Employability has become a key metric for higher education institutions (HEIs) in the 21st century. For example, the Office for Students (OfS), the regulator of higher education provision in England, sets key student outcomes data in terms of measures of continuation, completion and progression as a condition required to operate as an HEI (condition B3; OfS, 2022).

With employability now featuring prominently in sector discussions, questions have grown around how to develop employability initiatives within HEI provision in a way that benefits all learners and/or learners from already marginalised and disadvantaged backgrounds. In this blog piece we first discuss how employability could or should be approached by educators in higher education. We then present three brief illustrations designed to prompt critical reflection on how, as educators, we can address social justice and employability agendas in tandem to work towards all learners benefitting from efforts to better embed employability in inventive, innovative, authentic but also inclusive ways.

Embedding employability: a sector-wide mission

A broad and vibrant community of practice has begun to emerge around the sector-wide goal of enhancing employability skills. Key approaches thus far have included the embedding of relevant transferable skills training in curricula, providing wider student experiences that build employability and also drawing on relevant stakeholder voices, in particular those from industry, to shape the curriculum and wider student experience. Internships and placements also have a key role to play in enhancing employment outcomes, although evidence points to disparity in access and unique challenges faced by socially disadvantaged students while undertaking such experiences (TASO, 2022).

The traditional approach to incorporating employability within HEI provision tends to focus on delivering a learning experience which will (among other things) cultivate graduate attributes that equip learners to secure highly skilled employment (that is, graduate jobs) following their degree studies. Academics vary in their feelings about embedding employability in the curriculum, but strong voices against having a meaningful, sustained focus within courses on the transition from degree studies into the world of work come from increasingly few corners of the sector.

Many critical voices in different settings and with different starting points have challenged this model. For example, it has been argued that social position is the strongest predictor of employability, and that prior educational experience, including having attended an elite university and having been privately educated, are key determinants of ultimate employability and labour market success. It has also been argued that universities need to engage, meaningfully and consistently, with a critical analysis of the labour market to consider how social identifiers, including class, race and gender, influence career pathways and graduate successes (Hooley, 2022).

Acknowledging and addressing unfair graduate outcomes

One difficulty with this traditional approach to employability – based on the idea that cultivating learner attributes can translate into successful transition into graduate-level work – is its meritocratic and decontextualised starting points. In 2022, B3 conditions were issued by OfS that set the numerical thresholds covering student outcomes for the higher education sector in England. The condition B3 regulatory framework states: ‘The provider must deliver successful outcomes for all of its students, which are recognised and valued by employers, and/or enable further study.’

In practice, successful outcomes referred to by the sector as ‘positive student outcomes’ are framed as ‘good degrees’ (that is, degree awards classified as 2:1 or 1:1) and ‘positive graduate outcomes’ (that is, accessing highly skilled work, which is categorised as achieving employment in Standard Occupational Classification 1-3 on graduation). Successful outcomes are not equally distributed across different student groups. More significantly, it is marginalised and minoritised students, those who are ‘socially disadvantaged’, who consistently year on year achieve successful outcomes at lower rates than socially normative groups.

For example, the current data point to an eight per cent gap between the proportion of White graduates and Black or African or Caribbean or Black British graduates in full-time highly skilled work following their degree studies (UK Government, 2023). These gaps become striking in the complexion of the broader workforce, particularly in terms of diversity within senior leadership positions. For example, Green Park survey data show that, across FTSE 350 companies, three-quarters of ‘top 3’ roles and half of ‘top 20’ roles are occupied by White men and that none of the ‘top 3’ roles in any FTSE 100 or FTSE 250 companies are held by Black people (Green Park, 2024).

Access to higher education, and thus graduate roles and employment gaps, are known to be far more complex than being determined by a single variable. Prior educational experience, level three qualifications and socioeconomic status are key contributors to decisions around university applications, acceptance at prestigious institutions, successful completion and ultimately graduate-level employment. These factors are likely perpetuated by protected characteristics and plausibly by the economic impact of the pandemic.

As educators, we have been concerned with how to address these injustices in our own work as practitioners and researchers. One of the approaches taken at the University of Salford by Sara Namvar is to work collaboratively with students on projects that build transferable employability skills that enhance CVs. An example of this is the Bioscientist magazine, which attracts contributions from a diverse student body and encourages them to take up roles as editors, writers and graphic designers.

At Manchester Metropolitan University, the STRIVE 100 programme has been developed as an institutional intervention to support the student success of at least 100 ‘socially disadvantaged’ students. The programme is underpinned by the work-readiness framework (Ugiagbe-Green & Southall, 2020) and develops cultural, human, economic, social, identity and employment capital of students. The STRIVE 100 programme develops students’ understanding and capability to navigate social structures and access opportunities to develop their life-wide and lifelong skills.  Students build confidence and understanding of the basis of perceptions around the likelihood of their future successful accomplishment in different work contexts.  Through the programme, students develop agency in their decision-making of how and what they choose to do to meet potential employers’ expectations.

At London Metropolitan University, Dom Conroy has co-led a project – Talking Careers – designed to understand experiences among learners of colour at all study levels and across disciplines of developing career pathways in domains of graduate work that often remain very White in terms of workforce composition and leadership. Central to the project’s focus has been understanding how careers and employability provision in HEIs can work to support learners of colour throughout their degree studies to pursue graduate-level employment successfully.

These are just three examples of the varied approaches that universities can take to improve social justice while also taking important steps towards closing employment gaps. We hope that this blog piece has stimulated colleagues to explore possibilities for embedding employability in a socially just way within higher education or other educational sectors.

References

Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education [TASO]. (2022). What works to reduce equality gaps in employment and employability? https://epi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TASO_Main-Report_What-works-to-reduce-equality-gaps-in-employment-and-employability.pdf

Green Park. (2024). Business Leaders Index 2024 – FTSE 350. https://www.green-park.co.uk/business-leaders-index-2024/207/

Hooley, T. (2022). ‘Critical employability’ – a sociological exploration to move beyond the metric. https://careerguidancesocialjustice.wordpress.com/2024/03/20/doing-the-work-of-social-justice-in-college-and-university-career-services/

Office for Students [OfS]. (2022). How we regulate quality and standards. https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/quality-and-standards/how-we-regulate-quality-and-standards/

Ugiagbe-Green, I., & Southall, W. (2020). Whose job is it anyway? Inclusive approaches to developing students’ work readiness. Advance HE Employability symposium.

UK Government. (2023). Graduate labour market statistics 2022. https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/graduate-labour-markets