Introduction/Background:
Employability as a construct has recently been gathering attention in veterinary education and the profession. The VetSet2Go project is a collaborative research project involving seven veterinary schools from Australia, the UK and the USA, and has defined employability as a “set of adaptive personal and professional capabilities that enable a veterinarian to gain employment, contribute meaningfully to the profession and develop a career pathway that achieves satisfaction and success”. Multi-stakeholder evidence has been used to build a framework of veterinary employability, which is intended to complement competency- and professionalism-based outcomes in veterinary education.

Objectives:
To build an evidence-based framework of veterinary employability, with the aim of informing employability development in individuals and curricula.

Methods:
Multiple research subprojects were conducted – a BEME review of the veterinary education literature, matched employer: employee case studies, employer interviews, a large multi-national stakeholder survey, client expectations, and finally a Delphi process involving international panellists, to inform the framework for veterinary employability. Findings Communication skills involving both clients and colleagues emerged as one of the most important capabilities for success in the veterinary profession, regardless of context or stakeholder perspective. Underpinning the development of all veterinary employability capabilities is self-awareness.

Discussion:
The process for developing the framework, and the evidence for the importance of communication skills will be explored in this presentation, along with the role that self-awareness plays in developing these strengths. Tools for assessing employability in undergraduate students are being developed and will presented.    



Authors:
*BELL, Melinda1, CAKE, Martin2, MANSFIELD, Caroline3
1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Australia;
2. College of Veterinary Medicine, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Australia;
3. School of Education, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Australia.