Graduate Certificate in Gerontology (GC-GERON) // Attributes, outcomes and skills

Knowledge

• Describe fundamental concepts, approaches and current practices in gerontology
• Identify key physical and psycho-social influences on the ageing experience.

Skills

• Identify and discuss key challenges in gerontology
• Evaluate strategies and policies aimed at promoting healthy and productive ageing across the lifespan
• Articulate and communicate ageing issues to both specialist and non-specialist audiences in written and oral form.

Application of knowledge and skills

• Demonstrate the application of gerontological knowledge and skills to current challenges
• Apply knowledge of the ageing experience from conceptual and practical dimensions of the course to develop solutions to ageing issues.

Students who complete this course should develop a number of generic skills that will enhance their capacity in:

• Integrating knowledge from multiple disciplines to take a comparative and global perspective
• Research through competent use of advanced information sources and retrieval of appropriate information
• Critical and theoretical thinking through presentations, research papers, conceptualising theoretical problems, forming arguments from conflicting evidence, and by critical analysis
• Time management and planning through organising workloads, tasks and projects
• Team work through online discussions and peer feedback.

Academically excellent across disciplines

• The Graduate Certificate in Gerontology will be subject to a continuous cycle of review through constant refinements in teaching and learning principles and approaches. Subject coordinators for the Graduate Certificate in Gerontology subjects are members of the Gerontology Steering Committee, which meets regularly to ensure appropriate integration and complementarity of teaching and learning approaches. In addition, the subjects offered are taught by several different faculties at the University of Melbourne, which leads to a strong interdisciplinary experience. All of the instructors involved with the Graduate Certificate in Gerontology bring outstanding pedagogical skills, substantive knowledge and practical experience.

Leaders in communities

• The Graduate Certificate in Gerontology facilitates the development of excellent interpersonal and communication skills through subject content and assessment practices, and through commitment to small-group interactive teaching and learning environments. The provision of knowledge transfer opportunities enables the development of public discourse skills and an extensive awareness of community issues and global needs.

Attuned to cultural diversity

• The Graduate Certificate in Gerontology offers students education in aspects of cultural diversity and identity. One of the subjects offered in the course, Ageing in Society, is concerned specifically and analytically with cross-cultural perspectives on how prevailing social contexts shapes ideas, relationships and practices with implications for older people. In addition, the subjects offered in the Graduate Certificate in Gerontology include international examples of policies, case studies and strategies and cohorts generally include students from different parts of the world. Students will have ample opportunity to learn from experiences outside their own immediate cultures.

Active global citizens

• Graduate Certificate in Gerontology graduates will be equipped to be active global citizens by virtue of their academic excellence, their interdisciplinary knowledge, their community leadership capabilities and their cultural awareness.