This article discusses the complexities surrounding the teaching of a critical thinking and academic writing module on a vocational postgraduate programme. Students enrolled on this programme are strongly industry focused and often fail to see the relevance of such a module, despite the fact that most are international students with English as their second language. Obtaining student buy in has been challenging, and initial feedback from students and discipline lecturers was disappointing. However, this frustration was the trigger for an innovative approach that adopted assessment design as the starting point in the restructuring of the module. The approach is based on the principles underpinning Assessment for Learning. Taking varied student interests and backgrounds into account was crucial in the restructuring and has led to a marked improvement in both the attitude and engagement of students.