Seven question

1. Seven question Miriam Zukas Lifelong Learning Institute University of Leeds

2. The theorisation of employability • The relationship of discipline to employment areas • Theories of skill? • Theories of learning? • Assumptions of transfer • Relations between fields (education, employment) and habitus (including social, cultural, economic capital) • Institutional/employment rigging and ranking

3. Theorisation of employability Brown, Hesketh and Williams (2003) duality of employability: absolute employability – do students have appropriate skills, knowledge and commitment to do the job in question? relative employability – depends on supply and demand; eg 300,000 graduates for fewer than 15,000 elite jobs in 2001. Employability=relative chances of acquiring and maintaining different kinds of employment

4. The relationship of discipline to employment areas Clegg and Bradley (2006) PDPs and ideal types: employment (sport and leisure management, business studies) professional (health and education) academic (humanities, social sciences, parts of engineering) Complex relationship too with pedagogic identities (Malcolm and Zukas, 2006)

5. Theories of skill? Len Holmes (2001) Graduate identity rather than employability? Link to performance and identity, rather than skill. Knight and Yorke (2003) Forget ad hoc initiatives (placements, PDPs, enterprise modules) and skill USEM instead (understanding, skills, efficacy beliefs, metacognition) Employability as process rather than goal

6. Theories of learning? Assumes learning as acquisition of something (skill, employability) If learning is participation (Sfard 1998), then employability emerges from legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991) – ie apprenticeship

7. Assumptions of transfer Tennant (1999) – three traditions: Psychological tradition – transfer as tightly controlled and focused Expertise tradition – domain-specific knowledge in expert performance Situated learning perspectives – learning as ‘integral and inseparable aspect of social practice’ (Lave and Wenger 1991, p 31) Reflection on action misconstrued – ‘the purpose is not to learn from talk as a substitute for legitimate peripheral participation; it is to learnt to talk as a key to legitimate peripheral participation’. (Lave and Wenger 1991, p 108-9)

8. Relations between fields (education, employment) and habitus (including social, cultural, economic capital) Bourdieu Hodkinson and Hodkinson Colley and Hodkinson Bowman

9. Institutional/employment rigging and ranking Brown, Hesketh and Williams (2003) consensus theory; conflict theory; positional conflict theory: institutional rigging and ranking

10. References Bowman H (2005) ‘It’s a year and then that’s me: masters students’ decision-making’ Journal of Further and Higher Education 29(3) 233-249 Brown, P Hesketh A and S Williams (2003) ‘Employability in a knowledge-driven economy’, Jnl of Education and Work, 16(2) 107-126 Clegg, S and S Bradley (2006) ‘Models of personal development planning: practices and processes’, British Educational Research Journal 32(1) 57-76 Hodkinson, P et al (2005) http://www.tlrp.org/pub/documents/HodkinsonRBFinal.pdf Holmes, L (2001) ‘Reconsidering graduate employability: the ‘graduate identity’ approach’ Quality in Higher Education 7 (2) 111-119 Knight, P T and M Yorke (2003) ‘Employability and good learning in higher education’, Teaching in Higher Education, 8 (1) 2003 3-15 Lave, J and E Wenger (1991) Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press. Malcolm, J and M Zukas (2006) ‘Pedagogic learning in the pedagogic workplace’ in R Edwards (ed) Learning outside the academy: international perspectives. Routledge Sfard, A (1998) ‘On two metaphors for learning and the dangers for just choosing one’ Educational Researcher 27(2) 4-13 Tennant, M (1999) ‘Is transfer of learning possible?’ In D. Boud and J. Garrick (Eds) Understanding workplace learning. Routledge 165-179.