"We need carrots and sticks”: how to enhance student engagement with career learning in Higher Education

Port, Andy and Hracs, Brian J. (2025) "We need carrots and sticks”: how to enhance student engagement with career learning in Higher Education. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 54 (1), 29-46. (doi:10.20856/nicec.5404).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Although students and universities are increasingly concerned about employability, student engagement often remains low. The question is why, and what can be done? This reflective paper addresses these questions by sharing recent experience of designing and delivering a credit bearing employability module. It demonstrates that combined rewards and punishments (carrots and sticks) can successfully enhance student engagement. We achieved 98% attendance across all sessions and an overall module satisfaction score of 90%. Our paper benefits academics, career practitioners and higher education institutions (HEIs) by offering practical solutions which can be scaled and transferred across disciplines, institutions and learning contexts.

Text

Port_Hracs_2025_We_need_carrots_and_sticks_How_to_enhance_student_engagement_with_career_learning_in_Higher_Education - Version of Record

Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.

Download (1MB)

Text

Accepted Version

Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.

Download (82kB)