Employability Community of Interest monthly seminar
The Employability Community of Interest hosts a series of monthly seminars held in hybrid mode, that focus on promoting the skills required for our graduates to succeed in today’s job market.
The UoA Employability Community of Interest’s mission is to promote future focused teaching beyond the degree. This includes:
- Bringing all individuals and units interested in employability together to provide support, share best practice ideas, resources and coping strategies, maintain motivation.
- Advocating for employability at the University of Auckland.
- Proposing ideas for development to expand and enhance the employability provision at the University of Auckland.
- Identifying and communicate the value that the university contributes to society which can be used in reports for TEC, communications and marketing, and recruitment.
- Keeping everyone up to speed with developments in this area.
COI-E membership
Please follow this link to the MS Teams site to join the group and receive updates about events and developments. There you will also find instructions to join the group’s Canvas site.
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Engine Near Readiness: Co-designing Professional Skills Initiatives
Wednesday 8 October 2025
2–3pm
Location
Building 207-501, Patrick Hanan Staff Tearoom (map) or online via MS Teams.
Speaker
Stephen Kavermann, Professional Teaching Fellow – Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering
Abstract
Stephen has been working with members of the Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering student club to promote opportunities to develop skills for professional readiness. Two initiatives have been trialled this year:
- Student Role Profiles as Job Advertisements. Simulated ‘role profiles’, themed as job ads, have been created for students at different stages of their degree. The co-design team mapped out key human-centred skills and relevant learning opportunities to promote awareness to students.
- Professional Readiness Quiz. Designed in the style of popular online personality quizzes, this was selected for its potential to increase relevance to students. By answering a series of questions related to their skills, experiences, and aspirations, students will receive personalized feedback via a radar chart and relatable engineer types, such as the “Team Parent” and the “Yapper”.
This presentation will cover the co-design process, implementation, key learnings, and then group discussion on these topics for your own student cohorts.”