Challenge

Pursuing a career pathway can often present many challenges for students in disciplines whereby there are multiple professions. Within a first year, trimester one course, the key goal was to engage students in a critical analysis of their ideal pathway. The potential benefits were two-fold:

1. Elucidate the multiple career pathways for students to ensure that they had greater understanding of their ideal career.
2. Engage students and enhance retention rates.

Approach

A 2000 word essay “Envisioning your future” was introduced into a first year, trimester one Information and Communications Technology (ICT) course within Griffith Sciences. Within this essay students must “demonstrate initiative in research and reading, critical analysis of material, and innovative interpretation of evidence.” (1004ICT Assessment Overview). This essay requires students to “research what developments are likely in the field...over the next 5 to 10 years” (1004ICT Assessment Overview). In circumstances whereby students are unclear of their career pathway, they are given the opportunity to choose from one or two professions of interest to them. Students are encouraged to draw upon up-to-date magazine articles as the basis of their research (e.g. The Conversation).

Support resources

Students are provided with a range of support materials to assist them in the development of this essay. In particular, students are provided with a six page “Advice on writing an Essay” document. This document provides practical suggestions on writing an essay (example provided in support resources).

Within all student support resources, a tangible and explicit link is made to employability. An illustrative example is provided below:

“Successful people in the IT world are those who look for what is coming and pro-actively position themselves to take advantage of the future when it arrives, rather than reactively waiting for it to arrive then deciding what to do. This is a key employability skill.” (1004ICT Assessment Overview).

To further support students understanding of the industry, a range of guest lectures are facilitated by industry professionals. In these guest lectures, industry professionals articulate to students what is expected within the discipline.

Outcomes

The key outcome of this approach has been that students have a greater understanding of what their ideal career looks like within the first year of their degree. In a study facilitated by Tuffley and Antonio (2013), it was found that over 70 per cent of students said that they had a clearer idea of what their future career would look like and they were more likely to complete their degree (see Support Resources for journal article).

Implement

If you are thinking of implementing a similar approach, consider the following:

• Give students as much information as possible up front. This will ensure that students have a clear understanding of the expectations required for the assessment item.
• Highlight the benefits to students in regards to their future career. Explicitly link back to their employability.
• If possible, invite industry professionals (from a range of disciplines) to guest lecture.

Griffith Graduate Attributes

This approach clearly aligns to the following Griffith Graduate Attributes: Knowledgeable and skilled with critical judgement; Effective communicators and collaborators and; Innovative, creative and entrepreneurial. In this assessment item, students must draw upon their research, communication and innovation / creative skills; all of which are critical to their graduate success.

Support Resources

• Tuffley, D. (n.d). 1004ICT: Advice on how to write the essay.

  A six page document provided to students to assist them in writing their essay.

• Tuffley, D. (2015, January 2). Job survival in the age of robots and intelligent machines. The Conversation.

  This article explores employability within the technological age.

• Tuffley, D. (2016, May 17). Getting to know you: the robot assistant who can second-guess your every need. The Conversation

  This article explores the changing nature of the workforce.

• Tuffley, D. (2016, April 5). What to do when machines take our jobs? Give everyone free money for doing nothing. The Conversation.

  This article explores the changing nature of the workforce.

• Tuffley, D. (2015, November 26). Imagine if technology could read and react to our emotions. The Conversation

  This article explores the impact of technological innovation.

• Tuffley, D. (2014, August 25).Self-driving cars need ‘adjustable ethics’ set by owners. The Conversation.

  This article explores the impact of technological innovation.

Contributed by

• Griffith Sciences
  School of Information and Communication Technology
  Dr David Tuffley
  (07) 373 55045
  d.tuffley@griffith.edu.au
  http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0132-9804
  Griffith Experts profile

Preferred Citation

Tuffley, D., & Learning Futures. (2019). Developing career confidence and aspirations. Retrieved from https://app.secure.griffith.edu.au/exlnt/entry/4985/view