The winners of all seven categories in the AFR Higher Education Awards 2024, which recognise and celebrate the outstanding efforts of Australian universities during the past year, have now been announced. The categories include community engagement; emerging leadership; employability; industry engagement; equity and access; research commercialisation; and teaching and learning excellence.
These are the finalists in the employability category.
Joint winner
Swinburne University of Technology
Whole of curriculum Work Integrated Learning
Swinburne University of Technology has been marrying academic tuition with on-the-job learning for 60 years, culminating this year with the inclusion of Work Integrated Learning in every undergraduate degree from first year to graduation.
Career-readiness benchmarking shows students who take final year WIL units are significantly more career-ready than their peers, according to the university. This workplace experience is essential for all students in a rapidly changing employment landscape, says Swinburne deputy vice-chancellor of education, experience and employability Professor Laura-Anne Bull.
“From an employer’s perspective, it’s no longer enough for a graduate to finish the degree and jump into the job market without professional experience,” she says. “We’re delighted we can now say 100 per cent of our undergraduate students have the opportunity to engage in a work integrated learning experience, which can only position them more strongly in a competitive, evolving job market.”
In 2023, more than 12,000 Swinburne undergraduates completed more than 50,000 WIL experiences with one or more of 2,500 industry partners, according to university figures.
Dedicated WIL coordinators in each discipline ensure students are placement-ready, Bull says, and take care to assign students to the most suitable opportunities, including in areas they may not have previously considered for employment and in areas of industry growth.
Each Swinburne student is assigned a series of work integrated learning elements, including projects, study tours, internships and placements, with an emphasis on career self-management, psychological readiness and professional networks.
“We also ensure we embed career development learning from first year, so the students are thinking about their careers,” Bull says.
First-year work integrated learning might comprise work on an industry project, she adds, and in subsequent years the work-related element would increase until the student is spending time in the workplace. All Swinburne placements are paid, either by industry or by the university.
With the coming artificial intelligence workplace transformation, the students of today will need skills for jobs that don’t even exist yet, Bull says. “I think for a lot of students nowadays, these industry experiences are absolutely paramount to make sure they don’t just leave with those discipline-specific skills but they really are industry-ready.”
Joint winner
Monash University
Pharmaceutical Sciences Employability Program
Monash University’s Pharmaceutical Sciences Employability Program is built on close connections with industry, fostered by program director and senior lecturer Dr Laurence Orlando.
From a pharmaceutical industry research and development background, Orlando says she brought an industry perspective regarding employment requirements to Monash.
She has forged productive and enduring relationships with industry managers and directors, meeting them three times a year to discuss what employers need from pharmacy and pharmaceutical science graduates, and the specific skills required by various industries. “It’s not just pharma,” she says. “The students have a set of skills that is transferable to the cosmetics, paint, food, and agro-chemical industries.”
These industry partners provide placements and internships and take part in various Monash employability program workshops and presentations. Orlando says she introduced ‘employability workshops’ to let students know exactly what was expected of them by industry along with a series of events where students can meet with more than 2,000 alumni and industry insiders.
Students can join employability workshops run by industry professionals and build and design products which are then presented to industry. They can take part in professional networking, resume building and interview preparation workshops, and visit various industry sites.
Orlando maximises the productivity of student placements and internships by carefully matching student to workplace with an eye to student strengths and career aspirations, she says. “Instead of placing the students in positions near where they lived, I asked what they wanted to do.”
She stays in touch with former students via a Facebook page with almost 1,000 members so far. “When I need something for Employability Week, for employability sessions, for employability workshops, for placement, I am 30 seconds away from my former students on Facebook Messenger,” she says.
A significant number of Monash pharmacy and pharmaceutical science graduates go on to find jobs in the cosmetic industry, hired by leading firms such as Aesop and Ego Pharma. “Companies fight for our students, which is a great place to be,” Orlando says.
Finalist
University of South Australia
UniSA and Rising Sun Pictures joint visual effects programs
The educational partnership between the University of South Australia and one of Australia’s most-awarded visual effects studios, Rising Sun Pictures, began in 2015 with nine students studying a single subject.
This year marks the start of a full-time three-year specialist Bachelor of Visual Effects degree with about 85 students in the first intake, along with new graduate certificates in 3D animation and creature effects adding to a suite of industry-focused learning programs.
UniSA’s visual effects students spend 60 per cent of their time at Rising Sun Pictures, taught by working visual effects professionals. More than 200 graduates have found employment in Australia’s burgeoning visual effects industry, which was worth $714 million in 2023, up 21 per cent from 2022, and 60 per cent above the five-year average.
Dr Josh McCarthy, UniSA Visual Effects program director, says the specialist visual effects degree equips students for employment in the most advanced studios, both here and abroad.
These VFX degree students learn about the latest VFX technologies from experienced VFX artists, see core professional practices first-hand, and graduate from UniSA with a VFX showreel, McCarthy says.
“What’s unique about our offering is that it is with an industry partner, and students are on-site in industry,” he adds. “That’s the distinction. There’s quite a big difference learning from someone who worked in industry 10 years ago, compared with learning from someone who was working on blockbuster film five minutes ago.”
UniSA now offers four 12-week post-graduate qualifications with Rising Sun Pictures with students spending 100 per cent of their time at the studio. Across the board, several hundred UniSA students go through Rising Sun Pictures at some point in their studies, McCarthy says.
Rising Sun Pictures currently employs 75 UniSA graduates who have worked on 39 of the past 40 films shortlisted for a VFX Academy Award, and the studio also worked on the latest Mad Max film: Furiosa.
UniSA visual effects graduates also work at international studios including Weta Digital, ILM, DNEG, Framestore, Method Studios, Pixel Zoo, Luma Pictures, AltVFX, Animal Logic and Resin.