A growing literature examines PhD graduates working beyond academia. These studies are critiqued for rarely addressing the sectoral and organisational structural factors that influence actual work. So, we examined how the non-academic, contextually situated, organisational job specifications of fifteen PhD graduates interacted with their daily…

Purpose: This paper introduces a new approach to embedding employability by extracting from higher education curriculum the knowledge, attributes, skills and experience that employers value. The Extracted Employability concept enables academics to surface the innate employability value of what they already teach across all curriculums, disciplines…

Skills and knowledge which increase the likelihood of university graduates finding employment is an increasingly important factor for higher education institutions. Even though subject matter expertise remains a primary objective, supporting students to build life skills that are desired by employers is essential to enhance graduate employability.…

In higher education, non-traditional students experience a range of challenges, from aspiration and access into university to academic progress and success in their degree. Most students either enter employment or further study after their degree. This paper focuses on the latter stages of the effort to widen student access and participation in…

This article proposes two models and four principles for creating taxonomies of transferable skills that reflect and enable cross-institutional partnership between academic and professional services colleagues. Such language or taxonomies provide a shared focus for all institutional stakeholders in support of students' development and future…

In recent decades the doctorate and its purposes have undergone fundamental change. The scholarly model has evolved from one of 'apprentice' to independent, supported learner and the doctoral training process has been revolutionised; many candidates now experience cohort-based, structured research. The UK's final PhD examination, however, has…

This paper draws on Bourdieusian social theory to reconceptualise graduate resilience in post-industrial societies to provide a fresh perspective on a concept that has gained increasing prominence in recent years. Through a review of sociological critiques of resilience, this paper argues that graduate resilience is a complex social phenomenon…

Purpose: The current study intends to synthesise the prior studies on employability skills among work-ready professionals in higher education through bibliometric and network visualisation tools. This study also identifies the gaps in the existing literature that still need to be filled and maps the course for future investigation.…

Declining graduate labour markets, perceived devaluing of degree qualifications, and intense focus on graduate employment metrics have increased pressure on universities to enhance their students' employability. Formal curricula developments have been accompanied by co-curricular and extra-curricular offerings intended to enhance students' career…

Since the 1990s, UK government policy has sought to increase access to higher education, with a plan to improve social mobility. However, enhancing the employability prospects for all has proven difficult to achieve through widening participation alone. This research explores this paradox, via the experiences of first-in-family undergraduates as…

Many employers bemoan a lack of communication skills relevant to the workplace in their workforce, particularly with their younger intake. This report shows that providing young people who aren't confident communicators with structured oracy and writing activities as well as real-world opportunities to practise those skills with business…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore university students' perceptions about career development in relation to their part-time working and to examine whether students maximise opportunities arising in their part-time job in order to enhance their personal profile and career aspirations. Design/methodology/approach: Semi-structured…

Food science-based graduates are a significant proportion of the United Kingdom (UK) food and drink industry's workforce. Aside from technical standards, there is no cohesive competency framework to support key stakeholders; employers, students, and degree providers. Clarity of desirable competencies for the range of graduate opportunities…

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workers need both motivation and interpersonal skills in STEM disciplines. The aims of the study were to identify clusters of adolescents who vary in math and science motivation and interpersonal skills and to explore what factors are related to membership in a high math and science motivation and…

The rapid worldwide expansion of enrolment in higher education (HE) has led to greater diversity among students, with more first-generation learners, HE returnees, and disadvantaged groups. Yet, inequalities in participation persist and have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The implementation of flexible learning pathways (FLPs) can help HE…