Provocations: Work and life readiness

One of the contemporary trends in higher education and declared mission of many universities is to prepare students for ‘employability’. Other outcomes are sometimes associated with this, notably entrepreneurship and other capabilities or attributes associated with preparing students for work and life. Allied to this, there is much talk attached to trans disciplinary teaching and the preparation of graduates and lifelong learners for a future that requires 21st Century skills and capabilities. The formation of graduates will therefore require much more than a degree based on discipline content and conferral. It will require a radical rethinking of what we teach, what students learn and how that learning might be demonstrated for credentials and to potential employers. Following the idea of the learning ecology, what do you see as the major forces acting on graduate work and life readiness now and into the future? What new approaches to educating for the future can we imagine and how do digital technologies impact on this? In short, how can universities better prepare students for work and life readiness? In generating outcomes to your discussions, consider a number of stakeholder perspectives and how these might be inQluenced; what are the implications for these stakeholders, i.e. ourselves (ACODE-CADAD, our ofQices and staff), or institutions (DVCs, CIOs, COOs etc.), and for government (the Minister, Department etc.), others?