Graduate Attributes and Employability Skills
Generic skills equip a person to achieve their full potential in
employment, life and community. They are highly-valued by employers for
their role in enhancing the capacity of employees to respond, learn and
adapt when workplace demands change. Generic skills are known by
several other names, including graduate attributes and employability
skills.
These skills are developed throughout a person’s life and in
multiple settings, including work and life settings and educational
contexts. Each sector of education has a role to play in helping people
to develop their generic skills.
Within the higher education sector, CDU has developed a suite of
graduate attributes that align closely with the employability skills
defined by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) as a result of comprehensive business consultation.
Within the vocational training sector, employability skills are being
given far greater emphasis in the development and review of training
packages.
The table shows how Graduate
Attributes and Employability
Skills align.
| CDU Core Attribute |
Generic Attribute |
Descriptor |
Relationship to Nationally Identified Employability Skill |
| A CDU Graduate has: |
A CDU Graduate has: |
Personal
Practical
Knowledge |
Acquisition |
Can identify, retrieve,
evaluate and use relevant information and current technologies to
advance learning and execute of work tasks |
Technology skills that
contribute to effective execution of tasks |
| Application |
Is an efficient and innovative
project planner and problem solver, capable of applying logical and
critical thinking to problems across a range of disciplinary settings
and has self-management skills that contribute to personal satisfaction
and growth |
Problem-solving skills that contribute to effective outcomes
Planning and organizing skills that contribute to productive outcomes
Self-management skills that contribute to employee satisfaction and
growth |
| Creativity |
Can conceive of imaginative
and innovative responses to future orientated challenges and research. |
Initiative and enterprise
skills that contribute to innovative outcomes |
| Knowledge base |
Has an understanding of the
broad theoretical and technical concepts related to their discipline
area, with relevant connections to industry, professional, and regional
and indigenous knowledge |
Learning skills that
contribute to ongoing improvement and expansion in employee and company
operations and outcomes |
| Citizenship |
Communication |
Demonstrates oral, written,
and effective listening skills as well as numerical, technical and
graphic communication skills in a cross generational environment |
Communication skills that
contribute to productive and harmonious relations between employees and
customers |
| Teamwork |
Has a capacity for and
understanding of collaboration and co-operation within agreed
frameworks, including the demands of inter-generational tolerance,
mutual respect for others, conflict resolution and the negotiation of
productive outcomes |
Team work skills that
contribute to productive working relationships and outcomes |
| Social responsibility |
Is able to apply equity
values, and has a sense of social responsibility, sustainability, and
sensitivity to other peoples, cultures and the environment |
| World View |
Flexibility |
Can function effectively and
constructively in an inter-cultural or global environment and in a
variety of complex situations |
| Leadership |
Can exercise initiative and
responsibility, taking action and engaging others to make a positive
difference for the common good |
|
