Job-ready Graduates Research Articles

Preparing Artists to Save the World: Community-Engaged Arts Practice as Critical Pedagogy

ABSTRACT The sustained marginalisation of creative arts in higher education in Australia risks the delivery of superficial learning experiences that are disconnected from the relationality of place, people, and histories. The metrics used to assess a university’s capacity to produce “job-ready graduates” does not adequately capture the success of students in the creative arts, leading to under resourcing in these disciplines and, ironically, limiting the capacity of these disciplines to train students adequately for their industry. In this paper, we examine the place of community-engaged creative practice and cultural policy learning in universities to ask how tertiary educators can support students to develop industry skills while also embodying a critically engaged pedagogy in order to work and create in the industry in ways that prioritise relationality, context and an ethic of care. Community-engaged arts practice can be understood as that which privileges collaborative processes, values people over institutions, is contextually grounded, and understands creative excellence as intricately entangled in social and relational outcomes. We argue that community-engaged arts practice is a form of critical pedagogy and, potentially, vice versa. We share two case studies of creative arts learning experiences in our university as examples of the powerful crossover between community-engaged arts practice and critical pedagogies in our endeavour to train effective, and impactful creative arts workers in sustainable and ethical practice via a critically engaged creative practice pedagogy.

The Effect of Human Resource Management on Learning Effectiveness in Vocational Schools

This study aims to analyze the effect of human resource management (HRM) on the effectiveness of learning in vocational schools. This research uses quantitative methods with a meta-analysis approach. The data source came from an analysis of 10 national and international journals. The data collection process is through searching the google database, ProQuest and ScienceDirect. Data analysis techniques in quantitative analysis research by calculating the value of effect size with the help of the JSAP application. The results of this study concluded that human resource management has a significant influence on the effectiveness of learning in vocational schools with an effect size value of 0.814; P< 0.001. The findings have a positive impact on vocational school teachers to provide professional and competent teacher candidates in work. Vocational schools need to implement good HR practices to improve the quality of education and produce job-ready graduates.

Joining forces: Combining police and external expertise for cold case reviews

Cold case reviews within police and law enforcement agencies are challenging, not the least owing to the amount of time required to carefully review documentation, forensic exhibit holdings and various other casefile information. Most federal and state agencies are time poor, meaning there are very few dedicated cold case teams fortunate enough to have an abundance of police and expert staff resources. Universities and education organisations, however, have large troves of various expertise, alongside expansive human resources, by way of their academic and student body. In certain circumstances, the academic expertise and course offerings of a university may be well suited to assisting law enforcement in reviewing cold cases.There is growing desire for university courses to generate job ready graduates. In the field of law enforcement and policing this is difficult, as safety and the security of sensitive material and evidence is paramount. Educators strive to create workplace simulations, and with the correct mix of academic expertise, course offerings and industry linkages, the emerging opportunity for real cold case collaboration is possible. One such example is the Cold Case Review @ Murdoch (CCR) initiative. Since 2020, CCR has worked with the Lower Saxony Police Academy in Germany to develop the novel International Cold Case Analysis Project (ICCAP), now incorporating over 25 member institutions, to assist in solving real cases from both Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) and federal police jurisdictions. One case, known as “The North Sea Man” has shown great success and demonstrates the power of joining forces between law enforcement and external agencies to help advance cold cases.

INDUSTRY AND ACADEMIA COLLABORATION IN ADDRESSING THE THEORY AND PRACTICE GAP BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT EDUCATION (A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW)

This study aims to explore the role of collaboration between industry and academia in addressing various challenges faced in business and management education. The research employs case studies and qualitative analysis, with data collected through in-depth interviews with faculty members, students, and industry practitioners at several universities in Indonesia. The findings indicate that effective collaboration between industry and academia can bridge the gap between theory and practice, enrich the curriculum, and enhance graduates' readiness for the job market. Additionally, this collaboration helps in providing better resources, such as technology and educational facilities. The study concludes that strategic and sustainable collaboration between industry and academia is crucial for improving the quality of business and management education and producing more competent and job-ready graduates. Strategic recommendations include enhancing communication and cooperation between academia and industry, developing more comprehensive internship programs, and aligning the curriculum with industry needs.

Assessment for employability: Is synoptic assessment the answer?

The production of job ready graduates remains one of the key requests of the business community. The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the importance of assessment in developing employability skills and in making graduates more employable. One criticism often levied at higher education institutions, is that students understand ideas in subject context, but cannot transfer that knowledge into a holistic business context. As such, they have silo ‘mentality’, when to be successful in the modern complex working and business environment they need to understand and command multiplicity. As a conceptual paper, this article seeks to discuss the importance and relevance of assessment and its links to employability. The paper provides a case for the inclusion of synoptic assessment as a tool for developing and demonstrating employability skills. The article emphasises the importance of employability and surrounding issues. The paper provides originality through linking the concepts of education and assessment with the end goals of job-readiness and employability. This paper argues for a new approach to assessment which is employability driven.

Pendekatan Konseling Behavior Dalam Mengembangkan Self Management Pada Siswa SMK Di Dunia Kerja

Vocational High School (SMK) is one form of formal education unit that organizes vocational education at the secondary education level as a continuation of Junior High School (SMP), MTs, or a continuation of recognized learning outcomes equivalent to SMP/MTs. SMKs are expected to produce job-ready graduates, but in reality, most of the open unemployment comes from SMKs. One of the developmental tasks of adolescents, especially vocational students, is the achievement of career maturity. Career maturity is an aspect that students need to have to support their future careers. Career maturity is an attitude and competence that plays a role in career decision making. Vocational students are required to be able to make the right career choices when they are faced with the majors process to choose certain career choices. One of the efforts to help vocational students in dealing with career maturity problems is through behavioral counseling services with Self Management techniques. This writing uses the literature review method, so the goal is how behavioral counseling with Self Management techniques helps vocational students in developing their career maturity.

How Successfully Do We Educate Tourism, Hospitality, and Events Graduates?

ABSTRACT This study examines perceptions of university-level tourism, hospitality and events (THE) graduates with regards to whether the degree prepared them for a successful career. “Success” is a highly nuanced term that can be interpreted narrowly as producing job ready graduates or more broadly as producing graduates who have a quality and enjoyable education that equips them with a desire for lifelong learning, a positive value set, and the skills to develop their careers in a dynamic work environment. Listening to the graduates’ voices reveals that a successful educational experience involves far more than making them job ready and instead involves creating passionate future employees who want the chance for personal development and who feel valued in the workplace. However, some issues did arise relating to a relatively high attrition rate from the sector and concern over the degree of practical training provided. The study findings help inform curriculum of programmes.

Sosialisasi Karakter Entrepreneur Muda Bagi Siswa SMK Negeri 1 Pangkalpinang

This community service is aimed at students of SMK Negeri 1 Pangkalpinang, this can provide an overview in order to prepare themselves to become successful young entrepreneurs by starting various productive businesses. Planting and prioritizing the entrepreneurial spirit since school is the basic foundation for building courage and motivation to improve welfare through creative ideas and skills that are owned, this can help the government in the problem of unemployment and reduce poverty. In addition, the role of teachers and lecturers must be able to explore student competencies not only in terms of intelligence, but also focus on shaping morals and building student character in entrepreneurship. The success of this community service activity can be measured from two achievements, including all series of service events running smoothly without hindrance, and the material on the spirit of young entrepreneurs has been received and practiced by students. The questionnaire results showed an increase in students' knowledge about entrepreneurship. The accumulated answers to the questionnaire showed that 45% of the participants strongly agreed with the entrepreneur training and 55% agreed. The outcomes of this service include that students in accordance with the focus on each of their vocations become job-ready graduates such as becoming entrepreneurs, exporters or international trade.

Working-class student-hood and ‘job-readiness’: Affective relations of class, gender and employability policy in higher education

ABSTRACT Past decades have seen increased emphasis on graduate employability as a driver of higher education policy. In the Australian context, employability discourses in the public domain have become inflected with anti-intellectual sentiment, serving to reproduce the perception that the humanities and social sciences are of less value to graduates’ employability than are science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine. Against this backdrop, and with particular reference to the Job-ready Graduates Package, we investigate how diverse notions of employability shape student-hood for working-class female students who are largely engaged in the social sciences. Attending to affective dynamics, we show how employability imperatives ‘land’ for these students, individually, and as an ‘equity group’. While employability policies are typically positioned as a salve for class inequalities, they can also discredit educational and employment endeavours of working-class students, and reproduce class tensions. To enhance employability policies, there is a need to move beyond reductionist models of job-readiness, towards responding to the complexities of policy as enacted through lived relations. We propose attending to the variability of both identity and value positions and recognising the contribution of affect and emotion to this complex set of policy dynamics.

Relevant, practical and connected to the real world: what higher education students say engages them in the curriculum

ABSTRACT The discourse on preparing job-ready graduates has led to calls for more authentic methods of teaching and learning that allow higher education students to enhance their employability. The literature identifies authentic approaches to teaching as those that situate learning in contexts that correspond to the ‘real world’. However, little is known about whether, or how, students in Irish higher education view their learning as authentic. Drawing on Ireland’s national survey of student engagement, this paper examined the free text responses of 93,743 students over a five-year period when asked what their institutions could do to improve engagement in their learning. Using both an automatic content and manual analysis, it was found that the theme of ‘work’ was strongly represented in the data. Strongly connected to ‘work’ were the concepts ‘real world’, ‘real life’ and ‘group’ with students requesting learning that was relevant, practical, and job- or career-related. While group learning was seen in a positive light, students valued projects that were connected to the world of work. In contrast to the literature, these students don’t frame their narratives in terms of ‘authentic’ learning, rather they speak of learning that has real-world relevance. The paper concludes with suggestions for institutions.

Work-based learning for the engineering field in vocational education: Understanding concepts, principles and best practices

Various learning models have been developed and implemented in vocational education in the engineering field, but still have weaknesses, especially in basic matters such as one-sided learning and lack of direct industrial involvement. Moreover, learning in educational institutions is not supported by facilities that match those in the industry, but only simulation tools. Additionally, the media used in educational institutions is not as sophisticated as that used in the industry. This study is a literature review on Work-based Learning (WBL) and the formulation of WBL concepts suitable for vocational education in the engineering field. The results of the literature review showed that the implementation of WBL in various developing and advanced countries is very effective in developing students' competencies. Educational institutions and industries work together to improve the quality of learning to produce job-ready graduates. Industries benefit from the availability of competent and professional workforce who can develop their business for global competition. There are three WBL model concepts that can be applied to vocational education in the engineering field, including integrated student work, teaching factory, and industrial internship. The formation of student competencies can be carried out through a structured program, where students will gain experience and opportunities to gradually sharpen their competencies.

Graduate Employment Outcomes of Health Service Management Work Integrated Learning Placements

Introduction: Australian universities are increasingly focused on graduate employability outcomes. Industry and government are also seeking job-ready graduates. Employment outcomes for degree programs are measured by national surveys. Understanding employment outcomes for health service management university programs however are not able to be determined by these surveys as the data are not sufficiently granular. Universities embed a range of employability activities into their degrees to promote and support job-ready graduates such as work-integrated learning placements. Study design: This study employed a novel approach to measuring employability outcomes for graduates who had completed a health service management work integrated learning placement. Findings and research outcomes: Our study shows that graduates of a health service management program who complete a work-integrated learning placement have good employability outcomes and are gaining employment in roles related to their degree. Further research is needed to understand the impact of the placement and other embedded approaches in health service management degree programs to determine the role of each of the possible contributing factors

Designing Effective Work-Integrated Learning for Data Science Students: Considerations and Lessons Learned

Work integrated learning (WIL) equips students with real-world experiences by bridging the worlds of academia and work, theory and practice, reflection and action. Through WIL, students are able to gain critical life skills such as teamwork, problem-solving, communication, and professionalism, which are key for employability (Freudenberg et al., 2011; Jackson, 2015). They also get to apply the knowledge gained from classroom learning to practical projects, preparing themselves for the workforce. With the increasing demand for job-ready graduates, WIL remains a strategic priority for many higher education providers calling for significant investment in curriculum design (Billett, 2014). Along with the noted benefits, the challenges and factors that require careful consideration for successful WIL design are well established (Jackson, 2015). Past studies have examined approaches and best practices for effective WIL, with more recent work focusing on technology and connectivity in a post-pandemic era (Dean & Campbell, 2020; Schuster & Glavas, 2017). In particular, the foundation lies in strong partnerships between higher education and industry, which is responsive to the needs of all stakeholders (Choy & Delahaye, 2011; Smith & Betts, 2000). In our presentation, we discuss the considerations and lessons learned by educators in delivering a WIL subject for data science students in an Australian higher educational institution. Here, the underlying technicality of the subject involving data sharing and access, confidentiality, and intellectual property rights adds to contextual challenges. Additional challenges include the need to design a valuable student experience which can be scaled up for larger cohorts. The design of project-based learning experiences requires domain expertise, personalized mentorship, and pre-defined outcomes, prompting the shift towards a more problem-based approach where outcome spaces can evolve for transdisciplinary learning (Kligyte et al., 2021). We derive insights from designing an interdisciplinary space for WIL projects with particular focus on the perspectives of different stakeholders involved and managing their expectations and boundaries. This involves co-defining shared problem spaces for projects to create a common understanding across all stakeholders (Billett, 2015); to inform more appropriately aligned authentic assessments (Ajjawi et al., 2020) that are embedded in project work; guiding, supporting and managing team formation and group dynamics to empower students to work as autonomous groups (Brewer et al., 2020); and the use of relevant tools and platforms to facilitate operations and aid learning (Schuster & Glavas, 2017). Feedback from students and industry partners has improved significantly across a 3 year period, with the current subject offerings receiving the highest student and industry satisfaction scores to date. The work contributes to the design of effective WIL by learning from practical experiences of educators before, during, and following the pivot to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with lessons transferrable to other WIL contexts. Future work will build on the findings by triangulating with additional data sources including student work.

A Study on Australian Higher Education Reform Facing with the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Taking the Job-Ready Graduates Package as an Example

A Study on Australian Higher Education Reform Facing with the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Taking the Job-Ready Graduates Package as an Example

Crisis and policy imaginaries: higher education reform during a pandemic

Crisis makes bold policy actions possible. In responding to socioeconomic and technological ruptures, policymakers create new imaginaries or revitalise existing ones. With the Australian Government’s Job-Ready Graduates (JRG) reform during the COVID-19 pandemic as an empirical case, this paper shows how crisis instrumentalism and policy imaginaries intersect to effect swift policy changes. Drawing on a thematic analysis of key documents that constitute the JRG reform, we highlight three findings. First, the reformers used a new crisis context to repackage pre-existing policy agendas. Second, in justifying the timeliness of the reform, rather than constructing new imaginaries, the Government reactivated old neoliberal visions of society and the economy. Finally, the reform agendas are characterised by reductionist accounts of the value of university education, a nativist view of the future workforce, and the omissions of key issues: research training, social justice, and the urgency of decarbonising the economy. We close the paper by arguing that crisis makes swift reform possible to the extent that key actors can mobilise new or pre-existing policy imaginaries.

A Systematic Literature Review on Training Higher Education Students for Soft Skills

Purpose: The research entails drawing up new ideas and laying down them into action while availing former work as a foundation. The impetus of the literature review in this paper is to acquaint and learn about the review topic to amalgamate existing ideas with the new ones. Methodology: Multiple secondary sources, such as journals, conference proceedings, book chapters, and other web resources, were utilised to compile the literature for this study. All of the literature has been reviewed in-depth and is encapsulated. It's also utilised to come up with research agendas and research gaps. Findings/Result: The current study's contribution can be observed in the classification of numerous students' soft skills. It has the potential to convey useful information to higher education stakeholders. Higher education institutions must rethink their coaching and study methods to invigorate the soft skills that employers demand to generate job-ready graduates. The research also revealed that students who are graduated lack soft skills, which is highly valued from employer’s perspective to be job-ready. Universities and the government both have been instrumental in creating as well as expanding the country’s human capital to address this issue. Originality: This literature survey is based on secondary data that was gathered from a variety of online sources. The data gathered will be utilized to improve existing theories and frameworks or to create new methodologies in the future. Any final judgment or decision is also viewed to be non-biased or unidirectional. An earnest attempt is driven to identify a study topic and to carry out the research. Paper Type: Literature Review.

‘I can say I was a journalist during a global pandemic’: Australian students’ experiences of a newsroom in lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic presented university journalism educators with a dual challenge: transitioning subjects online and helping students navigate an industry that is experiencing disruption to work practices and job losses. The impact was particularly felt in practice-based subjects such as student newsrooms. While work-integrated learning programmes have become ubiquitous in journalism courses to produce job-ready graduates, the pandemic required educators to implement swift changes to accommodate online learning in them. The pandemic provides an opportunity to explore how students perceive the value of curriculum-related newsrooms during significant industry upheaval. Many studies have examined these practical journalism education programmes; however, the student perspective is often lacking. This case study, based on student questionnaire responses and educators’ observations, chronicles the experiences of working remotely in a curriculum-related newsroom during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns. It situates this within ‘pedagogical newsroom’ that blends pedagogical and journalistic principles to simulate practice within a flexible environment. Due to this flexibility, educators were able to adapt content for unanticipated online delivery to meet learning outcomes and even to create new learning opportunities. Student survey responses showed that despite the disruption, they believed the programme offered vital preparation for industry and generally remained optimistic about their career prospects.

Getting grounded: Educational foundations for nurses' lifelong learning.

Lifelong learning is key to excellent nursing. Ensuring nurses have a strong foundation for lifelong learning requires a connection between pre-licensure nursing education and ongoing workplace learning. Currently, however, a line deeply divides nurses' learning during post-secondary education and their learning in the workplace. Expanding on the findings from a previously published grounded theory study exploring workplace learning in experienced nurses, I explore aspects of the theory relevant to nursing education in more depth. I describe the concept of Getting Grounded, a process of developing foundational knowledge and dispositions that unites nursing education to workplace learning. This differs from the current focus on knowledge-based examinations and pressure for job-ready graduates. Through this re-examination of dispositions necessary for workplace learning and consideration of current and emerging educational initiatives, I argue that nurse educators can, and should, contribute to graduates' lifelong learning and improved patient care.

Marketing Education: Reflecting on Relevance

Marketing is one of the fastest-growing employment areas within commerce. Most of the growth lies in the role of digital technologies and in promoting sustainability rather than consumerism. However, students with mostly theoretical knowledge, even if in these areas, may not necessarily satisfy this demand, nor will students armed with strategic knowledge that is not required in entry-level jobs. There is increased demand from the marketing industry for job-ready graduates with both technical and multidisciplinary soft skills. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to reflect on the relevance of marketing education in universities in Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region. At the beginning of this new decade and following a global health pandemic that has severely impacted the university sector, the time is right for such a reflection. Specifically, we reflect on how we teach and what we teach. Under how we teach, we consider two main issues: online learning and the role of industry certifications. Under what we teach, we consider three main issues: content relevance, soft skills and industry experience. We conclude with key questions for individual educators and marketing departments, and we provide some recommendations as to how, collectively, we can deal with the question we pose.

Does online technology provide sustainable HE or aggravate diploma disease? Evidence from Bangladesh—a comparison of conditions before and during COVID-19

Higher education (HE) serves to produce well trained and job-ready graduates. Despite this belief, whether HE produces certificates/qualifications or job-ready graduates—this debate remains unsettled. To date, the current COVID-19 pandemic which erupted in late 2019 continues to create much economic, social and political dislocation throughout the world. Consequently, one outcome for HE during this crisis is the much greater dependence on online/digital technology to deliver courses and programs. Although it is not considered to be a complete substitute, critics argue that education delivered through online technology has expended the ‘diploma disease’ crisis and subsequently may pose a threat to the viability of producing HE graduates. It has been suggested that this can result in significant long-term problems that may be impossible to recover from. This study was based on a ‘empirical survey’ where the sample incorporated 240 people in two groups (before and during COVID-19, for a total of 120 in each), and the objective was to examine academic and job-readiness of graduates in greater depth. Findings demonstrate that pre-pandemic students scored poorly academically compared to their post-pandemic classmates. Pre-pandemic graduates, on the other hand, had higher work readiness scores in terms of both aptitude and practical aspects. Furthermore, both groups outperformed their job-readiness scores in terms of learning performance. This raises the question: is it the job of higher education to promote sustainable production of graduates or deliver certificates and degrees? COVID-19 appears to have been utilised by the HE system as an excuse to exacerbate the “diploma disease crisis,” a scenario that must be resolved by developing a proper policy framework that allows HE to play the necessary role in an emergency. Meaningful measures should be taken so that online technology is employed properly in this situation.