Making learning relevant: leveraging authentic job descriptions in case scenarios for career readiness

In today’s competitive job market, employability skills are a critical measure of success for MSc students. However, students often struggle to understand how individual modules contribute to their career readiness—an issue not only at the undergraduate level but also a challenge in graduate education. In one-year MSc programs, achieving a balance between theoretical depth and practical skill-building is challenging. This proposal aim to share a practice from MSC programme highlights the value of co-creation—actively involving students in designing their learning experiences by drawing on their unique professional backgrounds. Through simulation-based learning, students adopt roles, working as consultants or analysts to handle realistic, client-driven projects. This light talk will focus on sharing practical adaptations for MSc programs, focusing on employability, co-creation, and simulation techniques drawn from successful approaches in other professional degrees. This session will demonstrate how integrating students’ unique educational and professional backgrounds into employability-focused case studies enhances both engagement and learning outcomes. Specifically, it will showcase how to transform generic case scenarios and in-class case studies into relevant, career-driven learning experiences by drawing on authentic job descriptions and responsibilities. In these scenarios, clients can include instructors or peers acting in professional capacities, providing real-time feedback and evaluations that mirror workplace expectations. By using industry-specific job titles, terminology and responsibilities, students engage directly with the skills and language found in job descriptions, enhancing their employability. This talk will offer strategies, examples, and tips for incorporating co-creation, simulation, and employability-focused case studies into MSc programs, fostering a classroom environment that is inclusive, dynamic, and directly relevant to industry.