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Citation: Tholen, G. (2015). What can research into graduate employability tell us about agency and structure?. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 36(5), pp. 766-784. doi: 10.1080Education, 36(5), pp. 766-784. doi: 10. /01425692.2013 This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. What can research into graduate employability tell us about agency and structure? Permanent Gerbrand TholenTraditionally theorists who have written about agency and structure have eschewed empirical research. This article uses the findings of an empirical study into graduate employability to inform the sociological debate on how they relate to each other. The study examined how Dutch and British final-year students approach the labour market right before they graduate. The study revealed that the labour market and education structures are mirrored in how students understand and act within the labour market. It also showed that the interplay between agency and structure is mediated by an intersubjective framework shared by other students. The article argues that previous theoretical views on employability have failed to understand this and suggests how to improve our understanding of agency and structure.

This article examines student accounts of credentials, talent and academic success, against a backdrop of the enduring liberal ideal of an education-based meritocracy. The article also examines Bourdieu's account of academic qualifications as the dominant source of institutionalised cultural capital, and concludes that it does not adequately account for comparative differences in the social structure of competition and ideological shifts in class (re)production in different national contexts. This analysis is based on an empirical investigation of elite students at Oxford University and Sciences Po in Paris. We investigated how they understand the competition for a livelihood and whether they see themselves as more 'talented' than students from non-elite universities. This investigation revealed important similarities and differences between British and French students that have significant sociological implications for the (re)production and legitimation of educational and labour market inequalities.Keywords: credential inflation; talent; cultural capital; elites; elite employability; positional competition; effortless achievement; class (re)production Introduction The discourse on 'talent' in the British context raises sociological questions about the competition for a livelihood and the legitimation of elite (re)production in education and the labour market (Brown and Hesketh 2004). This discourse also raises comparative questions concerning the conceptual relationship between merit, talent and credential competition, given the enduring liberal ideal of an education-based meritocracy (Halsey, Heath, and Ridge 1980;Goldthorpe 2007a) where credentials are viewed as a currency of opportunity. Within liberal theory, 'meritocratic' competition based on credential competition is seen to play a major role in minimising social bias and

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. The UK labour market is subject to significant graduatisation. Yet in the context of an over-supply of graduates, little is known about the demand for and deployment of graduate skills in previously non-graduate jobs. Moreover, there is little examination of where these skills are developed, save an assumption in higher education. Using interview and questionnaire data from a study of British residential sales estate agents, this paper explores the demand, deployment and development of graduate skills in an occupation that is becoming graduatised. This data finds no evidence to support the view that the skills demanded and deployed are those solely developed within higher education. Instead what employers require is a wide array of predominantly soft skills developed in many different situs. These findings suggest that, in the case of estate agents, what matters are the 'skills of graduates' rather than putative 'graduate skills'. Permanent

Within policy circles, graduate employability remains a problem. It is often understood as an individual phenomenon, overlooking the influence of the organisation of higher education on the competition for graduate jobs. This article explores and compares how graduate employability is socially constructed within Great Britain and the Netherlands. It provides an analysis of both Dutch and British systems of higher education and explains how they shape the positional competition for graduate jobs. In addition it shows how perceptions of employability of final year university students relate to these two educational systems. The article is based on an empirical study on graduate employability in both countries using both micro analysis as well as contextual analysis. The article shows a fit between educational structure and employability strategies. The educational context shapes graduates' understandings and expectations of the competition for graduate jobs.