A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

100 ❘
Teaching, supervising, learning
raise awareness include league tables where employability is an indicator. Placing
students effectively in the graduate workforce can be as important an outcome for an
institution as the number of upper-second-class and first-class degrees.
The main emphasis of this chapter is on ways in which all staff can contribute in all
modules to raise the profile of employability skills and attributes that will be inclusive of
all students. It comments on issues regarding where this learning occurs, including that
in specialist ‘careers’ modules. The case study material is all provided by the author.
Interrogating practice
Understanding what prompts student engagement with employability
• What motivated you and your colleagues to use a careers service as a
student? What does the campus careers service offer to staff and students?
• What motivates students to go to careers service events?
• What is available on the careers website? How is it linked to departmental
websites?
THE CONCEPT OF EMPLOYABILITY
Employability is a term that has multiple definitions. For some people employability is
about skills, for others it is an activity which prepares individuals for long-term
employment. The two roles were brought together in the definition of employability,
adopted by ESECT, the Enhancing Student Employability Coordination Team, as ‘A set
of achievements – skills, understandings and personal attributes that make graduates
more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations’ (Knight
and Yorke, 2003: 5).
Knight and Yorke (2004: 25) identify seven employability definitions with numbers 5
to 7 having the ‘greatest appeal to us’:
1 Getting a (graduate) job.
2 Possession of a vocational degree.
3 Possession of ‘key skills’ or suchlike.
4 Formal work experience.
5 Good use of non-formal work experience and/or voluntary work.
6 Skilful current career planning and interview technique.
7 A mix of cognitive and non-cognitive achievements and representations.
Stephenson (1998: 10) links employability to capability. In his words, ‘Capable people
have confidence in their ability to’: