New course from ATN universities prepares people for workplace change

3 June 2022

Article Link

Tim Dodd

Australia’s six technology universities are launching a new online course to help people deal with change in their workplaces and achieve their career goals.

The course, Designing Your Future, is to assist graduates and workers looking to recharge their career by helping them increase their employability, boost their resilience and match their skills and personal strengths to their career.

It is available from the six institutions that belong to the Australian Technology Network – Curtin, Deakin, RMIT, New­castle, UniSA and UTS.

ATN executive director Luke Sheehy said the course would “support workers to successfully navigate the working world, whatever their experience and background”.

It uses “design thinking”, a tool developed at Stanford University, to help people assess their strengths and goals, and then move on to plan and implement their next career steps.

The course is split into three modules. The first 15-hour module is free and uses self-paced learning to explore personal skills, interests and values; define work and life goals; and define various career possibilities.

The two subsequent modules each involve 30 hours of learning and students are part of a class and interact with their cohort. The learning includes goal-setting techniques, creating a personal career road map, personal branding, building a digital presence and networking

The ATN universities will generally give credit towards a qualification such as graduate certificate to those who complete the course.

Curtin University’s Hannah Wilkinson said the Stanford course had been redesigned for Australia and was intended to engage with a broad range of the Australian workforce.

The second two modules attract a course fee that may vary at different ATN universities. At Curtin, the combined cost for modules two and three is $1500.