Graduates’ experiences of, and attitudes towards, the inclusion of employability-related support in undergraduate degree programmes; trends and variations by subject discipline and gender

Abstract

Enhancing graduate employability is a priority for many stakeholders in higher education and this research explores graduates’ experiences of, and attitudes towards, the inclusion of employability-related support in undergraduate degree programmes. A literature review is supplemented by primary research on a targeted sample of 104 graduates from humanities, sciences, engineering and social sciences, who span several generations and have over 2250 years of employment experience. The findings are triangulated to a workshop with 23 graduate careers advisory professionals. The results signal some important trends in experiences and attitudes, as well as variations by discipline and gender. While one in 10 graduates prefer a disciplinary focus with just indirect attention to employability, nine in 10 want employability to have greater emphasis, albeit those preferences vary between optional and integrated approaches. Experiences of employability-related support signal a significant shift over recent decades in how that support is provided, with professional service groups such as careers taking a much more active role and the overall level of provision rising. A cautionary note however is that the link with the discipline remains critical and the right balance needs to be struck between the provision of such support and embedding it into the curriculum.

Keywords:

• Employability
• attitudes
• degree
• discipline
• gender

Acknowledgement

The author thanks the survey respondents and workshop delegates for their valuable contributions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.