Course syllabus
skills for crafting your career
Semester two 2019
15 points
No pre-requisites
Course convenor: Jane Bradley: email Jane if you have any questions about this course jane.bradley@auckland.ac.nz
Background and goals of course
Employability is more than just crafting a good CV and doing well in an interview. It is about continuous reflection on your skills, strengths, values and career interests and connecting these to the right kind of work for you. Designed to complement and expand on the skills you are developing in your subject-based courses, the specific goals of this course are to;
- further develop your skills, self-awareness and confidence in preparation for securing a good job once you graduate
- enhance your employability to set you up for success throughout your career
- introduce you to a ‘real life’ problem-solving challenge in partnership with a local organisation
Through a combination of lectures, workshops and tutorials we will unpack and practice the key skills research tells us are essential to current and future job success. We will also work on self-awareness, self-reflection, communication and resilience techniques to ensure you are well equipped for both the job search process and life on the job.
By completing this course you will give yourself the best possible chance of succeeding as you develop your career.
What you will learn
By the time you complete this course we expect you will;
- Understand and apply the employability mind-set for job seeking and career development
- Understand and apply the broad range of transferable skills developed in the process of completing an Arts degree and connect these to the key skills sought after in the job market
- Develop greater self-awareness and apply self-reflective methods to learn from experience
- Gain confidence in communicating key skills and strengths to potential employers
- Develop resilience techniques for coping with challenges, change and uncertainty in the job market and workplace
- Begin crafting a future career around values, strengths and interests as well as skills and knowledge.
Course Structure and Teaching Format
The course is structured around key employability skills and capabilities developed by blending the Bachelor of Arts Graduate Profile with local, national and international research identifying the top skills sought after in both national and global job markets.
As you work through and complete the problem-based and communication-oriented activities and assessments, you will develop and practice essential skills and capabilities to ensure you are work-ready for today and prepared for the changing workplace of tomorrow.
A key component of the course is a collaborative team-based project researching, designing and presenting an innovative solution to a real-word problem faced by a local organisation. You will also write a short script and film a 60 second confidence-building, ‘elevator pitch’ video to practice communicating your top skills and strengths.
Because we understand how short of time students are these days you’ll even get class time in the workshop and tutorial slots to work on your assessments.
Each week you will have 2 hours of lecture/workshop time, 1 hour of tutorial time and a 15-20 minute ungraded self-reflection exercise.
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One 50 minute lecture Tuesdays 11.am |
The information The lectures will introduce new material either as video clips and discussion activities or guest speakers/lecturers and discussion activities. |
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One 50 minute workshop Tuesdays 1.pm or 2.pm |
The practice We will use this time slot to explore, discuss and practice the skills/capabilities in more detail. As the course progresses we will also use these sessions to work on assessments- especially the team project. |
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One 50 minute tutorial Wednesdays 10.am or 11.am |
Time for discussion, questions and support Tutorials will be a time for you to ask questions, get support with course activities, work on assessments and optional activities and get guidance from the course convenor. |
| Reflecting and optional activities online |
Reflecting and optional activities You will do your ungraded 15-20 minute weekly self-reflections online and if you are super-keen you can also do optional reading, viewing and communications exercises. |
Learning Resources
No textbook is required for this course. All learning resources will be provided via Canvas including the assessment templates.
Course summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
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