Employability

A widely accepted definition of employability is

a set of achievements, - skills, understandings and personal attributes – that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy (HEA, 2012, PDF).

More recently, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) has developed its own framework of employability skills, while others have taken a more critical view of the limitations of a skills based approach. We welcome and facilitate dialogue regarding the conceptual development of employability, and commission a range of reports and publications which support an evidence based approach.

Our work is focused on helping institutions to develop their teaching and learning in ways which will enable graduates to meet the economic and social challenges of 21st century.

We work with practitioners and discipline communities to embed effective employability practice within the curriculum. There is a growing emphasis on the development of institutional level frameworks and, increasingly, we are working with managers and senior staff to develop strategic approaches to employability.  We also support the graduate enterprise agenda.

Sign up to our mailing list to receive information about our forthcoming employability events and resources and if you would like to share practice with staff in other institutions, please sign up to our Employability Network.

We work with experts in the field to explore key issues through short, thought provoking articles, such as these four articles relating to employability, that provide an insight into current developments in practice.  

We are supporting the sector through funding teaching development grants dedicated to the theme of employability. Projects already funded 

The Teaching and Learning Summit on Employability May 2012. (Learning for life and work: re-configuring employability for the 21st Century) was jointly coordinated by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE). It brought together people with varied experience of and expertise in educational and labour market research, graduate recruitment, and embedding and delivering employability, enterprise support and culture change across the higher education sector. Delegates included; practitioners, experts, employers, senior managers, students and policy makers. A summary of the findings and recommendations for action are available in the employability summit report which can be downloaded from here HEA-Employability-Summit-May-2012-Report

  Pedagogy for employability publication

This guide, produced by the HEA, constitutes a revised and updated version of the Pedagogy for employability publication first published in 2006. This original publication was produced under the auspices of the Higher Education Academy and the Enhancing Student Employability Co-ordination Team (ESECT), and formed part of the Learning and Employability Series, a set of publications offering guidance and information to staff in higher education institutions involved in the enhancement of student employability.

This publication is now available to download.

A workshop which gave participants the opportunity to explore the major findings - and their implications - of the recent publication of ‘Pedagogy for Employability revised edition 2012’ – and subsequent research and reports in particular Wilson Review. This was held at Birmingham City University on 12 June 2012.