‘But we are already doing so much!’ – The importance of surfacing employability initiatives in undergraduate programmes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56433/cm77kw56Keywords:
Non-vocational programmes; appreciative inquiry; employability surfacing; skills & competencies matrix; graduate identityAbstract
Findings from an employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship (EEE) audit including 12 non-vocational undergraduate programmes in a Scottish university suggests that there is no direct link between the number of EEE initiatives that are embedded in a progarmme, and a programme’s NSS employability score (Q9). The results suggest that using reflection to surface skills and competencies students gain on their degree progarmme can compensate for a lack of EEE initiatives in programmes. This suggests that rather than focusing on applying a deficit model, i.e. identifying potential gaps in EEE provisions and getting programme teams to do more, an appreciative inquiry (Mishra and Bhatnagar, 2012) stance should be taken which focuses on surfacing existing employability initiatives to help build a coherent narrative around ‘what employability looks like’ for both students and programme teams. This is in line with Schonell and Macklin’s (2019) suggestion that programme teams should reflect on the strengths of the existing offer and consider ways to enhance the design and delivery.
References
Bolton-King, R. S. (2022). Student mentoring to enhance graduates’ employability potential. Science & Justice, 62, 785–794. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2022.04.010
Breeze, N., Barber, L., Chapman, V., Beaman-Evans, C. & Beeching, K. (2016). Employability and the UseMyAbility Online Tool: Raising Sports Students’ Awareness to Inform the Development of Their Skills and Attributes. Journal of Curriculum and Teaching, 5(1), 2016, pp. 62-77. http://dx.doi.org/10.5430/jct.v5n1p62
Brooks, R. & Youngson, P. L. (2016). Undergraduate work placements: an analysis of the effects on career progression. Studies in Higher Education, 41(9), 1563-1578, https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2014.988702
Mishra, P. & Bhatnagar, J. (2012). Appreciative Inquiry: Models & Applications. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 47(3), 543–558. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23267343
Schonell, S. & Macklin, R. (2019). Work integrated learning initiatives: live case studies as a mainstream WIL assessment. Studies in Higher Education, 44(7), 1197–1208. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2018.1425986
Tomasson Goodwin, J., Goh, J., Verkoeyen, S. & Lithgow, K. (2019). Can students be taught to articulate employability skills?. Education + Training, 61(4), 445-460. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-08-2018-0186
Tomlinson, M., McCafferty, H., Fuge, H. & Wood,K. (2017). Resources and Readiness: The graduate capital perspective as a new approach to employability. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling. 38, 28-35. https://doi.org/10.20856/jnicec.3805
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Susanne Schulz
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice has made best effort to ensure accuracy of the contents of this journal, however makes no claims to the authenticity and completeness of the articles published. Authors are responsible for ensuring copyright clearance for any images, tables etc which are supplied from an outside source.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
