Good practice report:Nurturing graduate employability in higher education

Abstract

This Good Practice Report was co-authored by Associate Professors Shelley Kinash and Linda Crane, and Project Manager Madelaine-Marie Judd, through the institutional affiliation of Bond University. Kinash and Crane co-led an Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching strategic priority project on graduate employability funded in December 2013 and conducted in 2014. Madelaine-Marie Judd was the Project Manager. This project gave the three authors access to a powerful strategic network of OLT scholars of graduate employability and allied subjects. The completed OLT graduate employability project was shortlisted for an international nurturing employability innovation award through Wharton-QS Stars Reimagine Education. The team applied for competitive dissemination funding through OLT and were subsequently awarded a budget for the first author of this report to attend the conference and awards ceremony in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA in December 2015. The conference had 350 delegates from 35 countries, including 20 shortlisted innovators (from 560 submissions) for nurturing employability. This extended the scholars’ networks on an international basis and specifically gave them the opportunity to hear about global innovations in employability. The team thereby proposed to write a Good Practice Report as one of the outcomes of the dissemination funding.The contracted aims of the Good Practice Report were to:Collect reports and analyse themes, disciplines, aims, outcomes and impact of Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) Promotion of Excellence in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PELTHE) graduate employability initiatives with final reports published between 2010 and 2015Invite descriptions of Wharton-QS Stars Reimagine Education 2015 shortlisted international awardees for nurturing employability, and describe and analyse themes, disciplines and impact of these innovationsIdentify the overall trends in graduate employability research and innovation and make recommendations for future work on this domai