President and Vice-Chancellor's Message
Alumni newsWelcome to this March edition of the dKin Times.
Throughout February and March Deakin conducted 12 graduation ceremonies, with 3,665 graduands proudly walking across the stage to receive their Deakin testamur. As always graduations are fabulous events, inspirational and filled with memories recorded in photographs to share with friends and family. The older you get the more precious these photos of a time that for many was a pivotal point in their lives. Do you have any photos of your time at Deakin? In this 40th anniversary of the Deakin Alumni Community I hope many of you will send through photos you may have through to the Alumni team so that we can begin to build an archive of the collective memory.
And for our most recent graduates, please don’t forget to complete the Graduate Outcomes Survey when it arrives. The survey is sent to all recent graduates by the Australian Government and the feedback helps us improve what we do for the next generation.
The world of work our latest graduates are entering is undergoing a fundamental transformation, as demographic shifts and technological innovation changes the nature and number of jobs available. While developments in machine learning and artificial intelligence are eliminating some jobs, digital change is opening up new opportunities, with considerable job growth in freelancing, home office businesses and the ‘gig’ economy; career pathways these days are no longer ‘linear’ but multidirectional.
The employability of our graduates is a major focus for Deakin; we want all our graduates to be resilient and career-ready, able to build and sustain their careers throughout their working life. To this end we see entrepreneurialism as a critical skill, necessary not just in starting a business or job creation, but as a mindset much valued by employers. Entrepreneurship teaches students about collaboration and creativity and about understanding risk and opportunity – important skills for successful 21st century lives and careers.
Our DeakinTALENT Freelancing HUB offers students internship placements within a cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural teams developing solutions for not-for-profit and community organisations. And our SPARK Deakin initiative is providing support and mentoring for students, with a world-class accelerator for when they are ready to take their business to the next level. This month’s dKin provides more information about our Deakin SPARK initiatives, including the accelerator program which is also open to Deakin alumni and staff. It’s an excellent read and I do hope you enjoy it.
Jane den Hollander AO
President and Vice-Chancellor