Include peer review and/or assessment as part of the overall process
Typically in higher education assessment feedback is solely produced by the teaching staff. In employment, however, much of the review process comes in the form of informal peer feedback, and from the clients that work has been done for. Including this type of peer review and/or peer assessment formally within an assessment helps students to develop their critical thinking skills.
Move to a more distributed pattern of assessment; consider introducing 'surprise' points
Assessments are often delivered in the form of one summative assessment, e.g. an exam, at the end of learning. In employment however, 'assessment' points tend to occur frequently. In addition, timing is often out of individual control, and consequently it can be necessary to juggle competing tasks at short notice. Using multiple assessment points helps to develop reflective thinking, whilst 'surprise' points support task prioritisation.
Aim to set audiences explicitly for each assessment point
In higher education the audience for an assessment is implicitly the academic that sets it. This contrasts with employment, where the audience can be peers, but is more often the client. Having to focus on different audiences for an assessment provokes greater reflective thinking over content, and requires new types of synthesis.
Lightly structure the overall assessment; reward student approaches
Current thinking on assessment advises that assessments should be well structured, with explicit guidance to students concerning how and where marks are attained. However in employment part of the challenge for the individual and/or team is to identify the relevant priorities of tasks that are necessary to achieve an overall goal, and to derive the processes necessary to complete them. Using a light structure approach encourages students to derive these shorter term tasks and goals in order to solve a bigger problem.
Set an overall real world problem, supported by real world data
Purely academic learning might require a theoretical problem in order to test a theoretical understanding. In employment though problems tend to be very real. Additionally the data that you need to work with in employment rarely come in coherent, standard forms. It is usually in 'messier' formats that need to be interpreted to be of use.
Create teams of students from the outset
Many forms of assessment require working alone, yet employment tasks invariably require some form of collaboration, and often with unknown individuals. Encouraging students to work with in teams with peers helps build their collaborative skills, and develops their understanding of team roles and role flexibility.