Edalex 2021 Employability Outcomes Survey - Whitepaper
At Edalex, our passion is to surface learning outcomes, digital assets, and the power of individual...
As the shift towards shorter, skills based and employment-focused micro-credentials builds momentum, education providers must strategically evolve their credentials and curriculum to meet demand.
This Whitepaper, by Emeritus Professor Beverley Oliver, explores the drivers behind the the new meaning of employability and makes ten recommendations to help universities rethink how they can increase employability beyond 2020.
Many wonderful things can happen when you enrol in higher education: you can learn new things, see the world through different eyes, meet new people, think new thoughts and see new opportunities. All of these benefits are to be prized, especially when you enrol in a long term experience associated with attaining a degree, and particularly your first degree.
However, not everyone wants a first degree (and governments are starting to agree), and certainly not a second one. Interest is shifting towards shorter, skills based and employment-focused micro-credentials. Businesses know this: some are bypassing degrees and developing their own micro-credentials to create a talent pool with the precise skills needed to fill designated roles. Google Career Certificates, for example, are short, cost-effective and designed to lead to a specific job, working on the assumption that most adult learners are primarily motivated to acquire a credential, micro or macro, in order to secure meaningful paid employment, or more broadly, career advantage. But if credentials of all sizes are a bridge between education and work, then providers need to consider:
Employability, however defined, must be related to empirically observable employment outcomes. Future research is needed to determine:
Universities have limited influence over external factors such as education policy, labour markets and graduates’ personal circumstances and ambitions. However, they have the power to:
This paper makes ten recommendations that may assist universities to rethink employability strategies beyond 2020:
Complete the form below to access Rethinking Employability Beyond 2020: Ten Recommendations for Universities.
Emeritus Professor Beverley Oliver is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Australian National Teaching Fellow based in Melbourne, Australia. She is a non-executive director at Open Learning, an ASX-listed company; non-executive director at the International Council on Badges and Credentials; and non-executive director at EduGrowth, Australia’s not-for-profit acceleration network for high-growth, scalable, borderless education. Beverley now works as a higher education consultant at EduBrief, and she continues to speak and research focussing on digital education, micro-credentials, curriculum transformation, quality assurance and graduate employability.
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