Lexis: evaluation of employability curriculums

Young man and women having a discussion in an office

Project title: Evaluation of employability curriculum embedded into the non-vocational Bachelor of Health Sciences course

Although it is clear that the higher education sector places a high value on graduate employability, research and practice in this area are under-developed. La Trobe University’s Bachelor of Health Sciences is a non- vocational 3-year course with over 1000 students and is the stepping-stone to at least 30 identified career pathways. The course currently has a sparse and piecemeal approach to the development of students’ employability skills which are largely confined to the third and final year.

To remedy this, a collaborative project involving Health Sciences and Careers and Employability staff is underway to design and introduce a scaffolded course-wide curriculum which will be integrated into targeted core subjects at each level and semester of the course. The curriculum will be underpinned by La Trobe University’s recently introduced Career Ready Capability Framework and Career Ready Advantage program and drawing on the connectedness pedagogies presented in the Graduate Employability 2.0 Connectedness Learning Model.

The curriculum is intended to enable students to graduate with

  1. a functioning professional social network and the ability to form and maintain professional relationships,
  2. digital career literacy, and
  3. the ability to apply their connectedness and Career Ready capabilities in the innovation economy and society.

It will encourage students to explore their pre-professional career identities as they explore the practical matters of study and employment options in health sciences. This project is an evaluation of careers and employability learning (CEL) modules embedded in the Bachelor of Health Sciences curriculum. This project will evaluate the student experience of the modules and measure the degree to which they helped them begin to explore and develop graduate employability.

Key investigators

  • Dr Louise Lexis (CI)
  • Dr Brianna Julien
  • Professor Birgit Loch