Description / Requirements
This assessment task is in 2 parts, part A and part B. Each part is worth 10 marks, totalling 20 marks overall. Reading of all course content and wider research is required for this assessment. In case the online Australian Tax Office (ATO) position description is taken down, see the assignment resources folder for a copy of the advertisement.
Part A:
ATO Graduate Position - employability and reflection (10 marks) / GLO6(1000 words)
In this assessment, you will be unpacking the requirements of the ATO graduate position, exploring the ATO's expectations of graduates, and mapping your knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs) against these expectations.
This assessment builds on the career development learning you began in MWL101, Personal Insight.
For students who have yet to complete MWL101, or would like a refresher, refer to DeakinTALENT's Career Decisions module:.The purpose is to develop your awareness that employers have of graduates.
Employers expect more from graduates than just their discipline knowledge. They are also concerned with graduates' transferrable skills. At Deakin, we refer to these as your graduate learning outcomes(GLOs).
More information about these GLOs can be found here:
Accounting majors should refer to the Accounting Learning Standards: and Finance majors should refer to the Finance Learning Standards:
These skillsets articulate the expectations employers have beyond your understanding of discipline knowledge.
This assessment requires you to:
- Review the 2017 ATO graduate job position: and the testimonials
of their graduates. Note that the ATO seeks graduates from many disciplines. What are the attributes that employers are looking for, when hiring recent graduates?
o Identify ATO graduate program stream interests you the most? Briefly justify your decision. Which would you consider applying for? (suggested: 50 words)
o Discuss both the discipline-specific skills and the transferrable skills you need for the stream that most interests you. (suggested: 200 words)
o In relation to these expectations where do your strengths lie? What areas of improvement do you have?How will your learning in MAA250 help with meeting ATO's expectations? (suggested: 350 words)
- Review the action plan you developed in MWL101 (include this action plan in your report's appendices). If you have yet to develop a career action plan, or want to review, refer to the Career Decisions module linked above.
o Discuss your progress in meeting your MWL01 action plan. Is the action plan still appropriate? How have you further developed your KSAs since your first year? (suggested: 100 words)Students who have yet to complete MWL101, we suggest 400 words for the next dot point.
o What further development do you need to both further develop your strengths and thegaps has the ATO position highlighted for you?Create a new action planfor the next 12 months, with a timeline, and justify how your choices of activities/experiences will further your development (you may choose to refer to the action plan you created in MWL101).
Hint: the graduate job application ‘season' opens in February each year.(suggested: 300 words)
(Note: a full job application, cover letter or CV is not required)
When writing a reflective piece please remember that it is expected that you write in the first person (e.g. "I believe that I meet the ATO's expectations because...").
Part B:
ATO Tax Fraud Scandal / May 2017 - ELI lens and reflection (10 marks) / GLO1 and 6(1000 words)
Based on any course content (for example topic 6 on corporate culture or forward reading to future topics such as topic 7 on fraud), while integrating the findings of your ethical lens based on your ELI report, write a 1000 word reflective piece including discussion of the following:
- Insight into the background to the recent ATO tax scandal of May 2017
- Review the ATO Code of Conduct and assess how such a Code could be enhanced to have prevented the recent ATO scandal of May 2017
- What were the main causes of the fraud? How could this happen? Impact? Lessons learned?
- What was/is the corporate culture at the ATO speculated to be like, according to your research of the scandal?
- Research the ATO's mission statement, core values and ethos
- How would you sensitively but insightfully discuss the recent ethical scandal at the ATO in a future job interview for this graduate position? Discuss any recent ATO issues that have been in the media?
- How your ELI lens report has assisted you in gaining more insight into your capacity to make ethical decision and how / why?
- How your ethical lens findings may assist you to enhance the corporate culture at the ATO, if you successfully gained employment with the organisation?
- Any identified weaknesses / blind spots in your ethical lens which came as a surprise to you, or that may hinder your capacity to make future ethical choices in your career, or that you need to be conscious and mindful of?
- Has your heightened ethical sensitivity made you view your future job application and roles differently? How / why?