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Graduate Careers Australia

The Graduate Grapevine - Number 5, September 2006

New Centre for Work Experience

Edith Cowan University’s new Centre for Work Experience (CWE) has been described as an Australian first for people interested in work experience.

The virtual Centre (funded by the WA Department of Education and Training) is an innovative internet site which provides a valuable link between individuals and employers. It matches an individual’s career development needs with the human resource needs of employers and the community.

Employers value, and have a preference for, job applicants who possess employability skills such as team work, communication, problem solving and initiative; while students and others seeking to change career direction, seek out work placements that will enhance their workplace knowledge. This not only helps individuals to identify potential career pathways but also ultimately assists them to meet employer expectations and needs.

While the benefits of work-based learning have been widely reported, with growing labour market complexities and concern over skill shortages, much of the emphasis is on providing more training rather than analysing the gaps and clarifying the connections between training and the world of work that could be nurtured and developed.

The virtual CWE attempts to address some of these issues by providing links between key strategic human resource needs of employers and the career development needs of individuals.

The Centre embraces lifelong learning and skill development, ultimately enhancing an individual’s employability and career resilience within the open labour market – while at the same time, assisting employers to nurture current and potential employees.

The Centre broadly defines experience in a work environment to include:

  • paid or unpaid work
  • both private and public sectors
  • commercial, volunteer and not-for-profit organisations
  • having an element of on- or off-the-job training, instruction, supervision or mentoring and the like.

Experience placements may be undertaken locally, nationally or overseas and are generally characterised by having a pre-determined ‘end date’ to the relationship (though this may not always be the case).

This definition allows a broader perspective of ‘experience’ to include positions and activities that are described as, for example, cadetships, internships, vacation, graduate, trainee, structured workplace learning, new apprenticeship, casual, part-time and voluntary.

There are a number of benefits of interpreting work experience this way. For employers it is the opportunity to develop human resource strategies that fit their business needs further relationships with those who aim to be or who are in the labour market.

The site will be very useful to employers, career practitioners and volunteer groups. It provides valuable advice on offering and promoting work placements, including specialised information and resources.

For those seeking a work placement, the site contains a quick quiz and checklist that will produce a self-generated certificate along with step by step resources to keep them on track.

This innovative internet resource was funded through the Department’s Innovative Career Development Grants Program. The site was launched on 8 June by Wanneroo MLA Dianne Guise.

For more information please visit www.cwe.org.au or contact Lucretia Radhakrishnan, Project Officer – Youth Career Development Services WA Department of Education and Training on Tel: (08) 9264 5732 or email: [email protected] .

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