A Career Ecosystem Approach to Developing Student Agency Through Digital Storymaking

Abstract

Changing patterns of careers, from traditional through to boundaryless, have led to reconsidering student agency in transitioning from higher education to the labor market. Student agency, in the context of this chapter, requires students to synthesize disciplinary skills and knowledge of specific courses with industry-oriented work-integrated learning experiences, aligning these reflective learnings with fluid career patterns. This chapter postulates that graduates demonstrate their agency by curating and narrating their outputs and learnings to personalize their ongoing career story by clearly recognizing individual behaviors and attributes. The authors define this as digital storymaking, integrating an ePortfolio to identify the graduate's capacity to engage with rapidly changing employability requirements imaginatively. If employers accept digital storymaking as part of a demonstration of capacity, they may identify a more adaptive graduate, able to respond flexibly to future uncertain work patterns within a sustainable career ecosystem.