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 Focus areas Career relevance

Career relevance

Overview

By including the career perspective in your teaching, you as a teacher can illustrate the relevance of the course and degree programme in relation to the job market and help the students become aware of and describe their own competences. You may do this through activities that define the competences, through different types of business collaboration and in connection with the project placement element.

 

Why incorporate career perspectives in your teaching?

Many students seek answers to the question: “What can I use my education for”. By including career perspectives in your teaching, you can help the students to see the relevance of the course and degree programme in relation to the job market. This can increase the students' motivation to make an effort in the course, as this helps them understand how they can use their expertise outside the university walls. It also enables them to understand how personal and academic competences they develop during their studies may be relevant in the job market.

How to include the career perspective — and to what extent?

If you want to include career perspectives in your teaching, you may be inspired by the following:

  • Clarification of competences: In a long university course, it can be difficult for students to spot the competences they develop, especially in degree programmes that are not directed towards a specific profession. You as a teacher can support your students in defining and describing their own academic and personal competences and in viewing these in relation to the job market and their future career. Find examples of how under "Activities".
  • Business collaboration: By involving companies and organisations in your teaching, you will contribute to bridging the gap between the university and the job market: Potential employers gain knowledge of the programme, and the students' access to the job market is made easier. Companies can be involved in many ways, find inspiration under “Activities”.
  • Project placement: One of the objectives of the project placement is to give the students the opportunity to test theories and methods, and to develop their understanding of themselves and their competences in a specific practice. The students get an insight into different organisational cultures, work tasks and processes, while establishing networks and contact to the job market that can benefit them in their future careers. See examples of activities related to project placement under "Activities".

 

Teachers should ask themselves the following questions:

  • Which professional and personal competences do I expect the students to develop through my course?
  • How can the career perspective be used as a mirror and a topic for reflection in my course?
  • Why is my course important for the students' future in the job market, and how does the course equip them for this?
  • What types of company collaboration match the academic objectives or my course and the students' prerequisites?

  • How do I make sure that the students' experience from the company collaboration or the project placement are brought into play in the course?

 

Further reading:

  • Artess, J.; Hooley, T. & Mellors-Bourne, R. (2017): Employability: A review of the literature 2012 to 2016 – A report for the Higher Education Academy. York: The Higher Education Academy.
  • Danmark Evalueringsinstitut (2016). Projektorienterede forløb. Delnotat 2: Overblik over udbredelsen af og rammerne for projektorienterede forløb. København: Danmarks Evalueringsinstitut.
  • Danmark Evalueringsinstitut (2017). Uddannelseskvalitet og generelle arbejdsmarkedskompetencer Koblingen mellem uddannelse og arbejdsmarked i studenterperspektiv. København: Danmarks Evalueringsinstitut.
  • Magnell, M. (2016) Employability and work-related learning activities in higher education: how strategies differ across academic environments. Tertiary Education and Management. 23(2) 103-114. https://doi.org/10.1080/13583883.2016.1257649
  • Yorke, M. (2006) Employability in higher education: what it is – what it is not. York: The Higher Education Academy.

Contact

Please contact the editors at AU Educate if you have any questions about the content of the platform or if you need consultation on your teaching from one of the many skilled professionals at the Centre for Educational Development. 

Revised 02.09.2022
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