Transdisciplinary employability practitioners: Engaging with skills for the future and redefining professional identity

Abstract

In response to the need for graduates to tackle global, complex problems, higher education is increasing attention towards approaches that cross the boundaries of disciplinary thinking. However, while students can benefit from learning across disciplines, employability practitioners can also benefit. Transdisciplinary approaches can prompt practitioners to rethink career education, take charge of their professional development, and redefine their identity as borderless, ever-evolving transdisciplinary employability practitioners. Within this provocation, a transdisciplinary approach to learning is introduced and questions pertinent to the seven habits of a transdisciplinary mind are posed, intended to provoke converging perspectives on employability. By refocusing practitioners’ employability perspectives, higher education can enhance its capacity for career-led learning and transform the identities of those working within it.

Keywords

• Transdisciplinary, work-integrated learning, lifelong learning, boundary-crossing, employability, professional development, career learning, higher education