The Future of Education

Graduate employers increasingly seek "job-ready" graduates. Higher-Education student placements play a critical role in fostering essential skills; one of which, teamwork, is consistently identified by employers as being vital for graduates to be effective [1]. This research focuses not only on skill development, but also on the other benefits students obtain when working in a team to understand how this can enhance their overall performance as students and graduates. Students completing placements often experience isolation and stress during the placement period [2], thus, in addition to being a key element of the modern business environment, teams can serve as valuable channels for communication and social support. This mixed-methods study examined the evolution from individual to team-based assessments for placement students (N=1,866) in the Business School at a large Australian University. The team assessment replaced the individual assessment to address and reconcile the distinct challenges of teamwork skill development and the need for student community and support. Students were given a Microsoft Teams channel, required to hold at least one meeting to discuss their collective placement experiences, and create a one-page Graduate Employability poster. The results demonstrate a positive and statistically significant improvement in performance, supported by student reflections which demonstrate a positive impact on student placement experiences. Thus, the implementation of teamwork in individual placement units, not only assists in improving assessment performance, but also provides emotional support to improve student wellbeing. Our changes to assessment structure have better aligned our graduate outcomes with employer demand. These findings also support the ongoing use of teamwork as an assessment tool throughout higher education, not just in placement units as it is likely that many of the benefits could also be obtained while completing team-based assessments.