Abstract
Improving the employability of graduates has been a nominated priority area for successive Australian Governments. While there has been extensive research into what industry requires of graduates in the workplace, little research is available about students' perceptions of graduate employability and how they feel it should be addressed in the curriculum. This paper draws of the findings from a nationally commissioned Australian study involving multiple institutions and multiple disciplines, aimed at aligning the employability skills expectations of employers, professional bodies, academic staff, graduates and students. The focus of this paper however is around ICT students' perceptions of graduate employability and the exploration of ways in which employability skills can be developed in graduates in the discipline of ICT. As a subset of the broader commissioned study, we ran focus groups with three cohorts of information, communication and technology (ICT) students from two Australian universities. Our key research areas investigated students' perceptions of the skills ICT employers are looking for, and ways to improve ICT students' employability. In addition, insights into students' feelings of their preparedness for work between the three focus groups cohorts are provided. The research questions were analysed thematically with a qualitative open coding approach based on themes drawn from the Fullen and Scott (2014) employability framework. Overall, while students realized the importance of discipline knowledge and technical skills, other generic skills were also acknowledged. The participants also had ideas in terms of how employability skills should be enhanced.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | 18th Australasian Computing Education Conference, ACE 2016, held in conjunction with the Australasian Computer Science Week Multiconference (ACSW 2016) |
Subtitle of host publication | Canberra, ACT, Australia; 2-5 February 2016 |
Place of Publication | New York, NY, USA |
Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) |
Number of pages | 9 |
Volume | ACSW'16 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781450340427 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Feb 2016 |
Event | Australasian Computing Education Conference 2016 - Canberra, Australia Duration: 2 Feb 2016 → 5 Feb 2016 Conference number: 18th https://cs.adelaide.edu.au/~ace2016/ |
Publication series
Name | ACM International Conference Proceeding Series |
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Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery |
Conference
Conference | Australasian Computing Education Conference 2016 |
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Abbreviated title | ACE 2016 |
Country/Territory | Australia |
City | Canberra |
Period | 2/02/16 → 5/02/16 |
Other | ACE is held in conjunction with Australasian Computer Science Week (ACSW). |
Internet address |
Keywords
- Computer science education
- ICT graduate employability