Graduate employability and student attitudes and orientations to the labour market

Abstract

This article examines the way students, making the transition from higher education into the labour market, construct, understand and begin to manage their employability. It draws upon a qualitative study of 53 final‐year undergraduates in a pre‐1992 university in the UK. It firstly explores students’ perceptions of the current labour market for graduates and how they understand future career progression. It examines their different orientations and attitudes to work and careers through the development of an ideal‐type model. It then considers how these orientations influence the way students approach future work and careers and manage their employability, and further discusses some of the implications this has for current policies around higher education and the labour market in the UK context.

Keywords:

• Higher education
• Employability
• Human capital
• Identities
• Individualisation