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1. Introduction
A career can be thought of as a multi-faceted, complex and personal process that evolves over a person’s life-span, and is influenced by dynamic interactions amongst personal, interpersonal, societal and environmental factors (Patton and McMahon, 2006). At the heart of career development is personal growth, and when actively included in the curriculum of higher education, it can assist life-long learning and employability (McIlveen et al., 2011). However, preparing graduates for the world of work is difficult. Information technology (IT) as a discipline is in a state of constant change due to the pace of technological development, resulting in no clear picture of possible professional career opportunities (Koppi and Naghdy, 2009, p. 14; Byars-Winston, 2014; Hajkowicz et al., 2016).
It was reported in the Australian Labour Market Update (Australian Government, 2016a), that 10,000 positions in IT were created between June 2015 and June 2016. The Graduate Outlook report by Graduate Careers Australia (2016) reported that for the sixth consecutive year graduates from IT were in especially high demand. However, it is becoming increasingly complex for IT graduates to negotiate the various and changing job roles that make up the IT industry, with a reported gap between employer expectations and graduate profiles (Webster et al., 2016). According to Meijers and Kuijpers (2014, p. 297), “career paths have become unpredictable and research and practice show that it is no longer possible to make career choices in a purely rational and information-based way”. In 2014, approximately 41 per cent of employers had difficulty sourcing enough graduates for open positions and found that IT graduates, while in demand in the employment market, often do not have adequate skills or career maturity to enable them to successfully engage with employers (Graduate Careers Australia, 2015; Australian Government, 2016b; Chlopicki, 2017). Career maturity is the ability to make age-appropriate, informed decisions that contribute to sound career choice decisions (Betz and Luzzo, 1996).
The purpose of this paper is to understand the career development and employability needs of IT undergraduate students. Understanding factors specific to IT students will inform application of a model of career development that best nurtures their career interests.
2. The discipline of IT
IT as a profession continues to grow, with approximately 8 per cent...