The innovation debate has been hijacked by the tech start-up space.

In this week’s episode of Talking Eds, the team behind Campus Review, Education Review and Early Learning Review look at the history and effect of White Ribbon Day, discuss the University of Sydney’s expansion in China and explore Torrens University’s new grad certificate specifically for educators working with children with autism.

The New Work Mindset report from the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) states that career advice should revolve around helping young people develop skills that fit into seven job clusters, rather than pushing them into individual occupations.

Taj Pabari is a 17-year-old high school student attending Brisbane’s John Paul College who has absolutely no aspiration study at university.

But he’s also chief executive of his own tech start-up, Fiftysix Creations, and spends his free time between tennis, martial arts, and travelling. And in today’s Australia, when more young people than ever before have enrolled at university, Pabari said more effort needs to go into helping them decide whether or not higher education is really for them. This begins with reforming the role of careers advisors and school counsellors, he said.

“Wouldn’t it be great if [school] counsellors asked: ‘what are your passions, your hopes for the future, what do you love doing?” Pabari told a roundtable hosted by multinational education publisher Pearson. “At the moment, any career advice tends to be based solely on job prospects. The whole idea of [school] counselling needs to be redefined and expanded.”

Pearson recently sponsored the No Mind Left Behind report from the McKell Institute. Among the recommendations was reforming school career-guidance services and more collaboration between industry and university.

David Barnett, managing director of Pearson Asia-Pacific, said Pabari’s story should be a wake-up call for universities.

Professor Field Rickards, dean of UniMelb’s Melbourne Graduate School of Education, said higher standards could actually increase demand for teaching degrees.

The University of Sydney has placed fourth in the world in the latest iteration of QS’s graduate employability rankings, putting it ahead of institutions like Cambridge University and the University of Oxford.

Western Sydney University chancellor professor Peter Shergold says chancellors need to learn to work within vast bureaucracies.

Adrienne Clarke, La Trobe University chancellor, says universities must differentiate.

Two words, ten syllables. Transdisciplinary innovation is the new buzz-phrase going around the University of Technology Sydney. So much so that the university has created a whole new faculty dedicated to it.

With the University of Sydney tightening its ties with China, as demonstrated by the opening of its new first Chinese address earlier in the month, USYD’s vice-chancellor has sought to play down concerns that Chinese soft power could be influencing the course of the university.