Using assessment centres to develop student competence: Nine steps to success and better partnerships

ABSTRACT

Developing student competence relevant to real-world practice has been a persistent challenge in tertiary education. Organisational psychologists use assessment centres in industry to measure job-relevant competencies of employees or job-candidates to facilitate accurate recruitment or development decisions. Despite its potential as an innovative approach to developing student employability, this methodology remains novel in higher education. To stimulate wider usage and consideration, the steps and success criteria associated with a long-standing developmental assessment centre programme for postgraduate organisational psychology students are explained and demonstrated. The programme’s benefits have extended beyond delivering a quality assessment solution to providing a contemporary strategy to strengthen industry partnerships, thus ensuring sustainability and circumventing common criticisms of assessment centres being resource intensive. Although contextualised in the setting presented, this case highlights the assessment centre approach and practice implications for academics, particularly given that partnerships, and student competency and employability are important responsibilities for all university departments.

KEYWORDS:

• Assessment centre
• developmental assessment centre
• competency-based education
• work-based learning
• employability
• industry-partnerships

Acknowledgments

We thank Saville Assessment Asia Pacific for their annual support of our Programme by providing the Wave Personality Questionnaire for our students. Their generosity and involvement are greatly appreciated.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vanessa L. Sturre

Ms. Vanessa L. Sturre is an endorsed organisational psychologist with post-graduate qualifications in psychology and education. Vanessa has over 20 years of experience. After 10 years working in industry as a management consultant and supervising psychology placement students as a part of this role, Vanessa made the decision to move directly into tertiary education. Vanessa is currently working as a Lecturer and Placement Coordinator at Deakin University and has a keen interest in assessment and development strategies linked to work-integrated learning. Email: [email protected]

Kathryn M. von Treuer

Professor Kathryn M. von Treuer is an endorsed health and organisational psychologist with postgraduate qualifications in psychology, business and education. Following 20 years industry experience, in 2006 Kathryn became an academic and was appointed Course Chair of the Master of Organisational Psychology, Deakin University. Kathryn has received several teaching awards including the national Australian Psychological Society ‘Distinguished Contribution to Psychological Education’. Kathryn is now Executive Director of the Cairnmillar Institute, a not for profit Higher Education Provider which she commenced in early 2016. Email: [email protected]

Tess Knight

Professor Tess Knight is Head of School at the Cairnmillar Institute in Melbourne, Australia. Tess has over 25 years’ experience in Higher Education in Psychology and is a registered Psychologist with the Psychology Board of Australia.  Her teaching and research are primarily in developmental psychology, education, and health. She has a keen interest in transformative education and understanding people’s experiences and the meaning they apply to those experiences. Tess has led in national and international collaborations to enhance understanding of mental health and the experience of chronic illness through in-depth qualitative data collection and analysis. Email: [email protected]

Arlene Walker

Dr Arlene Walker is a registered psychologist with a Master’s degree and a PhD in Industrial and Organisational Psychology. She is the Associate Head of School for Regional and Rural campuses in the School of Psychology at Deakin University and a Senior Lecturer in organisational psychology. Arlene was previously the co-editor of the Australasian Journal of Organisational Psychology. Arlene’s research interests focus on wellbeing and include: graduate work readiness and transition into the workplace; intimate partner violence and the impact of violence on the workplace; and employee health and well- being. Email: [email protected]