Preparing graduates with the employability skills for the unknown future: reflection on assessment practice during COVID-19

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an authentic and relevant way of sharing our realisation of the significance of integrating employability skills in assessment practice. This is supported from the anecdotal evidence received from students, which show that the inclusion and assessment of employability skills has provided them with an artifact that demonstrates the employability skills required for the continually changing future and workplace. For staff, the ability to assess and give feedback on the acquisition of employability skills makes it a more enjoyable experience. Design/methodology/approach Due to the short rollout period and pivot to online learning, there has not been an opportunity to undertake a comprehensive and formal data collection. However, anecdotal evidence has been collected from students and staff on the experience of the student-created video assignment in a completely online environment. Findings This paper establishes how a student video assessment contributes to students’ acquisition, development and enhancement of employability skills, such as communication and teamwork skills, that are central for preparing students for continually evolving future and thus the “new normal” brought forward by COVID-19. Practical implications This paper enables the authors to share their experiences and provision of their resources so that other teaching academics are able to design their own assessment task that contributes to students’ acquisition, development and enhancement of employability skills. Originality/value The originality of this paper is the application of integrating employability skills in assessment practice and the associated rubric as way to build students’ employability skills in the post-COVID world.

Accounting education in a Latin American country during COVID-19: proximity at a distance

“…One is that instructors are one of the avenues of research identified in the emergent literature (Sangster et al, 2020, p. 446). The second is that instructors are less studied than student experiences (Ali et al, 2020;Bowyer, 2021;Dyki et al, 2021;Malan, 2020;Pasion et al, 2021;Ramachandra and Wells, 2021). Furthermore, the Sangster et al ( 2020) study looks at 45 countries but greatly compressed the space available for lessons learned (Fogarty, 2020, p. 563).…”

“…The emerging literature on accounting education in the COVID-19 context has focussed on faculty autoethnography and undergraduate students studies. The group of articles on faculty describes recent teaching experiences (Ackerman, 2021;Beatson et al, 2021;G omez and Alba, 2021;Haynes, 2020;Mai, 2020;Powell and McGuigan, 2020;Stewart and Khan, 2021;Wong and Zhang, 2020) whilst the other group highlights student responses and challenges (Ali et al, 2020;Bowyer, 2021;Dyki et al, 2021;Malan, 2020;Pasion et al, 2021;Reyneke et al, 2020). There is also a paper on graduate students (Ramachandra and Wells, 2021) and another one on the training of instructors for online education (Sadiq, 2020).…”

“…Initially, the literature of accounting education in the COVID-19 context was geographically concentrated in Australia (Beatson et al, 2021;Dyki et al, 2021;Mai, 2020;Powell and McGuigan, 2020;Sadiq, 2020;Stewart and Khan, 2021;Wong and Zhang, 2020) and New Zealand (Ackermann, 2021;Ali et al, 2020;Beatson et al, 2021;Othman, 2021;Ramachandra and Wells, 2021). Authors wrote some works with institutional affiliation in Indonesia (Aji et al, 2020), Portugal (Pasion et al, 2021), South Africa (Malan, 2020;Reyneke et al, 2020), UAE (Masoud and Bohra, 2020), UK (Haynes, 2020) and USA (Bowyer, 2021;Fogarty, 2020).…”

Rethinking the accounting ethics education research in the post- COVID-19 context

“…On the other hand, teaching the current COVID-19 situation to accounting students within the ethics content is more fragmented than ever before as it may help focus the fragmentation and ground the information on credible sources. Previous evidence (Bowyer, 2021) emphasises the importance of teaching historical events, especially within the economic sciences; therefore, teaching the current COVID-19 situation would enhance students' employability skills for unknown future events (Dyki et al, 2021) and their ability to make future ethical decisions.…”

What makes better career opportunities for young graduates? Examining acquired employability skills in higher education institutions

“…The youth unemployment rate in Hong Kong faced a 5-year record low from 5.6% on average in 2015 to 9.8% in 2020 (Trading Economics, 2020). Young graduates face tough competition and low salaries as they enter Hong Kong's crowded workforce, especially during the period of economic crisis, such as the pandemic COVID-19 (Kamaruddin et al , 2020; Dyki et al , 2020; Ma and Bennet, 2021). While the global economic situation remains weak, the local labor market in Hong Kong deteriorated during the third quarter of 2020 under the pandemic, in which unemployment and underemployed are more common in many affected sectors, such as consumption, tourism-related industries, food and beverage services, entertainment and recreation sectors (Census and Statistics Department, 2020).…”