Employability is a blend of situatedness and capability. It involves self-management and metacognitive practices to monitor and develop capabilities to enhance potential for employment acquisition, optimisation, changes and satisfaction. Employability transcends occupations and a single career and looks to the future of work.
Authors bring a range of perspectives to this discussion including those of students, new graduates, researchers, practitioners, educators, intermediaries and leaders in graduate employment. The authors bring their experience and scholarship to a range of topics that are vitally important for universities to consider, including the wider aspects of employability in a rapidly changing world, higher education and the public good, re-imagining graduate employability, employer expectations, changing ideas of graduate attributes and educational employability strategies.
An important aspect of employability is defining its relationship to practice and work futures. Identifying the goals of education is a first step in pursuing a meaningful career and achieving ongoing employability. Responsibility for developing and sustaining employability lies with a broad coalition of the individual, the university, industry, possibly alumni and is accomplished through the intended curriculum as well as co-curricular, extra-curricular and supra-curricular activities, events and learning opportunities.
Joy Higgs, Geoffrey Crisp and Will Letts