Connectedness learning in the life sciences: LinkedIn as an assessment task for employability and career exploration

Abstract

You’ve been doing employability the wrong way would be the click-bait headline if this chapter were to be published in an online news website. The prevailing approach to promoting graduate employability taken by higher education around the world is focused on the development of human capital, that is, work-related skills and knowledge. However, graduate employability frameworks and strategies often overlook significant dispositional and contextual factors that contribute towards a person’s employability. To more adequately promote the development of graduate employability, universities need to do more to connect students to their extensive networks of alumni and industry and provide careers and employability learning that helps students learn to explore and express their emerging professional identities. In this chapter we will explore the approach taken within one Australian university to enhance the employability of life science students through embedding into the curriculum a careers and employability learning module that uses social media, specifically LinkedIn, as a pedagogical tool to develop students career identity and connect them with professional networks.

Publication
Higher Education and the Future of Graduate Employability: A Connectedness Learning Approach