Employability and Career Development Learning through Social Media

LinkedIn is known universally as a platform for professional self-promotion, and has become a ubiquitous player in graduate job recruitment. It can also be a valuable tool in 21st century career development learning more broadly, including for research into industry opportunities, structures and norms, professional network development, and informal learning. It can also be a powerful ingredient in career identity development as part of an integrated suite of practice-based approaches. This chapter explores some of the opportunities for, and uses of, LinkedIn as a platform for specific elements of students’ career development and employability learning, and professional network development. It also discusses pitfalls and contested issues in the use of LinkedIn, and social media more generally, in preparing higher education learners for work. The chapter provides brief practical examples of learning activities that can be integrated into curricula at foundational, broadening and deepening, and advanced/capstone undergraduate levels.