Concern about the level of employability skills exhibited by recent graduates in the disciplines associated with the integrated resource sciences was raised by CIRM agency partners in 2005.

IIn response a project was established to examine the issues surrounding this topic. The results of this study were reported in Options for improving the employability of natural resource management and environmental science graduates in Queensland, (Wright, 2006). Amongst a range of practical options for improving employability of undergraduates, this report presents an employability skills checklist for bachelor and higher-degree NRM/environmental science students.

CIRM undertook to investigate these options further, and in 2007 commenced a study for developing a framework to encourage course providers to include work integrated learning (WIL) as a significant component of the degrees in the integrated resource sciences. The working group was reformed and continued to make significant contributions to the process.

Following a comprehensive scoping study, in-depth discussion and feedback from potential stakeholders a paper was produced outlining the requirements for developing appropriate and contemporary WIL processes for undergraduates within the associated disciplines: Improving graduate employability skills in the integrated resource sciences (Scoullar, 2008).

In addition, complementary support material was produced in the form of Guidelines for good practice in work integrated learning for the integrated resource sciences (Scoullar, 2008).

© The Consortium for Integrated Resource Management, 2007.