There is considerable international interest in transitions from school to work. This article approaches the issue as part of the debate around 'vocational maturity' ("Ausbildungsreife") in Germany and 'employability' in the United Kingdom. Vocational education and training systems in these two countries differ significantly, so the…

To offer the greatest value to society, the next government needs to deliver a single, strategic approach to research, innovation and higher education so that universities can be better in a decade than they are today. This report offers recommendations to better universities by: (1) supporting students to succeed; (2) putting universities at the…

In this qualitative study, we research what constitutes the relationships between conceptions of quality and value associated with higher education as experienced by prospective employers of business graduates. Quality and value in higher education are often linked though the relationship is unclear. Employers are an important and under-researched…

This study explores the lived experience of both in-service and pre-service apprentices studying Level 7 apprenticeship programmes. Using qualitative questionnaires, this article facilitates a thematic analysis exploring how aspects such as: rationale for enrolment; study habits; prioritisation of workload; resilience and wellbeing are experienced…

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…

It is important that software testing courses at universities provide students with testing skills that are close to the skills needed by industry. To investigate if these courses do accomplish this role, this research provides comparison and empirical analysis of the topics provided by 80 software testing courses in nine countries around the…

Policy discourse on graduate internships rests on the assumption that, paid or unpaid, they improve the employability of interns. Employing data from a survey of UK creative and mass communications graduates, surveyed two to six years after graduation, this article examines the impact of graduate internships on subsequent job prospects. While paid…

Purpose: This research presents a profile of the current skills and competencies that underpin construction management programmes' (CMP) curricula within United Kingdom (UK) higher education institutes (HEIs). In doing so, the work: synthesises disparate taught provisions across a range of HEIs; conducts a cross-comparative analysis between these…

Purpose: This study examines whether education in developing countries directly impacts their foreign income from the top export sector. Design/methodology/approach: As most developing countries follow developed nations to shape their development, this study assumes developing countries as education-follower and developed countries as…

This paper examines the extent to which Neoliberalism features in undergraduate prospectuses of UK universities, using Michel Foucault's lectures at the Collège de France, and subsequent writers on Neoliberalism, as an analytical lens. Prospectuses convey an impression of the outcomes students might gain; the specific research question is, 'To…

Purpose: The paper looks at the feasibility of university placements supporting small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) to operate in a sustainable manner. Due to size and resource constraints, many SMEs may regard sustainability more as a burden than a value-adding commercial strategy. Design/methodology/approach: A two-year study was conducted…

This paper studies the main determinants of salaries for economics students in their year-long industrial placements. Using three different sources of data on three cohorts of economics placement students, including demographic characteristics, academic performance, programme of studies and employability-related characteristics, we find that…

Purpose: Drawing on human capital theory and sustainable career theory, this paper aims to explore the impact of undertaking an industrial placement on the "Great Eight" competencies as perceived by university students and line managers. Design/methodology/approach: 618 students and their line managers across three cohorts (pre-COVID-19)…

This article shares the findings from a two-year longitudinal study of the employment experiences of entry-level workers in the UK film and TV industries, with particular reference to the value they attributed to their prior education -- or their perception of gaps in that education. Educational institutions were better at delivering…

We use sequence analysis to compare the different trajectories that individuals take through the education system and into work and identify the characteristics that could be used to target those who are at most risk of poorer labour market outcomes. As well as age 16 exam performance, we find that parental advice, aspirations, and attitudes…