Aligning business education with industry expectations on employability and sustainability : final report.
Prince Charles posed the above questions while addressing business school leaders in London in 2015 (Tornero 2015). Around the world and in Australia, businesses have begun to take a leadership role in sustainability. The purposes for pursuing sustainability have begun to shift from mere reputation...
| Institution: | Macquarie University |
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| Autors principals: | , , , , |
| Publicat: |
Australia. Dept of Education and Training (DET)
2019
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| Matèries: | |
| Accés en línia: | https://ltr.edu.au/resources/SD15-5133_Breyer_FinalReport_2019.pdf |
| Sumari: | Prince Charles posed the above questions while addressing business school leaders in London in 2015 (Tornero 2015). Around the world and in Australia, businesses have begun to take a leadership role in sustainability. The purposes for pursuing sustainability have begun to shift from mere reputation management and green rubber-stamping to a deliberate realignment of organisational missions, core business goals and sustainability-related values (Aliento 2015; Accenture 2013; McKinsey 2014). But are Australian business faculties and schools adequately preparing graduates to help businesses meet the global sustainability challenge? This is the question we explored in an Australian higher education and industry context in this seed project. As Australian businesses seek to realign themselves with the 'sustainability imperative' (Lubin & Esty 2010), Australian Higher Education institutions (HEIs) must respond in kind. After all, it is their graduates, as future leaders and managers, that will be required to plan and implement sustainability projects, initiatives and responses. The aim of this project was to investigate the skills, knowledge and attitudes that businesses expect from Australia's higher education graduates, especially business schools and faculties, with a view to improving their employability and their effectiveness once employed. A literature review informed the main research question, along with seven more specific subquestions to investigate the problem. Fifteen Sydney-based executives in seven large business organisations were interviewed to gain a range of insights about their sustainability practices and their expectations related to sustainability literacy, skills, knowledge and other attributes in HEI graduates. The highlights of these empirical case studies are described here. Four case study learning packs were developed as part of the project that consist of reading and discussion guides on each case study. These packs introduce real world topics and issues, stimulate debate and drive further investigation in various Australian business contexts. An assessment rubric provides a framework for teaching and assessing sustainability skills in Australian HEIs. In addition, two 'how to' guides were developed. One assists academics in guiding their students on how to 'sell' their sustainability skill-set to boost their employability, the other assists academic marketing teams and career officers in communicating the benefits of sustainability literacy in graduates to employers. This seed project makes two major contributions. First, it generates valuable empirical insights into the sustainability-related capabilities expected of Australian HEI graduates. Second, it provides valuable instructional materials set in an Australian business context that can be used by HEIs as part of their curriculum. [Executive summary, ed] |
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| ISBN: | 9781760516949 (PDF) 9781760516956 (DOCX) 9781760516963 (print ed) 9781760516949 (PDF) 9781760516956 (DOCX) 9781760516963 (print ed) |
