A Decade of Agriculture Graduates’ Employability and Career Pathways

Abstract

There is increasing pressure on universities to produce employable graduates. Currently, the University of New England (UNE) has a suite of undergraduate agriculture courses. The project used an evidence based approach which evaluated graduate’s employability based on their choice of course and the relevance of Australian Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) for Agriculture, which underpin UNE’s agriculture courses. The past decade of UNE agriculture graduates (2005-2016) were invited to participate in an online survey. Of the respondents, 95-100% agreed each TLO was relevant to their current employment. The initial industries that graduates were employed in after graduation were agronomy, agribusiness and animal sciences. Of all graduates who are currently employed in industry, three quarters had changed employers, with two thirds moving to another agricultural industry since commencing work. Over half of the respondents had engaged in additional study from short courses to PhDs, with about 20% studying to become vocational, primary or secondary teachers. For many graduates on-campus residential college life was important for developing positive connections in learning, social activities and employment networks which persisted post-graduation. Survey results were used to inform the development of an online career pathway resource for prospective and current students, and information from the TLO survey has been fed back into unit and course reviews.

Diagnostic tests: Purposes and two case studies

“…The weak mathematical backgrounds of students is a common concern in the literature, with some also mentioning the related problem of increasing mathematical diversity (Kavanagh, et al, 2009;LTSN mathsTEAM, 2003;Wilkes & Burton, 2015). The diagnostic and placement tests discussed here are used to improve basic skills or to direct students to subjects in which they can gain basic skills.…”

“…Also mentioned was using information gathered by the test to underpin support for students, especially from "Never seen it before" responses. Wilkes and Burton (2015) report on an online test covering mathematics, among other topics. It was designed for engineering students by a team covering five Australian universities.…”

A Bibliometric Review on Outcome-Based Learning for Graduate Employability: Mapping the Research Front

“…Graduate employability has been the core attraction for higher education providers for a long time (Clarke, 2018; Jorre de St Jorre & Oliver, 2018; Maxwell & Armellini, 2019; Nghia et al, 2019; Peng, 2019; Wilkes & Burns, 2019). Today, industry-integrated outcome-based learning has been moved to the forefront of higher education for ensuring graduate employability.…”