Interview ready: a student-led artistic project as an authentic experience to support pre-service music teachers’ pathways to employment

Facilitating the development of employable graduates is an important part of initial teacher education (ITE) courses globally. School administrators seek to employ high quality teachers who will contribute positively to student learning and the school community. The perception of a candidate’s level of employability in a job interview though, will influence the outcome of their application significantly. ITE graduates should therefore endeavour to be interview ready as this is a crucial step towards being employed. We investigated the impact that a student-led artistic project had on the development of Australian ITE music teachers’ interview readiness and employability. Data were collected via three focus groups and one semi-structured individual interview. The data indicated that the artistic project experience contributed positively to the development of relevant skills and understandings which supported participants’ interview readiness and employability. Two major themes emerged- the authenticity of the artistic project and the transferability of the skills and understandings learned into an imagined or current school context, including the job interview process. The findings suggest that ITE music courses should include more authentic experiences to develop their students’ professional ‘soft’ skills and interview readiness. This will support their preparation for the employment process and their professional duties.