Navigating the IT Skills Gap: Cultivating Job-Ready Graduates

Nicole Herbert, David Herbert, Tony Gray

Abstract: The perpetual misalignment between the skill sets of Information Technology (IT) graduates and evolving demands of industry remains an ongoing concern. Reports indicate that IT graduates often lack the practical job-readiness that industry requires, prompting an examination of potential solutions. Work-integrated learning and experiential learning have emerged as promising solutions. In 2023, an innovative approach to job-readiness was pioneered by incorporating these approaches into an on-campus internship tailored for non-cognate international postgraduate IT students. This internship cultivates industry insight, technical proficiency, lifelong learning, and personal branding, all impacting on a graduate's employability. This practitioner paper unveils the design, encountered challenges, and lessons learned with the aim to facilitate the adoption of similar initiatives by other institutions, particularly those in regions with limited access to industry internships for postgraduate IT students.