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The New Employability Imperative and its Impact on Professional Identities in Higher Education Careers Work

This overview explores the evolving concept of employability and its implications for Higher Education Careers Services. It discusses the changing roles and strategies employed in these services and the impact on professional identities.

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The New Employability Imperative and its Impact on Professional Identities in Higher Education Careers Work

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  1. The new employability ‘imperative’ and its impact on professional identities in Higher Education Careers Work Gill Frigerio Career Studies Unit Centre for Lifelong Learning University of Warwick

  2. Overview • Introduction – my position and perspectives • Employability – a developing imperative? • But what is employability? • What has employability meant for Higher Education Careers Services? • Professional roles in HE Careers Services • New roles • Careers advisers • Placement officers • Professionalising strategies • Discussion

  3. Employability – a developing imperative? • Evolving language: enterprise ....transferable skills....employability • ‘Employability’ performance indicators • ‘Destination’ as the dominant performance indicator: league tables and ‘key information sets’ • Work experience - proven positive impact on destination (Little et al, 2006) • Introduction of new funding regime in 2012 = Universities clarifying their ‘unique selling point’: • The (insert University name here) Advantage!

  4. But what is Employability? • Employability as employment outcome • Employability as a learning process • Employability as a set of learning outcomes (Yorke,2006) • Employability as potential to obtain and retain desired employment (employability = the individual) • Realised Employability (employability = the context) • with an explicit policy focus on the supply-side of the labour market, [it] is more likely to be associated with placing responsibility for a lack of employability on the individual” (Wilton, 2011, p4)

  5. The Individual and Employability • Students making sense of their own position in the labour market • Developing a multitude of individualised ‘narratives of employability’ • Importance of the ‘economy of experience’ • Lots of ‘sideways glance’ comparisons

  6. What has employability meant for Higher Education Careers Services? • Strengthened or weakened? • Growth of curriculum model (Foskett & Johnson, 2006) • ‘Break out’ or ‘break up’ (Watts & Butcher, 2008) • Warwick example – Centre for Student Careers and Skills: reach, type, engaging academic departments • Whither guidance? • “No institution will be able to fund significant one-to-one guidance going forward” Anne-Marie Martin, President, AGCAS

  7. Professional roles in HE Careers Services • New roles: increasing recognition for information and employer liaison staff, managers without a guidance background, employability advisers, student engagement officers, awards scheme coordinators • Careers advisers: A ‘caring’ profession? • Helper? Educator? Change agent? Interfacer? • Placement officers: from administrator to educator • Departmental? or central?

  8. Professionalising strategies • Career development learning – subject benchmark • Practitioner engagement with research • ‘Management of Student Work Experience’ qualification • Professionalising from within or from above (Evetts, 2011) • Capitalising on the imperative = professionalisation from above • Collective professional dialogue = client-centred common ground

  9. References • Evetts, J (2011) Professionalism in Turbulent Times: challenges to and opportunities for professionalism as an occupational value, NICEC Seminar, 21 March 2011 • Foskett, R. and Johnson, B. (2006), Curriculum Development and Career Decision-Making in Higher Education: Credit-Bearing Careers Education, Higher Education Careers Service Unit, Manchester, p.19 • Little B et al (2006) Employability and work-based learning York: The Higher Education Academy • Tomlinson, M. (2007), Graduate Employability and Student Attitudes and Orientations to the Labour Market’, Journal of Education and Work, Vol 20, No 4. pp. 285-304 • Watts, T and Butcher, V (2008) Break out or Break-Up? Implication of Institutional Employability Strategies on the Role and Structure of University Careers Services, Cambridge, NICEC/ Manchester, HECSU • Wilton, N (2011) The Shifting Sands of Employability in CESR Review, Jan 2011 pp 2-5 • Yorke, M (2006) Employability in higher education: what it is – and what it is not, York: The Higher Education Academy

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