Employability skills : student perceptions of an IS final year capstone subject

This paper reports on a qualitative study aimed at investigating whether Australian Information Systems (IS) students undertaking a team-based capstone subject with real clients believed the subject had enhanced their employability skills. This research is important because UK and Australian governments and industry are increasingly pressuring universities to focus more on developing employability skills. The paper makes a contribution to the literature since there are few empirical studies examining students’ perceptions of capstone subjects and none, to our knowledge, focusing on employability skills. Our study suggests that students believed the capstone subject did improve a broad range of employability skills and it also demonstrates the interrelated nature of these skills. We conjecture that the team-based, real-client model of capstone is particularly useful, compared to other capstone models, because it is especially effective at integrating the range of employability skills such as teamwork, communication, problem solving and self-management.