Student employability: can I get a job through social networking?

Social media offers potential to provide an easy-to use platform for connecting students throughout their entire life cycle—from aspiration rising, enrolment, learning and teaching leading on to employment, alumni communication and life-long personal and professional development. Social media connectivity has been growing rapidly with the proliferation of mobile devices and anticipated move to 4G, while penetration rate of mobile devices among students has reached record high. With these changes in technological landscape higher education institutions need to teach students how to apply social media in learning. However, another aspect of social media has received little attention so far - the potential of social media to help succeed in finding employment and building professional relationships. To enhance employability of their students higher education institutions must consider which skills and knowledge are necessary at different stages of student lifecycle. Social media offers an outstanding potential of building (and exploiting) social capital of informal and professional networks. This session will open a discussion into how social media can help students build business and professional relationships, establish web presence and ultimately secure that dream graduate job in today’s uncertain economy