Engaging students and academics in work-ready learning contextualised for each profession in the curriculum

Universities are facing increasing pressure to better prepare graduates for the workforce. Employers, professional societies and the government are increasingly calling for graduates who are work-ready. The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Work-Ready Project is a curriculum renewal initiative that aims to improve graduates' professional attributes and employability skills. The collaborative project aims to design, develop, implement and evaluate into the existing curriculum high-quality, professionally contextualised, work-ready learning activities to better prepare students for the contemporary workplace. The paper provides an overview of the project's curriculum renewal strategy of contextualised by profession activities integrated into the curriculum. Interviews with representatives of relevant professional societies identified their key graduate attributes. These attributes inform the structure of online matrices of work-ready activities and downloadable learning and teaching support resources. These learning activities have been contextualised for each profession to maximise relevance for students and academics. Formative evaluation of the project's website is presented together with the strategies used to renew, integrate and embed work-ready learning into UTS’s diverse professional and disciplinary curriculum.

Published abstract.

Universities are facing increasing pressure to better prepare graduates for the workforce. Employers, professional societies and the government are increasingly calling for graduates who are work-ready. The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Work-Ready Project is a curriculum renewal initiative that aims to improve graduates' professional attributes and employability skills. The collaborative project aims to design, develop, implement and evaluate into the existing curriculum high-quality, professionally contextualised, work-ready learning activities to better prepare students ...  [+] Show more