, Pocknee P, Clarke B, Jollands M. What do Life Science employers look for in graduates? Microbiology Australia Special Issue, April Conference papers Araujo, N, Wilson, R & Clarke, B (2015) ‘Student engagement for employability: a Belonging Project case study’, in Proceedings of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australia Conference (HERDSA 2015), Melbourne, 6–9 July Carbone, A, Hamilton, M, Pocknee, C & Jollands, M (2015) ‘The future of learning and teaching based on Australian ICT students’ view of employability’, paper to be presented to the 12th annual conference of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL 2015), Melbourne, October 27–30. Carbone, A, Hamilton, M, & Jollands, M. (2015). ‘Moving towards the future of teaching pedagogies and learning paradigms: Addressing the 21st century employability challenges in ICT’, paper to be presented to the 9th International Conference on Researching Work and Learning RCL2015, Singapore, December 9 – 11. Carbone, A, Hamilton, M, & Jollands, M. (2015) Employabilty Challenges between ICT Employers, Academics and students. 8th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation, Nov, Seville, Spain Hamilton M, Carbone A, Gonzalez C & Jollands M (2015). Breakfast with ICT employers: what do they want to see in our graduates?’ in Proceedings of the 17th Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2015), Conferences, Jan 27-30, Melbourne. Hamilton, M, Carbone, A, Jollands, M (2015). Learning beyond the curriculum: Academics’ perspectives on ICT student employability skills. Proceedings of the Australasian Association of Engineering Education Annual Conference, 6-9 Dec, Geelong. Jollands M (2015). A framework for graduate employability adapted for discipline differences, in Proceedings of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australia Conference (HERDSA 2015), 6–9 July, Melbourne. Jollands, M (2015). Effectiveness of placement and non-placement work integrated learning in developing students' perceived sense of employability. Proceedings of the Australasian Association of Engineering Education Annual Conference, 6-9 Dec, Geelong. Jollands, M. Smith, JV (2015). Perspectives of stakeholders on engineering graduate employability, Proceedings of the Australasian Association of Engineering Education Annual Conference, 6-9 Dec, Geelong Smith J & Jollands M (2014). ‘Employability of engineers relative to other graduates’, in Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE 2014), 8–10 December, Wellington, New Zealand.

Questions? What measures can we use to evaluate impact of WIL? 14