NICK For the individual, employability is

particularly important. It’s something that we start with us talking about to our
students on day one about the importance of developing particular attributes and
ability to communicate those attributes to
a potential employer and to start having experiences, work, and so on, which
develop those attributes because, with the individual, it determines effectively
your life chances. It determines the type of jobs you have access to, the type of
employers that will want to employ you.
And so developing one’s employability is about developing one’s range of options
in the labour market.
But also, employability is also important in terms of contributing, becoming a
productive citizen, if you like, with the broadest economic and social sense.
So, developing a range of attributes
which are valuable in the labour market enables you both to sell yourself to an
employer and to get the type of work
you want but also to play a productive role economically and socially.
MICHAEL I think it's important to want to stay ahead
of the game, to manage the inevitable challenges and risks that surround the
job market. I think it's important because
in the context of a massified higher education system that we have in the UK,
the graduates do what they can to give themselves an advantage - a position
of advantage at least, ahead of lots of other different graduates who are almost
graduating
with fairly identical profiles. So, that's important.
So, you'd expect the more that graduates can do to make themselves employable, they
were
going to get a return on that. Employability is also important, I think, as a way
of minimising
the likelihood that you will be unemployed or underemployed for significant periods
of your working life. Particularly, at the initial stages of entering the job
market.
So for all those reasons, I mean either the organisation - the firm level,
I think is important because firms are interested in competitive advantage so
the more and ready employable the graduates are, the better.
DENISE I think employability is important from a
number of different perspectives. First of all, for the person, the individual
themselves,
if they're employable, then yes, they're likely to gain—more likely to gain
employment.
It's not just having that employment. It's actually getting—being able to perform
well
in the workplace. That means that they're likely to progress well in their career.
It
also gives them a sense of worth, so it's good for their self-esteem and self-
efficacy.
And also, for the organisation itself, if they're performing well, it's going to
raise
organisation productivity, which ultimately raises national productivity.
ALEX I think employability is important
because ultimately it means that you can have what I call a sustainable
career, this idea about, “I can choose what I want to do, and I can work my way
towards
that so that I have choices about what I do, and I can then have some satisfaction
in what I do." So, job satisfaction is obviously
important, but work-life balance is important, and I think employability
enables somebody to have that. So, it’s not just getting the job.
It’s actually having this career that will satisfy the individual and hopefully be
good for an organisation and society as a whole.
JON It's understanding the expectations of employers.
Employers would obviously value the degree that students are getting, but
they'll be looking beyond the degree and asking what difference can you
make to us. An individual can make that difference in lots of different ways.
I think that's where it's important to reflect on who you are, what you want
to do, how you can manage the issues of the workplace and at the end of the day,
strike a balance between doing the job, and also being a happy and contented
member of that employment team.