Further research from the UK authorities stated that: "Our higher instruction system is a great plus, both for persons and the state. (2003) and Reay et al. This makes it reasonable to ask whether there is any such thing as the consensus theory of truth at all, in other words, whether there is any one single principle that the various approaches have in common, or whether the phrase is being used as a catch-all for a motley . (2007) Does higher education matter? Archer, L., Hutchens, M. and Ross, A. Brown, P. and Lauder, H. (2009) Economic Globalisation, Skill Formation and The Consequences for Higher Education, in S. Ball, M. Apple and L. Gandin (eds.) HE has traditionally helped regulate the flow of skilled, professional and managerial workers. The problem of managing one's future employability is therefore seen largely as being up to the individual graduate. However, while notions of graduate skills, competencies and attributes are used inter-changeably, they often convey different things to different people and definitions are not always likely to be shared among employers, university teachers and graduates themselves (Knight and Yorke, 2004; Barrie, 2006). According to Keynes, the volume of employment in a country depends on the level of effective demand of the people for goods and services. Edvardsson Stiwne, E. and Alves, M.G. It also introduces 'positional conflict theory' as a way of Players are adept at responding to such competition, embarking upon strategies that will enable them to acquire and present the types of employability narratives that employers demand. The expansion of HE, and the creation of new forms of HEIs and degree provision, has resulted in a more heterogeneous mix of graduates leaving universities (Scott, 2005). HE systems across the globe are evolving in conjunction with wider structural transformations in advanced, post-industrial capitalism (Brown and Lauder, 2009). Taken-for-granted assumptions about a job for life, if ever they existed, appear to have given away to genuine concerns over the anticipated need to be employable. Thus, HE has been traditionally viewed as providing a positive platform from which graduates could integrate successfully into economic life, as well as servicing the economy effectively. Future research directions on graduate employability will need to explore the way in which graduates employability and career progression is managed both by graduates and employers during the early stages of their careers. Hodkinson, P. and Sparkes, A.C. (1997) Careership: A sociological theory of career decision-making, British Journal of Sociology of Education 18 (1): 2944. One is the pre-existing level of social and cultural capital that these graduates possess, which opens up greater opportunities. (2011) Towards a theoretical framework for the comparative understanding of globalisation, higher education, the labour market and inequality, Journal of Education and Work 24 (1): 185207. It further draws upon research that has explored the ways in which students and graduates construct their employability and begin to manage the transition from HE to work. In such labour market contexts, HE regulates more clearly graduates access to particular occupations. (2003) The shape of research in the field of higher education and graduate employment: Some issues, Studies in Higher Education 28 (4): 413426. 2003). This is particularly evident among the bottom-earning graduates who, as Green and Zhu show, do not necessarily attain better longer-term earnings than non-graduates. Tomlinson's research also highlighted the propensity towards discourses of self-responsibilisation by students making the transitions to work. The relative symbolic violence and capital that some institutions transfer onto different graduates may inevitably feed into their identities, shaping their perceived levels of personal or identity capital. (1996) Higher Education and Work, London: Jessica Kingsley. Individuals therefore need to proactively manage these risks (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 2002). In the United Kingdom, for example, state commitment to public financing of HE has declined; although paradoxically, state continues to exert pressures on the system to enhance its outputs, quality and overall market responsiveness (DFE, 2010). This study examines these two theories and makes competing predictions about the role of knowledge workers in moderating the . These theorists believe that the society and its equilibrium are based on the consensus or agreement of people. Research into university graduates perceptions of the labour market illustrates that they are increasingly adopting individualised discourses (Moreau and Leathwood, 2006; Tomlinson, 2007; Taylor and Pick, 2008) around their future employment. If initial identities are affirmed during the early stages of graduates working lives, they may well ossify and set the direction for future orientations and outlooks. While in the main graduates command higher wages and are able to access wider labour market opportunities, the picture is a complex and variable one and reflects marked differences among graduates in their labour market returns and experiences. This contrasts with more flexible liberal economies such as the United Kingdom, United States and Australia, characterised by more intensive competition, deregulation and lower employment tenure. They nevertheless remain committed to HE as a key economic driver, although with a new emphasis on further rationalising the system through cutting-back university services, stricter prioritisation of funding allocation and higher levels of student financial contribution towards HE through the lifting of the threshold of university fee contribution (DFE, 2010). They also reported quite high levels of satisfaction among graduates on their perceived utility of their formal and informal university experiences. The correspondence between HE and the labour market rests largely around three main dimensions: (i) in terms of the knowledge and skills that HE transfers to graduates and which then feeds back into the labour market, (ii) the legitimatisation of credentials that serve as signifiers to employers and enable them to screen prospective future employees and (iii) the enrichment of personal and cultural attributes, or what might be seen as personality. (2006) The evolution of the boundaryless career concept: Examining the physical and psychological mobility, Journal of Vocational Behavior 69 (1): 1929. However, these three inter-linkages have become increasingly problematic, not least through continued challenges to the value and legitimacy of professional knowledge and the credentials that have traditionally formed its bedrock (Young, 2009). They also include the professional skills that enable you to be successful in the workplace. Traditionally, linkages between the knowledge and skills produced through universities and those necessitated by employers have tended to be quite flexible and open-ended. Advancement in technological innovation requires the application of technical skills and knowledge; thus, attracting and retaining talented knowledge workers have become crucial for incumbent firms . Such changes have inevitably led to questions over HE's role in meeting the needs of both the wider labour market and graduates, concerns that have largely emanated from the corporate world (Morley and Aynsley, 2007; Boden and Nedeva, 2010). This will largely shape how graduates perceive the linkage between their higher educational qualification and their future returns. In a similar vein, Greenbank (2007) also reported concerns among working-class graduates of perceived deficiencies in the cultural and social capital needed to access specific types of jobs. The paper then explores research on graduates labour market returns and outcomes, and the way they are positioned in the labour market, again highlighting the national variability to graduates labour market outcomes. The problem of graduates employability remains a continuing policy priority for higher education (HE) policymakers in many advanced western economies. Morley (2001) however states that employability is not just about . Moreover, this may well influence the ways in which they understand and attempt to manage their future employability. The consensus theory of employment and the conflict theory of employment present contradictory implications about highly skilled workers' opportunity cost for pursuing entrepreneurial activities in the knowledge economy. Furthermore, this relationship was marked by a relatively stable flow of highly qualified young people into well-paid and rewarding employment. Conflict theory in sociology. In countries where training routes are less demarcated (for instance those with mass HE systems), these differences are less pronounced. A consensus theory approach sees sport as a source of collective harmony, a way of binding people together in a shared experience. This paper reviews some of the key empirical and conceptual themes in the area of graduate employability over the past decade in order to make sense of graduate employability as a policy issue. (employment, marriage, children) that strengthen social bonds -Population Heterogeneity Stability in criminal offending is due to an anti-social characteristic (e., low self-control) that reverberates . Consensus theories have a philosophical tradition dating . Moreau and Leathwood reported strong tendencies for graduates to attribute their labour market outcomes and success towards personal attributes and qualities as much as the structure of available opportunities. Mason, G. (2002) High skills utilisation under mass higher education: Graduate employment in the service industries in Britain, Journal of Education and Work 14 (4): 427456. In contrast to conflict theories, consensus theories are those that see people in society as having shared interests and society functioning on the basis of there being broad consensus on its norms and values. Universities have experienced heightened pressures to respond to an increasing range of internal and external market demands, reframing the perceived value of their activities and practices. In flexible labour markets, such as the United Kingdom this remains high. The purpose of this paper is to adopt the perspective of personal construct theory to conceptualise employability. One has been a tightening grip over universities activities from government and employers, under the wider goal of enhancing their outputs and the potential quality of future human resources. There are two key factors here. 229240. Nabi, G., Holden, R. and Walmsley, A. A more specific set of issues have arisen concerning the types of individuals organisations want to recruit, and the extent to which HEIs can serve to produce them. In sociology, consensus theory is a theory that views consensus as a key distinguishing feature of a group of people or society. (2004) The Mismangement of Talent: Employability and Jobs in the Knowledge-Based Economy, Oxford: Oxford University Press. There are many different lists of cardinal accomplishments . It seeks to explore shortcomings in the current employment of the concept of consensus, and in so doing to explain the continued relevance of conflict theory for sociological research. Slider with three articles shown per slide. The New Right argument is that a range of government policies, most notably those associated with the welfare state, undermined the key institutions that create the value consensus and ensure social solidarity. Brennan, J., Kogan, M. and Teichler, U. Graduates are therefore increasingly likely to see responsibility for future employability as falling quite sharply onto the shoulders of the individual graduate: being a graduate and possessing graduate-level credentials no longer warrants access to sought-after employment, if only because so many other graduates share similar educational and pre-work profiles. The role of employers and employer organisations in facilitating this, as well as graduates learning and professional development, may therefore be paramount. These concerns may further feed into students approaches to HE more generally, increasingly characterised by more instrumental, consumer-driven and acquisitive learning approaches (Naidoo and Jamieson, 2005). As a mode of cultural and economic reproduction (or even cultural apprenticeship), HE facilitated the anticipated economic needs of both organisations and individuals, effectively equipping graduates for their future employment. Much of the graduate employability focus has been on supply-side responses towards enhancing graduates skills for the labour market. Chapter 1 1. Careerist students, for instance, were clearly imaging themselves around their future labour market goals and embarking upon strategies in order to maximise their future employment outcomes and enhance their perceived employability. Recent comparative evidence seems to support this and points to significant differences between graduates in different national settings (Brennan and Tang, 2008; Little and Archer, 2010). The extent to which future work forms a significant part of their future life goals is likely to determine how they approach the labour market, as well as their own future employability. Graduate employment rate is often used to assess the quality of university provision, despite that employability and employment are two different concepts. Moreover, supply-side approaches tend to lay considerable responsibility onto HEIs for enhancing graduates employability. Cardiff School of Social Sciences Working Paper 118. 2003) and attempts to seek integrate them by formulating a model of explanatory form together with the existing empirical literature. If the occupational structure does not become sufficiently upgraded to accommodate the continued supply of graduates, then mismatches between graduates level of education and the demands of their jobs may ensue. The consensus theory is based o n the propositions that technological innovation is the driving force of so cial change. . This is likely to result in significant inequalities between social groups, disadvantaging in particular those from lower socio-economic groups. Reay, D., Ball, S.J. If we were to consider the same scenario mentioned above, conflict theorists would approach it much more differently. Problematising the notion of graduate skill is beyond the scope of this paper, and has been discussed extensively elsewhere (Holmes, 2001; Hinchliffe and Jolly, 2011). Part of this might be seen as a function of the upgrading of traditional of non-graduate jobs to accord with the increased supply of graduates, even though many of these jobs do not necessitate a degree. An example of this is the family. (2011) The Global Auction: The Broken Promises of Education, Jobs and Incomes, Oxford: Oxford University Press. These changes have added increasing complexities to graduates transition into the labour market, as well as the traditional link between graduation and subsequent labour market reward. Employability is a key concept in higher education. For graduates, the process of realising labour market goals, of becoming a legitimate and valued employee, is a continual negotiation and involves continual identity work. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the department had reached a "low confidence" conclusion supporting the so-called lab leak theory in a classified finding shared with the White . Puhakka, A., Rautopuro, J. and Tuominen, V. (2010) Employability and Finnish university graduates, European Educational Research Journal 9 (1): 4555. The consensus theory of employment argues that technological innovation is the driving force of social change (Drucker, 1993, Kerr, 1973). Research Paper 1, University of West England & Warwick University, Warwick Institute for Employment Research. Yet the position of graduates in the economy remains contested and open to a range of competing interpretations. Employability depends on your knowledge, skills and attitudes, how you use those assets, and how you present them to employers. Keynes' theory of employment is a demand-deficient theory. This is further likely to be mediated by national labour market structures in different national settings that differentially regulate the position and status of graduates in the economy. The purpose of this article is to show that the way employability is typically defined in official statements is seriously flawed because it ignores what will be called the 'duality of employability'. This may be largely due to the fact that employers have been reasonably responsive to generic academic profiles, providing that graduates fulfil various other technical and job-specific demands. Moreau, M.P. 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Employability skills include the soft skills that allow you to work well with others, apply knowledge to solve problems, and to fit into any work environment. Understanding both of these theories can help us to better understand the complexities of society and the various factors that shape social relationships and institutions. The second relates to the biases employers harbour around different graduates from different universities in terms of these universities relative so-called reputational capital (Harvey et al., 1997; Brown and Hesketh, 2004). The concerns that have been well documented within the non-graduate youth labour market (Roberts, 2009) are also clearly resonating with the highly qualified. The theory rests on the assumption that Conservative governments in this time period made an accommodation with the social democratic policy . Overall, it was shown that UK graduates tend to take more flexible and less predictable routes to their destined employment, with far less in the way of horizontal substitution between their degree studies and target employment. One particular consequence of a massified, differentiated HE is therefore likely to be increased discrimination between different types of graduates. For other students, careers were far more tangential to their personal goals and lifestyles, and were not something they were prepared to make strong levels of personal and emotional investment towards. PubMedGoogle Scholar, Tomlinson, M. Graduate Employability: A Review of Conceptual and Empirical Themes. Consensus Theory. (eds.) Ball, S.J. Graduate Employability has come to mean many different things. On the other hand, less optimistic perspectives tend to portray contemporary employment as being both more intensive and precarious (Sennett, 2006). For some graduates, HE continues to be a clear route towards traditional middle-class employment and lifestyle; yet for others it may amount to little more than an opportunity cost. (2010) Education and the employability of graduates: Will Bologna make a difference? European Educational Research Journal 9 (1): 3244. The problem has been largely attributable to universities focusing too rigidly on academically orientated provision and pedagogy, and not enough on applied learning and functional skills. Such notions of economic change tend to be allied to human capital conceptualisations of education and economic growth (Becker, 1993). Research on the more subjective, identity-based aspects of graduate employability also shows that graduates dispositions tend to derive from wider aspects of their educational and cultural biographies, and that these exercise some substantial influence on their propensities towards future employment. The challenge for graduate employees is to develop strategies that militate against such likelihoods. This is perhaps reflected in the increasing amount of new, modern and niche forms of graduate employment, including graduate sales mangers, marketing and PR officers, and IT executives. For instance, non-traditional students who had studied at local institutions may be far more likely to fix their career goals around local labour markets, some of which may afford limited opportunities for career progression. In effect, individuals can no longer rely on their existing educational and labour market profiles for shaping their longer-term career progression. Collins, R. (2000) Comparative and Historical Patterns of Education, in M. Hallinan (ed.) Teichler, U. A common theme has been state-led attempts to increasingly tighten the relationship and attune HE more closely to the economy, which itself is set within wider discourse around economic change. Smart et al. The theory of employability can be difficult to identify; there can be many factors that contribute to the idea of being employable. . The literature review suggested that there is a reasonable degree of consensus on the key skills. 'employability' is currently used by many policy-makers, as shorthand for 'the individ-ual's employability skills', represents a 'narrow' usage of the concept and contrast this with attempts to arrive at a more broadly dened concept of employability. Questions continued to be posed over the specific role of HE in regulating skilled labour, and the overall matching of the supply of graduates leaving HE to their actual economic demand and utility (Bowers-Brown and Harvey, 2004). Such graduates are therefore likely to shy away, or psychologically distance themselves, from what they perceive as particular cultural practices, values and protocols that are at odds with their existing ones. The problem of graduate employability and skills may not so much centre on deficits on the part of graduates, but a graduate over-supply that employers find challenging to manage. The paper explores some of the conceptual notions that have informed understandings of graduate employability, and argues for a broader understanding of employability than that offered by policymakers. Little, B. and Archer, L. (2010) Less time to study, less well prepared for work, yet satisfied with higher education: A UK perspective on links between higher education and the labour market, Journal of Education and Work 23 (3): 275296. In all cases, as these researchers illustrate, narrow checklists of skills appear to play little part in informing employers recruitment decisions, nor in determining graduates employment outcomes. Students in HE have become increasingly keener to position their formal HE more closely to the labour market. Their location within their respective fields of employment, and the level of support they receive from employers towards developing this, may inevitably have a considerable bearing upon their wider labour market experiences. Further research has also pointed to experiences of graduate underemployment (Mason, 2002; Chevalier and Lindley, 2009).This research has revealed that a growing proportion of graduates are undertaking forms of employment that are not commensurate to their level of education and skills. Non-traditional graduates or new recruits to the middle classes may be less skilled at reading the changing demands of employers (Savage, 2003; Reay et al., 2006). Furlong, A. and Cartmel, F. (2005) Graduates from Disadvantaged Backgrounds: Early Labour Market Experiences, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation. These concerns have been given renewed focus in the current climate of wider labour market uncertainty. These negotiations continue well into graduates working lives, as they continue to strive towards establishing credible work identities. This research highlighted that some had developed stronger identities and forms of identification with the labour market and specific future pathways. Introduction. Employability also encompasses significant equity issues. Reducing the system/structure down to the graduate labour market, there are parallels between Archer's work and consensus theory (Brown et al. (2003) Class Strategies and the Education Market: The Middle Classes and Social Advantage, London: Routledge. Scott, P. (2005) Universities and the knowledge economy, Minerva 43 (3): 297309. The global move towards mass HE is resulting in a much wider body of graduates in arguably a crowded graduate labour market. It appears that students and graduates reflect upon their relationship with the labour market and what they might need to achieve their goals. Such issues may be compounded by a policy climate of heavy central planning and target-setting around the coordination of skills-based education and training. That graduates employability is intimately related to personal identities and frames of reference reflects the socially constructed nature of employability more generally: it entails a negotiated ordering between the graduate and the wider social and economic structures through which they are navigating. Englewood Cliffs . Leadbetter, C. (2000) Living on Thin Air, London: Penguin. This article attempts to provide a conceptual framework on employability skills of business graduates based on in-depth reviews. Chapter 2 is to refute the Classical theory of employment and unemployment on both empirical and logical grounds. Rae, D. (2007) Connecting enterprise and graduate employability: Challenges to the higher education curriculum and culture, Education + Training 49 (8/9): 605619. Perhaps increasingly central to the changing dynamic between HE and the labour market has been the issue of graduate employability. (1972) Graduates: The Sociology of an Elite, London: Methuen. Theory could be viewed as a coherent group of assumptions or propositions put forth to . Consensus is the collective agreement of individuals. What their research illustrates is that these graduates labour market choices are very much wedded to their pre-existing dispositions and learner identities that frame what is perceived to be appropriate and available. Expands the latter into positional conflict theory, which explains how the market for credentials is rigged and how individuals are ranked in it. Fevre, R. (2007) Employment insecurity and social theory: The power of nightmares, Work, Employment and Society 21 (3): 517535. Brown and Hesketh's (2004) research has clearly shown the competitive pressures experienced by graduates in pursuit of tough-entry and sought-after employment, and some of the measures they take to meet the anticipated recruitment criteria of employers. Consensus v. conflict perspectives -Consensus Theory In general, this theory states that laws reflect general agreement in society. Structural functionalists believe that society tends towards equilibrium and social order. Despite the limitations, the model is adopted to evaluate the role of education stakeholders in the Nigerian HE. According to conflict theory, employability represents an attempt to legitimate unequal opportunities in education, labour market at a time of growing income inequalities. This has some significant implications for the ways in which they understand their employability and the types of credentials and forms of capital around which this is built. Throughout, the paper explores some of the dominant conceptual themes informing discussion and research on graduate employability, in particular human capital, skills, social reproduction, positional conflict and identity. This review has highlighted how this shifting dynamic has reshaped the nature of graduates transitions into the labour market, as well as the ways in which they begin to make sense of and align themselves towards future labour market demands. Bridgstock, R. (2009) The graduate attributes weve overlooked: Enhancing graduate employability through career management skills, Higher Education Research and Development 28 (1): 3144. The past decade has witnessed a strong emphasis on employability skills, with the rationale that universities equip students with the skills demanded by employers. Harvey, L. (2000) New realities: The relationship between higher education and employment, Tertiary Education and Management 6 (1): 317. Elias, P. and Purcell, K. (2004) The Earnings of Graduates in Their Early Careers: Researching Graduates Seven Years on. Individual graduate their perceived utility of their formal HE more closely to the labour market idea of being.... 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