Graduate Employability and The Complex Nature of Skills and the need to value Lifelong Learning and Training

Graduate Employability and The Complex Nature of Skills and the need to value Lifelong Learning and Training

Graduate employability (Winter 08/09)
· Graduate Employability
· Summary
· Introduction
· The history of the skills agenda
· Definitions of employability - the complexity
· DIUS: Higher education at work
· Learning as a continuous process
Graduate Employability
The Complex Nature of “Skills” and the need to value lifelong learning and training

Summary
In this article, HECSU researcher, Kathrine Jensen, looks at the recently published consultation document regarding the high level skills strategy from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) in the light of the employability agenda. A brief look at the history of the skills agenda and the issue of employability reveals the difficulty of defining the concepts. The idea of employability as simply a matter of producing lists of required skills which can be matched with employers’ needs is criticised. Instead, the complexity of skills and employability is underlined and the view that employability is a continuous process much connected to the idea of life long learning is argued for.

Introduction
In April 2008, the high level skills strategy, Higher Education at Work – High Skills: High Value was published. The purpose of the consultation was to consult employers, learners and higher education providers on what more was needed to equip the workforce with the skills required for an innovative and competitive economy. Now, in October 2008, the consultation has finished and a full report has been published.

The history of the skills agenda
Before we take a closer look at the high level skills strategy, it is worth just revisiting the history of the skills agenda as the notion of skills underpins the discussions about employability. In the report Employability in Higher Education: What it is and what it is not (2006)1, Mantz Yorke outlines the way the public emphasis of skills in higher education started and the way the terminology has changed. From the late 1980s where the term 'core skills' was favoured to the term 'key skills' coming into use with the Dearing Report in the 1990s (NCIHE, 1997)2. The idea of 'transferable skills' and 'generic skills' came to the forefront also in the 1980s. However, Yorke points out that what exactly 'skills' entailed was (and some argue still is) not at all clear or supported by enough evidence or been demonstrated by proven models:
The Dearing approach to key skills is symptomatic of a widespread failure to underpin key skills with theory. Various lists of skills appear in the literature relating to employment, but they seem to have been produced on an ad hoc basis 3
This is important to keep in mind as we move on to discussing employability as everyone can agree that employability is essential but achieving consensus on what it is and how to achieve it is a far more complex matter.
Yorke emphasises that graduate employability is something that governments around the world are imposing on national higher education systems and he argues that the “…interest in employability reflects an acceptance of human capital theory… Under human capital theory, the task of government is to foster conditions that encourage growth in the stock of human capital, since this is seen as vital to the performance of knowledge-based economies in a globalised society”4. This view emphasizes the connection between the higher education system and the economy.

Definitions of employability - the complexity
In a literature review on graduate employability from 2002, Dr Dawn Lees describes employability as a “multi dimensional concept”5 which encompasses much more than simply “key skills”. She also underlines the importance of distinguishing between employment and employability. Actually getting a job is different from having the “potential” to obtain a graduate job. A useful definition that takes into account many of the dimensions is suggested by Yorke:
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 economy6
Similarly Lee Harvey argues against a simplistic “magic bullet” model of employability and emphasizes that a number of other factors that could be considered relevant are personal characteristics, age, gender, external economic factors etc7. He presents two models to illustrate the difference in the two ways of thinking:
Figure 1: “Magic bullet” model of employability
Figure 2: A model of graduate employability development
The second more complex model is based on viewing employability as a process and as part of a lifelong learning journey. It is also important to note that the second figure incorporates the concepts of engagement, pedagogy, reflection and articulation which are processes that are ongoing.

DIUS: Higher education at work
The DIUS consultation document from April focuses on the term 'high level skills' defined as the skills associated with higher education. Again high level skills are linked to helping a sustainable knowledge economy. In the consultation report, high skills training is seen as bringing potential increase in productivity or profit. On the subject of skills, the consultation document says that:
Employers particularly value broad ‘employability’ skills, such as communication, motivation, independence, analysis, confidence and problem solving. This is one of the strongest messages from employers to government8
And in the October consultation report, the report again states that employers require 'broad-based employability skills'9.
From the consultation report one key theme appears throughout:
Higher education institutions and employers have different cultures and norms and there is a need for them to work in partnerships in order to develop a better, more mature, relationship with each other.
The report is very much a call for the various stakeholders to find ways to work together to mutual benefits. There are many different suggestions in the report with regards to which role different organizations should take on, for instance should Sector Skills Councils represent employers etc…However, much emphasis is placed on HE institutions to change, to prioritise employer engagement, reinventing course design and deliver flexible provision. The report does also underline that employers must take responsibility for investment in training.
Although the report raises a number of practical suggestions and has many good ideas, there still seems to be an underlying view of skills as simply “objects” that can be acquired and a lack of understanding of the complex process that is actually involved. The other underlying assumption has been described earlier as the view that Higher Education is connected to the economy which means the role of HE is to produce “employable” graduates. A business view of the role of HE to meet skills needs is one that some contributors to the consultation disagreed with.

Learning as a continuous process
An alternative way of viewing skills and employability as a continuous process of learning comes from a research project commissioned by the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU). The qualitative project was carried out by Helen Bowman, Phil Hodkinson and Helen Colley and is entitled Employability and Career Progression for Fulltime UK Masters Students (2005)10.
The research project sampled four students from each of six different Masters courses in two universities and conducted four rounds of semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted at the beginning and end of the Masters course, 6 months after they left and 18 months after they left.
The research was examining “transitions into employment” and the findings lead the authors to argue for the need to see this as a “a continuous process of change, which began long before the Masters course, and will continue well after our research was completed. Throughout this process, the young people were learning about themselves and their place in the world. They actively constructed their own sense of student and employment identity, and their own employability. In this transitioning work, students went through phases of greater or lesser pro-activity”11.
On employability, the research concludes that:
If students were learning to become employed and employable during their courses, much of the significant learning took place after they had left. None of these young people were ‘oven ready’ for high-level employment, despite the increasing demands from employers that they should hit the ground running. Even those with the smoothest transitions had to learn once in the job, and often, …relied on learning done during extensive work experience prior to taking the degree, in order to get and hold down the sought after position.
It was not only that people learned how to do whatever job they were aiming at. They also learned to construct their own employability. Rather than acquiring general core employability skills, this entailed getting to know the ways into particular, targeted arenas of employment, such as interpreting. It entailed developing and increasing their social and cultural capital in relation to the targeted field…..Put differently, rather than acquiring the skills, understanding and knowledge about employability, successful students learned how to change themselves into the sort of person who was more likely to be employed in a particular occupation12.
The research highlights that rather than focusing on generic skills, it is important for the graduates to have actual sector specific knowledge, contacts and be part of networks in order for them to be successful. The research findings underline the very non-linear and coincidental ways that the graduates travel during and after their Masters course and the many factors that influence, limit and make possible their choices.
1.The report is part of The Learning and Employability series published by the Higher Education Academy. All available at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/publications/learningandemployability
2.NCIHE (1997) Higher education in the learning society [Report of the National Committee
Of Inquiry into Higher Education: ‘The Dearing Report’]. Norwich: HMSO
https://bei.leeds.ac.uk/Partners/NCIHE/
3.Employability in Higher Education: What it is and what it is not (2006:12), Mantz Yorke
4.Employability in Higher Education: What it is and what it is not (2006:3), Mantz Yorke
5.Graduate Employability - Literature Review (October 2002: 2), Dr Dawn Lees. Accessed 1st December 2008 at http://www.palatine.ac.uk/files/emp/1233.pdf
6.Employability in Higher Education: What it is and what it is not (2006:8), Mantz Yorke.
7.Employability and Diversity (2006), Lee Harvey. Accessed 1st December at
http://asp2.wlv.ac.uk/webteam/confs/socdiv/sdd-harvey-0602.doc
8.Higher Education at Work - high skills: high value consultation document (2008:6). Accessed at http://www.dius.gov.uk/consultations/con_0408_hlss.html
9.Consultation Report (October 2008:62). Accessed at http://www.dius.gov.uk/consultations/con_0408_hlss.html
10The full report is available at http://www.hecsu.ac.uk/hecsu.rd/research_reports_129.htm
11.Employability and Career Progression for Fulltime UK Masters Students (2005:94), Helen Bowman, Phil Hodkinson and Helen Colley
12.Employability and Career Progression for Fulltime UK Masters Students (2005:97), Helen Bowman, Phil Hodkinson and Helen Colley