Overview

The aim of the Career Focus Module, delivered as a topic within the Employment Relations course, is to enhance student awareness of potential career outcomes from their business studies, to enable them to choose an appropriate major(s) within their program and, ultimately, a suitable career direction. It also outlines strategies they can use to enhance their employment prospects throughout their degree.

Rationale for inclusion of career development
Many business students are not aware of the career opportunities various majors offer. In addition, students are often unaware of the importance of career research, building networks, gaining experience, and building opportunities to develop skills to enhance their employability as a graduate. Career Focus is designed to get students thinking about these issues early in their degree and introduces the concept of job searching strategies, such as:

• networking,
• workplace interviewing and
• the importance of obtaining work experience.

Students complete a career plan as part of their 10% assessment task.

How career development is included
Students complete an online module that introduces the concepts, encourages self-reflection, provides examples, and links them to resources designed to facilitate their understanding of their career options and how to build their employability throughout their studies. The content includes short video’s, self-paced activities, web tours, and career resources including job adverts, descriptions, lists of employers, vacancy websites and video recordings of workplace interviews with people working in roles leading from Griffith business majors. Students also participate in a tutorial discussing these issues.

Considerations

The Career Focus Module was developed by the Careers and Employment Service and was originally delivered via in-person lecture and resources on Learning@Griffith. It continues to be delivered within a number of first courses across the university variously in-person and online format.

It is recommended that you reach out to the Careers and Employment Service to determine how or when to best introduce this module into your online course site or teaching sessions.

Student comments include:

“It gave me options of things to do during my degree. It was really interesting to listen to someone doing the job.”

“…the entire assignment was useful as it gave me further insight into the career path I wish to go into and the skills I needed to have”

“…this began my motivation to work hard to achieve my goal”

Support Resources

• Careers and Employment

  Go to the For Staff section for information on how the Careers and Employment Service team can help.

Contributed by

• Careers and Employment Service
  

Preferred Citation

Learning Futures (2019). Career Focus Module. Retrieved from https://app.secure.griffith.edu.au/exlnt/entry/2765/view