Integrating employability learning and career development learning: Insights into a business school approach

Karina Wardle; Kay Geronikos

doi:10.21153/jtlge2024vol15no2art2039

Authors

Karina Wardle Western Sydney University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5417-8689
Kay Geronikos Western Sydney University https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1501-9305

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2024vol15no2art2039

Keywords:

Partnerships pedagogy; employability; career development learning; graduate identity, university-industry collaboration

Abstract

This practitioner reflection shares insights based on our seven-year journey pursuing an ambitious curriculum transformation espousing partnerships pedagogy within the School of Business (SOB) at Western Sydney University (WSU). With a significant proportion of first-generation and culturally and linguistically diverse students, employability is of strategic significance for WSU. The objective was to integrate employability and career development learning while addressing confidence and self-esteem deficits among graduates. Massification of the higher education sector, new universities, courses and pathways along with the competition among university graduates for employment all compound the issue. This challenging landscape required a unique approach to achieve a fundamental shift in learning and outcomes to prepare students for life beyond university. A massive curriculum transformation was endorsed and led by a cross-disciplinary team adopting partnerships pedagogy to transform the student learning experience. This reflection documents the practitioner journey involved in developing a program expressly targeting graduate employability for business students. Emphasis is on the experiences and challenges encountered while implementing a partnership-based approach to build, sustain, and cultivate graduate employability, through the development of industry networking experiences.

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Author Biographies

Karina Wardle, Western Sydney University

Dr Karina Wardle is a 21 Century Curriculum Fellow, International Academic Lead for Southeast Asia, and Lecturer in Hospitality, Sport and Marketing at Western Sydney University. Passionate about transforming employability outcomes for students from diverse backgrounds, Karina’s research and practice has focused on the integration of experiential learning and careers and employability learning within core business curriculum. Karina has demonstrated sustained leadership through engaging partnership pedagogy to co-design, co-develop, co-deliver and co-credential innovative and inclusive careers and employability learning experiences which have positively impacted student employability outcomes. She has received several citations and awards for excellence and innovation in learning and teaching.
Kay Geronikos, Western Sydney University

Kay Geronikos is a workforce learning and development practitioner and sessional academic in Human Resource Management & Management disciplines at Western Sydney University & University of Technology Sydney. As an educator within the NSW Government and the tertiary sector, Kay is committed to helping individuals at all stages of their work-life journey engage in learning and development to achieve career success. Within the tertiary sector, Kay is dedicated to improving employability outcomes for future graduates through proactively building industry partnerships, embedding innovative career and employability initiatives within the curriculum, and undertaking research in partnership pedagogy and graduate employability. Her dedication to teaching and student employability has been recognised with a citation for teaching within the School of Business and the Deputy VC and VP Academic Award for Excellence in Teaching.

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