Ruth S. Bridgstock

The Graduate Attributes We've Overlooked: Enhancing Graduate Employability through Career Management Skills.

Recent shifts in education and labour market policy have resulted in universities being placed under increasing pressure to produce employable graduates. However, contention exists regarding exactly what constitutes employability and which graduate attributes are required to foster employability in tertiary students. This paper argues that in the context of a rapidly changing information‐ and knowledge‐intensive economy, employability involves far more than possession of the generic skills listed by graduate employers as attractive. Rather, for optimal economic and social outcomes, graduates must be able to proactively navigate the world of work and self‐manage the career building process. A model of desirable graduate attributes that acknowledges the importance of self‐management and career building skills to lifelong career management and enhanced employability is presented. Some important considerations for the implementation of effective university career management programs are then outlined.

Symmetry and perceived facial attractiveness: a monozygotic co-twin comparison

Symmetry is a major correlate of physical attractiveness across species, including humans. Investigating the nature of this relationship has been difficult, however, for several reasons, including the facts that variance in symmetry is attributable to more than one source and is often correlated with other variables related to attractiveness. This study assessed the role of facial symmetry in relation to perceptions of facial attractiveness. Some of the natural covariates of symmetry were controlled for by comparing the symmetry and attractiveness differentials between monozygotic co-twins, who are genetically, but not developmentally, identical. The more symmetric twin of a pair was consistently rated as more attractive, and the magnitude of the difference between twins in perceived attractiveness was directly related to the magnitude of the difference in symmetry.

Skills for Creative Industries Graduate Success.

Purpose: Although there is increasing evidence that the creative industries are essential to national economic growth as well as social and cultural well-being, creative graduates often find it difficult to become established professionally. This study investigates the value of career management competence and intrinsic career motivations (as elements of ‘protean career orientation’) in predicting positive graduate outcomes. ----- ----- Design/methodology: Self-report surveys were administered to 208 creative industries graduates from two Australian universities at two points in time: at course completion, and one year later. ----- ----- Findings: Individual career management competence and intrinsic work motivations, measured at course completion, were significant predictors of early career success, using both subjective and objective measures, measured one year later. ----- ----- Practical implications: This study suggests that an emphasis on student development beyond the traditional ‘key’ employability skills may well be worthwhile. The article also suggests a broad learning and teaching approach by which universities can encourage the development of student career identity, and thus engender student intrinsic career motivations and career self management skills and behaviours. ----- ----- Originality/value: This is one of the first studies to demonstrate empirically a link between a particular set of skills and graduate outcomes. In addition, it provides insights into the role of student career motivations in positive transitions to the world of work in the creative industries.

Australian Artists, Starving and Well-Nourished: What Can we Learn from the Prototypical Protean Career?

Recent literature documents the demise of traditional linear careers and the rise of protean, boundaryless, or portfolio careers, typified by do-it-yourself career management and finding security in ongoing employability rather than ongoing employment. This article identifies key attributes of the ‘new career’, arguing that individuals with careers in the well-established fields of fine and performing arts often fit into the ‘new careerist’ model. Employment/career data for professional fine artists, performing artists and musicians in Australia is presented to support this claim. A discussion of the meta-competencies and career-life management skills essential to navigate the boundaryless work world is presented, with specific reference to Australian artists, and recommendations for future research.

Not a dirty word: Arts entrepreneurship and higher education

While the majority of creative, performing and literary artists are self-employed, relatively few tertiary arts schools attempt to develop capabilities for venture creation and management (and entrepreneurship more broadly) and still fewer do so effectively. This article asks why this is the case. It addresses underlying conceptual and philosophical issues encountered by arts educators, arguing that in all three senses of the term – new venture creation, career self-management, and being enterprising – entrepreneurship is essential to career success in the arts. However, the practice of entrepreneurship in the arts is significantly different from the practice of entrepreneurship in business, in terms of the artist’s drivers and aims, as well as the nature of entrepreneurial opportunities, contexts and processes. These differences mean that entrepreneurship curricula cannot simply be imported from business schools. This article also examines the arts-idiosyncratic challenge of negotiating distinctive and potentially conflicting entrepreneurial aims, using career identity theory. It concludes by suggesting strategies by which adaptive entrepreneurial artist identities can be developed through higher education programs.

the contested terrain of teachers detecting and reporting child abuse and neglect

This article establishes the important role of early childhood teachers in child abuse and neglect and argues for empirical research into their practice of detecting, and reporting, known or suspected child abuse and neglect in a State with new and unique reporting obligations for teachers. It emphasizes the practical value of such research for the early childhood profession and ultimately for the children in their care.

A multicultural study of stereotyping in english-speaking countries

Abstract Citizens of 9 different English-speaking countries (N = 619) evaluated the average, or typical, citizen of 5 English-speaking countries (Great Britain, Canada, Nigeria, United States, Australia) on 9 pairs of bipolar adjectives. Participants were drawn from Australia, Botswana, Canada, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, the United States, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. There were statistically significant similarities in the rankings of the 5 stimulus countries on 8 of the 9 adjective dimensions and a strong convergence of autostereotypes and heterostereotypes on many traits. The results relate to previous stereotyping research and traditional methods of assessing the accuracy of national stereotypes.

Characterising One-to-One Conservatoire Teaching: Some Implications of a Quantitative Analysis.

Despite the significant recent growth in research relating to instrumental, vocal and composition tuition in higher education, little is known about the diversity of approaches that characterise one-to-one teaching in the conservatoire, and what counts as optimal practice for educating twenty-first-century musicians. Through analysis of video-recorded one-to-one lessons that draws on a ‘bottom up’ methodology for characterising pedagogical practices, this paper provides empirical evidence about the nature of one-to-one pedagogy in one Australian institution. The research aims (1) to enable a better understanding of current one-to-one conservatoire teaching and (2) to build and improve upon existing teaching practice using authentic insights gained through systematic investigation. The authors hope the research will lead to a better understanding of the diversity and efficacy of the pedagogical practice within the specific context in which the study was conducted, and beyond, to conservatoire pedagogy generally.

The urgent need for career preview: Student expectations and graduate realities in music and dance:

Unlike the work available in many creative disciplines, musicians and dancers have the possibility of company-based employment; however, participants outweigh the number of positions. As a result, many graduates become “enforced entrepreneurs” as they shape their work to meet personal and professional needs. The similarities between initial music and dance careers offer opportunities for research across both. This article explores the career projections of 58 music and dance students who were surveyed in their first week of post-secondary study. It contrasts these findings with the reality of graduate careers as reported by five of that cohort four years later. In contrast with the students’ focus on performance roles, the graduate cohort reported a prevalence of portfolio careers incorporating both creative and non-creative roles. The paper characterizes the notion of a performing arts “career” as a messy concept fraught with misunderstanding. Implications include the need to heighten students’ career awareness and position intrinsic satisfaction as a valued career concept.

Creative labour and graduate outcomes: implications for higher education and cultural policy

One of the principal ways that cultural and higher education policy and practice intersect is over a shared concern with the supply of talent and its employability and career sustainability. This article considers the multidisciplinary contributions to these debates, and then engages with these debates by drawing upon research from analyses of national Census data, and via granular empirical survey research into Australian creative arts graduates’ initial career trajectories. In so doing, it seeks to paint a more nuanced picture of graduate outcomes, the significance of creative skills and by extension creative education and training, and the various kinds of value that creative graduates add through their work. This evidence should assist in a closer affinity between the differing approaches to creative labour and the creative economy, and has implications for cultural and higher education policy.