Teaching staff who may be finalising assessment for the year are reminded they now have access to a toolkit aimed to increase students’ employability skills and to improve their preparedness for the ‘world of work’. Launched in November, and targeting commencing to final year students, the pilot toolkit comprises 11 customisable assessment pieces, complete with marking guides, including preparing a resume, conducting sector research, creating a LinkedIN profile, and addressing selection criteria.

Consistent with the University’s new Assessment Policy, launched in January, the 11 pieces may be used towards assessment or as a non-graded activity, complementing existing assessment pieces and supporting student success.

Early take-up by Colleges
Since the launch of the toolkit, the Careers and Employability team have been meeting with academics, course and topic coordinators, program directors and those interested in adopting the toolkit. There has been encouraging take up from a number of cohorts including:

• SE – intention to incorporate resume/job search assessment pieces into first year STEM topics
• NHS – interest in incorporating some assessment pieces in first and third year Nursing topics
• BGL – intention to embed relevant assessment pieces across undergraduate degrees and into Master’s and MBA degrees, and interest from Criminology
• HASS – interest from Tourism and Women and Gender Studies with potential for a ‘pilot’ with Tourism students

Complementary, centralised resources
The toolkit is the latest initiative in the Careers and Employability team’s efforts to develop complementary, centralised resources for teaching staff that can be tailored and incorporated into teaching materials.

Other resources include the development of College-based course specific resources* for most undergraduate degree areas and a growing suite of career development recordings** (20-60 minutes) – on career planning, job search strategies, resumes, cover letters, selection criteria, interviews, networking and graduate programs – that can be used to support teaching.

While extensive support is available from Careers and Employability – primarily via CareerHub* and the Flinders Horizon Award – to assist students in enhancing their career-related skill set, it is currently optional for students to engage, rather than a required part of their degree process.

Embedding employability skills would ensure that more students are supported in their transition from student to employed professional.

The Careers and Employability team are keen to work with teaching staff to adapt the Flinders Employability Toolkit and for ideas for improvement.

Interested to know more? Check out the pilot Flinders Employability Toolkit or contact the team careers@flinders.edu.au.

*Add CareerHub via OKTA to access centralised resources

**Please ensure you are logged in to FLO to access these resources