“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
Abraham Lincoln and Peter Drucker
Two years after launching C.A.R.E.E.R Compass, I find myself standing back in wonder as our students transform through their educational journey. What began as a faculty-led solution to shifting student attitudes toward learning is evolving into a student-powered revolution that’s reshaping how we think about professional identity development in higher education.
This blog shares the story so far – and perhaps one of the last blogs you hear from me, as our capable students make themselves comfortable in the cockpit and assume the flight controls…
Flight path: destination unknown
The C.A.R.E.E.R Compass represents the third significant culture shift in our Faculty of Engineering and IT (FEIT) transformational journey:
- Stage 1: MIDAS (More Innovative, Design-Abled Students) with its emphasis on studio-based learning that freed students from the constraints of traditional assessment to evidencing their progress in sprints, where feedback replaced marks.
- Stage 2: FEIT Curriculum Assessment and Learning Framework (CALF), a curriculum resource supporting a shared language across Foundational, Developing, Pre-Professional and Professional stages.
- Stage 3: C.A.R.E.E.R Compass heralds a transformative shift, focusing on cultivating Collaborative, Agentic, Response-abled, Engaged, and Employment Ready graduates through a community of practice using ePortfolios.
With over 3,000 students engaging with studio-based learning annually, we’ve witnessed a profound shift in academic mindsets. An untethering from traditional assessment approaches, once considered radical, has become so embedded that many of our academics now struggle to imagine teaching for conventional exams! This approach required us to continue to re-conceptualise our roles as educators, from primary knowledge providers to facilitators of student-led learning communities. Colleagues tell me it requires trust, courage, and a willingness to genuinely share power with students.
Now (on)boarding: 11,000 students by 2028
Seeing students facilitate workshops with such confidence and insight has been transformative. They are connecting with students in ways we often cannot.
Guest speaker
Our 2023 pilot program started modestly with 10 C.A.R.E.E.R Compass Champions. These student leaders quickly demonstrated the power of peer-to-peer influence, and in 2024 delivered workshops that resonated with fellow students in ways that faculty-led initiatives didn’t, onboarding close to 200 members. They ran regular social gatherings and discussions centred on C.A.R.E.E.R Compass-related themes, including personal/ professional ePortfolios and reflection prompts featuring a Canvas Module on enhancing Reflective Practices in line with FEIT graduate attribute F1 [Personally] Reflective.
During 2025 orientation weeks alone, the team presented to 1,700 undergraduate and postgraduate first-year Engineering and IT students and conducted 2 x 90-minute follow-up workshops reaching approximately 400 self-enrolled new students, introducing them to professional identity concepts before they had even attended their first class.
This is a Faculty strategic priority with dedicated funding and support from the Dean, and the vision for C.A.R.E.E.R Compass is ambitious: to bring 11,000 students on board by 2028, creating a learning mindset and attitude that aligns with professional skills required by industry while fostering student agency and critical thinking. What makes this goal achievable? Our students are now the primary advocates and implementers.
Students take the controls
These students aren’t implementing faculty-designed initiatives; they’re actively co-creating the next iteration of C.A.R.E.E.R Compass. Drawing on their own experience, they are educating the next generation of learners through initiatives such as guest speakers from alumni and industry, social gatherings, panel discussions for professional development and training on developing ePortfolios to capture enhancement of professional skills.
For students inspired to become part of this movement, the pathways are increasingly clear. The movement actively promotes a community of practice through regular events and workshops in a resourceful, respectful, safe space for conversations. Peers can access a website and Teams site with growing membership.
Permission to lead
For university services, leaders and executives watching this movement unfold, the implications are significant. Traditional top-down approaches to curriculum innovation often struggle to gain traction with students. By contrast, the C.A.R.E.E.R Compass model demonstrates that when students become co-creators and leaders of educational change, engagement and outcomes improve. Academics are invited to collaborate with student leaders rather than simply directing them; to see students as genuine partners in educational innovation rather than merely its beneficiaries; to stop asking ‘Did you understand the material?’ and start asking ‘How might you use this in your professional future?’ And to be a bridge, connecting students between academic theory and professional skills.
As I watch our C.A.R.E.E.R Compass ambassadors prepare for their upcoming workshops, letting go of the flight deck controls makes complete sense. The movement now has its own energy, no longer dependent on any single person but fuelled by students leading for, with, and by students. This steady handover represents the ultimate success of our initial vision: a self-sustaining culture of student-led innovation that continues to evolve beyond our original imagination. The question is no longer whether students can lead meaningful educational change, but how might we better support them as they do so?
Stay tuned for the next episode in this series, which will be written by the C.A.R.E.E.R Compass ambassadors themselves. They’ll provide more insight into how the program works, what specific activities they lead, how they’re trained, and what challenges they’ve overcome. They’ll also share information about partnerships, upcoming workshops, and events, and how this movement can be personally meaningful to you.