Employability Learning is defined as, ‘a set of achievements – skills, understandings and personal attributes – that makes graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy’ (Kempster, online, n.d.).
Employability learning
- Where in my programme can I meet, hear from and network with prospective employers, alumni and stakeholders?
- Where in the programme am I enabled to recognise the parallels between my academic experience and my employability?
- In what ways is my experience of the programme reflective of a diverse range of career role models, promoting awareness of equality of rights and opportunities within the workplace?
- How far are the assessments I’ll undertake reflective of authentic tasks I’ll carry out in the workplace?
- What opportunities are there for me to build confidence and strategies to develop my networks of career contacts, including employers, alumni and other stakeholders, and to present myself in person and online?
- How does the teaching team support me to take ownership of the latest graduate competencies and Brookes attributes to inform my career development? This question has been changed from original question on the website
- What is the scope for undertaking placements, internships and local, regional and global mobility on my programme?
- Do the expectations set for me from the beginning of my programme match the professional expectations for behaviour, self-management and etiquette expected of a graduate?
Embedding opportunities to gain the skills referred to above is crucial for the student journey. Moreover, this is also important because fee paying students expect to be equipped with the employability skills, resilience and confidence to improve their long-term career prospects. How universities approach this may impact how candidates choose their courses.
References
- De Cuyper, N., Mauno, S., Kinnunen, U. and Mäkikangas, A. (2011). The role of job resources in the relation between perceived employability and turnover intention: A prospective two-sample study. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 78, pp. 253-263. doi: 10.1016J.JVB.2010.09.008
- Dacre Pool, L., & Sewell, P. (2007) ‘The key to employability: developing a practical model of graduate employability’, Education + Training, 49 (4), pp. 277-289. Doi: 10.1108/00400910710754435
- Dacre-Pool, L. Revisiting the CareerEDGE model of graduate employability. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 44 (1). pp. 51-56.
- Yorke, M. (2004). Employability in higher education: what it is – what it is not. Learning and Employability Series One. ESECT and The Higher Education Academy,
- Quinlan, K.M., Renninger, K.A.(2022) Rethinking employability: how students build on interest in a subject to plan a career. Higher Education 84, pp. 863–883, doi:10.1007/s10734-021-00804-6
- Money, J., Nixon, S., Tracy, F., Hennessy, C., Bal, E. and Dining, T. (2017) Undergraduate student expectations of university in the United Kingdom: What really matters to them?, Cogent Education, 4:1, doi:10.1080/2331186X.2017.1301855
- Small, L., Shacklock, K., amd Marchant, T. (2018). Employability: A Contemporary Review for HigherEducation Stakeholders. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 70(1), pp. 148-166. doi:10.1080/13636820.2017.1394355
- Shury, J., Vivian, D., Turner, C. and Downing, C. (2017). Planning for success: Graduates’ career planning and its effect on graduate outcomes. London, UK: Department for Education.
OCAED thanks the Oxford Brookes Careers Service team for the content on this page.