• Spring 2011
  • Welcome
  • Boot Camp for Accounting Vacationers!
  • From Deakin to Deloitte
  • Educating for Career Readiness Symposium 2011
  • Successful Students: Results of employer focus group
  • The Australian Higher Education Graduation Statement
• Summer 2011
  • Welcome
  • TAC Graduate Program
  • Low SES work placement program
  • Social media and employment issues
  • Employers visit Deakin in record numbers
  • Beyond graduate survey findings
  • Online interview simulation
  • Employers assess graduate competencies
• Winter 2010
  • Welcome
  • International work experience
  • Deakin at Your Doorstep
  • Enhancing student employability
  • The Fair Work Act 2009
  • Graduate Attributes: the employer's perspective
  • Valuing the skills of PhDs
• Summer 2010
  • Welcome
  • Transitioning
  • Supporting IBL
  • International traineeships
  • Career week
  • Career fairs
  • First point of contact
• Autumn 2009
  • Welcome
  • Careers in the curriculum
  • Work integrated learning
  • International students
  • Internship interview
  • Duke of Edinburgh award
  • New look Jobshop
  • Recruiting students with disability
  • Alumni in profile

Careers in the curriculum

Deakin University has a target in its Teaching and Learning Plan to "Ensure that where appropriate, courses have an integrated career program involving interaction with industry representatives which enables students to plan their career path".

The following article is from Sabrina Chakman who has recently undertaken a new role in the Careers and Employment team to assist Faculties to achieve this target.

I welcome this opportunity to introduce myself to employers and Deakin academics. I have recently taken up the new Senior Careers Educator role for Deakin University following my secondment in 2008 from Careers and Employment to the Faculty of Science and Technology to design a structured framework to develop students' career and employability skills.

This is an exciting initiative which aims to add value to Deakin degrees and, in this increasingly challenging market, to explicitly prepare competitive graduates who are creative and lateral-thinking in their approach to seeking employment and managing their careers, who are able to clearly articulate what they have to offer and who can apply their skills to varied opportunities.

Our aim is to develop a thorough, well coordinated Becoming A Professional Program for all Deakin students. Careers Education activities will be developed and coordinated by courses teams in close collaboration with myself and the Careers and Employment team. Input from employers into curriculum and their participation in program delivery will ensure that our work is responsive to their requirements, appropriate and relevant.

Ideally learning objectives will be tailored for integration into course delivery through three year undergraduate degrees and academics will be supported with teaching and learning resources and specialist presentations.

The framework we use for Careers Education is based on the DOTS model of career development (Decision Learning, Opportunity Awareness, Transition Learning and Self Awareness). This model assists graduates to manage their own careers, and their lives, by developing self awareness, decision making skills, opportunity awareness and the skills for making a successful transition to the workplace.

Future goals include placing interactive teaching and learning resources on-line for access by academics to support their teaching and by students for self-directed learning and personal development. It is also hoped that other technologies can be used to make careers education at Deakin as user friendly and easily accessible as possible.

This initiative to enhance Deakin students' abilities to turn themselves into candidates with highly valued skills and attributes will clearly benefit employers. The gains for Deakin academics will be an improved teaching experience with students who should be more engaged and better focused. Students should gain a clear sense of what they want and what best suits them, a sound understanding of what employers seek in graduates and a thorough understanding of their options so they can drive their careers and become successful professionals.