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Employability in higher education: tensions, risks and alternatives

Employability in higher education: tensions, risks and alternatives. Tristan McCowan CGHE seminar UCL Institute of Education, 15 July 2016. Historical emergence of employability. Media hype. “The skills gap: who should be taking responsibility ?” (Telegraph (UK), 23/7/15).

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Employability in higher education: tensions, risks and alternatives

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  1. Employability in higher education: tensions, risks and alternatives Tristan McCowan CGHE seminar UCL Institute of Education, 15 July 2016

  2. Historical emergence of employability

  3. Media hype “The skills gap: who should be taking responsibility?” (Telegraph (UK), 23/7/15) “South Africa's unemployment crisis cripples prospects for young graduates” (AfricaNews, 1/7/16] “Thousands of graduates working in jobs that don't require any qualifications” (Independent (UK), 1/7/16] “Skills shortage forces manufacturers to rethink human capital strategy” (Business Day, Nigeria, 27/2/14] “Uganda's unemployed graduates held back by skills gap” [Guardian, 16/1/14]

  4. Global Employability University Ranking 2013 (THE)

  5. Adoption of employability

  6. What is employability? “a set of achievements – skills, understandings and personal attributes – that makes graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy.” (Yorke 2004) N.B. Employability not employment

  7. Conceptualisations

  8. Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies, FederalUniversity of Agriculture, Abeokuta

  9. Employability is a valid aim of the university only as long as it is: • Consonant with the central purpose of the university • Ethical • Efficient • Equitable Choosing the rules, or playing within the rules? (Swift 2003)

  10. Value of higher education

  11. Consonance with the central purpose of the university The elusive essence of the university A tentative principle: “the governing purpose [of universities] involves extending human understanding through open-ended enquiry” (Collini 2012: 92)

  12. 2. Ethics a) How does the promotion of employability affect society? The overall impact of promoting employability on society is debatable, depending on one’s moral and political positioning in relation to neoliberal capitalism, i.e. as regards the acceptability of socio-economic inequalities, the value of wealth accumulation and consumption, etc. However, given the ‘rules of the game’, there are strong individual interests in developing employability - particularly an expansive rather than a narrow form. b) Does employability promote ethical action in graduates? Caveat: Company-first employability

  13. 3. Efficiency • What aspects of employability can universities promote? • Are there other institutions better placed to do so? • Are there any costs? Caveat: • Zero-sum game employability

  14. 4. Equity • Three stages of inequity • access • student experience • outcomes

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