Brief work-integrated learning opportunities and first-year university students’ perceptions of employability and academic performance

Abstract

Universities are attempting to respond to recent changes in the employment sector in order to ensure graduates are job ready. One approach for preparing students for the evolving employment sector is to expose them to work-integrated learning experiences during their undergraduate degree. Traditionally, work-integrated learning experiences have been offered toward the end of students’ degrees, but there might be value in offering such opportunities as students’ transition into university. The aim of this study was to explore the outcomes of brief work-integrated learning experiences on first-year university students. A series of paired samples t-tests showed significant differences in students’ ( N = 28, Mage = 18.89 years) perceptions of employability and academic performance following exposure to 10-hours of job shadowing. The outcomes from the study suggest that students might benefit from work-integrated learning experiences in their foundation year of university. Implications for educators, universities, and the employment sector are highlighted.

Developing and validating a university needs instrument to measure the psychosocial needs of university students

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Career management training in the university environment

“…To correct this mismatch in the labour market, since the start of the Bologna Process higher education institutions have focused on developing skills to improve their students' employability (Sin and Neave, 2014;Harris-Reeves and Mahoney, 2017;Clarke, 2017;Budiarto, Gunawan, Kadiyono and Andriani, 2021). New university degree programmes seek to include the knowledge, technical skills and transversal competences companies require (Cotronei-Baird, 2019;Clares and Morga, 2019).…”

How to develop higher education curricula towards employability? A multi-stakeholder approach

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