Graduate Employability in Context

Graduate Employability in Context

Michael Tomlinson Leonard Holmes Editors Graduate Employability in Context Theory, Research and Debate

Editors Michael Tomlinson Southampton Education School University of Southampton Southampton, United Kingdom Leonard Holmes Susanna Wesley Foundation, Southlands College, University of Roehampton London, United Kingdom ISBN 978-1-137-57167-0 ISBN 978-1-137-57168-7 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-57168-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016955547 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This book was advertised with a copyright holder in the name of the publisher in error, whereas the author holds the copyright. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover image D. Hurst / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd. London The registered company address is: The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom

CONTENTS 1 Introduction: Graduate Employability in Context: Charting a Complex, Contested and Multi-Faceted Policy and Research Field 1 Michael Tomlinson 2 Graduate Employability: A Critical Oversight 41 Andrew Rothwell and Frances Rothwell 3 Employability, Employment and the Establishment of Higher Education Graduates in the Labour Market 65 Staffan Nilsson 4 Critical Perspectives on Graduate Employability 87 Ciaran Burke, Tracy Scurry, John Blenkinsopp, and Katy Graley 5 Developing a More Coherent and Robust Basis for Employability Research: A Critical Realist Perspective 109 Paul Cashian 6 Boundaryless and Protean Career Orientation: A Multitude of Pathways to Graduate Employability 129 William Donald, Yehuda Baruch, and Melanie Ashleigh v

vi CONTENTS 7 Employability and Depth Psychology 151 Phil McCash 8 Graduate s Learning Across Educational and Professional Settings: Outlining an Approach 171 Mariana Gaio Alves 9 International Students Employability: What Can We Learn from It? 195 Zhen Li 10 Cultivating the Art of Judgement in Students 213 Geoffrey Hinchliffe and Helen Walkington 11 Who Is to Be Positioned as Employable? Adult Graduates Educational and Working Life Pathways 237 Päivi Siivonen 12 Graduate Employability as Social Suitability: Professional Competence from a Practice Theory Perspective 255 Ola Lindberg and Oscar Rantatalo 13 Encouraging Students to Develop Their Employability: Locally Rational, but Morally Questionable? 273 Paul Greenbank 14 Graduates Psycho-Social Career Preoccupations and Employability Capacities in the Work Context 295 Melinde Coetzee 15 Developing Graduate Employability: The CareerEDGE Model and the Importance of Emotional Intelligence 317 Lorraine Dacre Pool

CONTENTS vii 16 The University and the Knowledge Network: A New Educational Model for Twenty-first Century Learning and Employability 339 Ruth Bridgstock 17 Graduate Employability: Future Directions and Debate 359 Leonard Holmes Index 371

NOTES ON THE CONTRIBUTORS Mariana Gaio Alves is an Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Social Sciences at the New University of Lisbon. Melanie Ashleigh is an Associate Professor in Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management at the Business School, University of Southampton, United Kingdom. Yehuda Baruch is a Professor of Management and Research Director at the Business School, University of Southampton, United Kingdom. John Blenkinsopp is a Professor of Management, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom Ruth Bridgstock is a Senior Lecturer at the Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Ciaran Burke is a Lecturer in Sociology at the School of Sociology and Applied Social Studies at Ulster University, United Kingdom. Paul Cashian is an Associate Dean (Student Experience) in the Faculty of Business and Law, Coventry University, United Kingdom. Melinde Coetzee is a Professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology at the Department of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, University of South Africa, South Africa. Lorraine Dacre Pool is a Senior Lecturer in Employability at the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom. ix

x NOTES ON THE CONTRIBUTORS William Donald is a PhD student at the Business School, University of Southampton, United Kingdom. Katy Graley is a Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at the Business School, University of Hull, United Kingdom. Paul Greenbank is formerly Reader in Educational Development at the Centre for Teaching and Learning at Edge Hill University, United Kingdom. Geoffrey Hinchliffe is a Director of Academic Practice at the Centre for Staff and Educational Development at the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom. Leonard Holmes is an Associate of the Susanna Wesley Foundation, Southlands College, University of Roehampton, United Kingdom. Zhen Li is an independent researcher based in China. She has previously worked as a Lecturer at the University of Nottingham and University of Southampton, United Kingdom. Ola Lindberg is a Senior Lecturer at the Department for Education, Umeå University, Sweden. Staffan Nilsson is a Senior Researcher as the Swedish Higher Education Authority, Sweden. Phil McCash is a Principal Teaching Fellow and course director for the MA in Careers Education, Information and Guidance in HE at the Centre for Lifelong Learning, Warwick University, United Kingdom. Oscar Rantatalo is a Senior Lecturer at the Police Education Unit, Umeå University, Sweden. Andrew Rothwell is a Lecturer in Human Resource Management at School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University, United Kingdom. Frances Rothwell is a Senior Lecturer in Business at the College of Arts and Science, School of Education, University of Nottingham Trent, United Kingdom. Tracy Scurry is a Senior Lecturer at the Newcastle Business School, University of Newcastle, United Kingdom.

NOTES ON THE CONTRIBUTORS xi Päivi Siivonen is a University Researcher in the School of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Eastern Finland, Finland. Michael Tomlinson is an Associate Professor at the Southampton Education School, University of Southampton, United Kingdom. Helen Walkington is a Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom.

LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 3.1 Proportion of women and men aged 25 64 with at least two years of tertiary education in 2000 and 2013 (UKÄ 2015 ) 67 Fig. 3.2 Employment rates of 25 64 year olds in the OECD countries in order of employment rates of those with tertiary education (OECD 2015 ) 78 Fig. 5.1 The social structure of employability 117 Fig. 12.1 Employability as a function between performance and social orientation 265 Fig. 13.1 Values influencing student approaches to employability 278 Fig. 14.1 Conceptual framework for exploring the association between employability capacities and psycho-social career preoccupations 302 Fig. 14.2 Pattern of core-significant associations between employability capacities and psycho-social career preoccupations 308 Fig. 15.1 The CareerEDGE model of graduate employability (see Dacre Pool and Sewell ( 2007 ), p. 280) 319 xiii

LIST OF TABLES Table 5.1 Elements within the employability social structure 117 Table 7.1 Accounts of employability behaviour 157 Table 7.2 Success formulas for employability 159 Table 7.3 Typological approaches to employability 162 Table 7.4 Employability metaphors 164 Table 11.1 A summary of the educational and working-life pathways of the interviewees 242 Table 12.1 Qualities identified in the material 264 Table 13.1 Interventions over the three years of an undergraduate degree programme 280 Table 14.1 Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations 306 Table 14.2 Results of the standardised canonical correlation analysis for the first canonical function 307 xv