What goes around, comes around
by Vincent Ciccarello
No
sooner had Brett Minchington walked out UniSA’s back door than he walked in
the front door again.
It's almost the perfect feedback loop for a UniSA MBA graduate whose knowledge, skills and experience are applied in his own business and shared with students as a tutor in the School of Marketing. And he is a member of the MBA Alumni committee to boot.
A series of casual conversations in an MBA common room has taken Minchington's association with UniSA to another level. International students wanting to learn about SA workplace culture got him thinking about how a university meets the challenge of making graduates ready for the workplace.
One would think Minchington already has enough on his plate. He is managing director of Collective Learning Australia, a company specialising in leadership development, employer branding and employment transition programs, and has just published a new book, Your Employer Brand: attract-engage-retain (see new leaf).
But after months of discussions with universities, governments, employers, employer groups and recruitment firms, and with funding from UniSA's Division of Business, Flexible Learning Centre and the SA Department of Trade and Economic Development (DTED), Minchington recently began trials of two pilot programs at UniSA designed to improve employment outcomes for graduates.
"The aim of the programs is to build employability skills in students," Minchington said.
"The Students' Transition to Employment Program (STEP) really looks to build those 'soft skills' - students’ ability to communicate effectively in the workplace, to conduct themselves well at interviews, prepare for interviews, work within teams, handle work conflict, network, and balance competing demands. This program puts those competencies under the microscope."
STEP, which began last month, comprises five sessions over a two week period and includes pre and post program assessments by a leading recruitment firm as well as a work experience placement.
A stocktake report on the second program, focusing on ways to improve graduate employment outcomes in skill shortage areas such as engineering, accounting and the mining sector and involving other universities, has already been submitted to DTED.