How to Enable the Employability of University Graduates

Edited by Saskia Loer Hansen, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International and Engagement) and Vice-President, RMIT University, Australia and Kathy Daniels, Honorary Professor, Aston University, UK

Contents:

Foreword xvii
Preface xix
List of abbreviations xxiii

PART I INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT
1 Why employability matters 2
Saskia Loer Hansen and Kathy Daniels
2 Whose job is it to make a graduate employable? 13
Martin Edmondson
3 Employability: the student voice 24
Omolabake Fakunle and Yuchen Xiao

PART II WHAT EMPLOYERS WANT FROM GRADUATES
4 Creating a new university to meet the employability challenge 36
Ross Renton and Fiona McGonigle
5 Developing employability skills through working in a law clinic 47
Kaye Howells and Sue Jennings
6 Problems delivering the skills employers want? Creativity
– a case in point 56
Elaine Clarke
7 Mind the gap: employers’ and students’ perceptions of
skills and knowledge needed by accounting graduates in Greece 67
Efimia Anastasiou, Siobhan Neary and Alison Lawson

PART III EMPLOYABILITY AND THE CURRICULUM
8 Employer input to curriculum and assessment 79
Gillian O’Brien and Darren Siggers
9 Real work opportunities in the curriculum: three different
approaches 89
Charles Hancock, Tracy Powell, John Day and Alison Lawson
10 Using a professional skills module to develop student confidence 100
Parminder Johal and Ruth Smith
11 Developing an ecosystem: employability skills and
authentic assessments 109
Sarah Montano

PART IV INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO CAREER GUIDANCE
12 Using career pathways to tailor and personalise
employability activities 118
Rebekah Marangon
13 The Career Studio: peer-to-peer support 127
Emma Moore and Paul Gratrick
14 Supporting employment outcomes for students from Asia 136
Louise Nicol

PART V PRACTICAL EXAMPLES OF
EMPLOYABILITY ACTIVITIES
15 Using social action to support skill development 149
Fiona Walsh
16 The Big Challenge: interdisciplinary development of
employability skills 159
Valerie Derbyshire, Laurice Fretwell and Caroline Harvey
17 Modifying the journey to graduate employment through
changes to work-based learning 168
Catherine O’Connor

PART VI ENTERPRISE/ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITIES
18 ‘One for all and all for one’: the 3Es (employability,
enterprise, and entrepreneurship) 179
Emily Beaumont
19 BSEEN: extra-curricular enterprise and entrepreneurship support 188
Carolyn Keenan

PART VII WIDENING PARTICIPATION
20 Employability monsters: breaking barriers to
employability for widening participation students 198
Dawn Lees and Kate Foster
21 Supporting ‘first in family’ students: My Generation
Career Coaching Programme 207
Heather Pasero
22 Unlocking the potential of under-represented students 215
Iwan Williams and Pamela McGee
23 Social mobility and London’s left-behind graduates 224
Emily Dixon

PART VIII INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
24 Using the net promoter score to understand international
alumni satisfaction 234
Shane Dillon
25 Meeting the employability expectations of international
students in transition to higher education in the UK 244
Victoria Wilson-Crane and Linda Cowan
26 How partnerships can make a difference to securing jobs
for international students 253
Jacklyn Tubb and Caroline Fox

PART IX INSIGHTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
27 How England’s policy and regulatory levers have shifted
accountability for graduate employment 263
Lizzy Woodfield
28 Approaches to developing graduate employability in Australia 273
Judie Kay and Sonia Ferns
29 Enabling employability in New Zealand 284
Brett Berquist
30 Lessons from Germany 295
Patrick Glauner
31 European University initiative in enabling student success 304
Renáta Tomášková, Ida Andersson-Norrie, Bice Della
Piana, Anna Chudy, Melpo Iacovidou and Colombine Madelaine

PART X INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSE
32 Global Professional Award: a three-year skills
development programme 314
James Forde
33 An integrated institutional approach to employability 323
Dino Willox, Anna Richards and Madelaine-Marie Judd
34 A strategic institutional approach to employability 333
Susan Smith and Emily Huns
35 Student experience(s) and an integrated pastoral approach
to employability 342
Matthew Vince and Thea Jones

PART XI A FINAL REFLECTION
36 Reflections on 20 years of research on employability and
its effect on policy and practice 351
Helen Higson

Index