Abstract—Industry employers require new graduates to bring with them a range of knowledge, skills and abilities which mean these new employees can immediately make valuable work contributions. These will be a combination of discipline and professional knowledge, skills and abilities which give graduates the technical capabilities to solve practical problems whilst interacting with a range of stakeholders. Underpinning the development of these disciplines and professional knowledge, skills and abilities, are “enabling” knowledge, skills and abilities which assist students to engage in learning. These are academic and learning skills which are essential to common starting points for both the learning process of students entering the course as well as forming the foundation for the fully developed graduate knowledge, skills and abilities. This paper reports on a project created to introduce and strengthen these enabling skills into the first semester of a Bachelor of Information Technology degree in an Australian polytechnic. The project uses an action research approach in the context of ongoing continuous improvement for the course to enhance the overall learning experience, learning sequencing, graduate outcomes, and most importantly, in the first semester, student engagement and retention. The focus of this is implementing the new curriculum in first semester subjects of the course with the aim of developing the “enabling” learning skills, such as literacy, research and numeracy based knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). The approach used for the introduction and embedding of these KSAs, (as both enablers of learning and to underpin graduate attribute development), is presented. Building on previous publications which reported different aspects of this longitudinal study, this paper recaps on the rationale for the curriculum redevelopment and then presents the quantitative findings of entering students’ reading literacy and numeracy knowledge and skills degree as well as their perceived research ability. The paper presents the methodology and findings for this stage of the research. Overall, the cohort exhibits mixed KSA levels in these areas, with a relatively low aggregated score. In addition, the paper describes the considerations for adjusting the design and delivery of the new subjects with a targeted learning experience, in response to the feedback gained through continuous monitoring. Such a strategy is aimed at accommodating the changing learning needs of the students and serves to support them towards achieving the enabling learning goals starting from day one of their higher education studies. Keywords—Enabling skills, student retention, embedded learning support, continuous improvement. F. Wahr is with Melbourne Polytechnic, 77 St Georges Rd, Preston VIC 3072, Australia (corresponding author phone: +61 3 9269 1171; fax: +61 3 9269 1484; e-mail: fionawahr@melbournepolytechnic.edu.au). S. Venkatraman Melbourne Polytechnic, 77 St Georges Rd, Preston VIC 3072, Australia (e-mail: SitaVenkat@melbournepolytechnic.edu.au). I. INTRODUCTION ITH the growing business competitive environment, the current perception of employers about new graduates is that they come in with a range of KSAs to immediately perform well in the job assigned to them [1]-[3]. Typically, these KSAs will include both discipline-specific as well professional outcomes that will give graduates the required capabilities to be technically competent to deal with a range of stakeholders in solving business problems [4], [5]. Whilst these are often generic KSAs, contextualisation to the specifics and complexities of the profession supports relevance for work readiness. Thus, students must be intentionally supported to develop in these areas as they progress through their qualification [6], [7]. A dedicated learner-centred approach to teaching and assessing students’ development of the relevant KSAs is recognised as key to achieving these learning goals [8], [9]. The paper reports on an ongoing project to support student academic success and retention in a Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) degree program. There are many dimensions to this project worth reporting. The focus of this paper is on the significance of an evidence-based continuous improvement process employed by the original curriculum design team, expanded into the curriculum delivery phase of an ongoing research project [10]-[12]. The process and impact of ongoing review to inform in-situ and just-in-time improvements to support student success is presented. Typically, curriculum change is reviewed post-delivery [13]. The approach chosen for this curriculum change combined in-situ literacy, numeracy and research skill specialists with the lecturer’s workshop program of two key first semester subjects. The benefits and challenges of this approach are explored based on accounts of the teaching staff involved. The paper also considers how this research informs ongoing continuous improvement of the curriculum. Further research will include an evaluation of actual student learning achievement in these subjects. II. NEED FOR THE STUDY The curriculum redevelopment focuses on identifying current student learning needs of students entering the degree and designing responsive learning experiences in order to support students to achieve appropriate learning goals progressively. Such a continuous monitoring approach helps them to move through the degree with the necessary presage Building the Professional Readiness of Graduates from Day One: An Empirical Approach to Curriculum Continuous Improvement Fiona Wahr, Sitalakshmi Venkatraman W World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Educational and Pedagogical Sciences Vol:11, No:11, 2017 2579 International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 11(11) 2017 scholar.waset.org/1307-6892/10008310 International Science Index, Educational and Pedagogical Sciences Vol:11, No:11, 2017 waset.org/Publication/10008310