Employability in practice

Abstract

In this paper data referring to the salience of life long learning policies for employees are presented. These data are gathered from people working in Dutch horticulture and Dutch dairy industry. The study focuses on the points of view these employees have regarding the need to invest in their employability through training. The results emphasise the importance of training on the job for these employees, which according to many of them actually is sufficient to grow into a good worker. This is not in line with the emphasis laid on training and investing in human capital in general in the growing employability literature. Thus much needs to be done to communicate this need (assuming that it is real indeed) to the workforce. Therefore, the conclusion is drawn that employability policies do not relate to economic theory, such as the human capital approach, but rather to social theory

The Concept of Employability

“…At the national level in the UK, as in many other EU states, the European Employment Strategy's focus on employability (and especially on providing a 'fresh start' to the young unemployed who have been out of work for at least six months) has been particularly influential. Employability was a key theme of UK's EU presidency in 1998 (Verhaar and Smulders, 1999). The concept has found expression within the UK's national Employment Action Plans and the current government's welfare to work agenda, with the New Deal programmes at its centre (DfEE, 1997a(DfEE, , 1997b(DfEE, , 1998DWP, 2002).…”

Neoliberalism and knowledge interests in boundaryless careers discourse

“…Career studies too has failed to take proper consideration of the wider economic and socio-political systems in which careers are embedded (Mayrhofer et al, 2007). There are other, closely related, areas of study, such as boundaryless 'employability security', that career studies scholars would do well to take note of, that treat 'employability' as a social rather than an economic issue (Verhaar and Smulders, 1999), or point out that opportunities for career movement for low skilled workers are in practice likely to be only intra organisational (Rothwell and Arnold, 2007;Sanders and De Grip, 2004). Recent calls by career studies scholars (Arthur, 2008) for interdisciplinary research to broaden definitions of careers, methodological orientations, theoretical suppositions and empirical analyses indicate that such dialogue could well be forthcoming.…”

Industry Relations and Curricula Design in Austrian Tourism Master Programs: A Comparative Analysis

“…Meanwhile, several studies have been conducted in terms of employability of graduates and job requirements in tourism-related fields, and a number of qualifications-communicative skills, empathy, motivation, decisionmaking abilities, planning abilities, and improvisation abilities-have been identified (Bagshaw, 1996;Byrne, 2001;Cassidy, 2006;Cotton, 2001;Gaspers & Ott, 1998;Raybould & Sheedy, 2005;Verhaar & Smulders, 1999;Zinser, 2003). For the present purposes, to be able to screen tourism curricula in higher education, it is necessary to use an inclusive and broad definition of the notions of skills and competencies and also to then see how these are mirrored in tourism curricula.…”

“…Lewis (1993) discusses the fact that curricula are often not tailored to what the industry currently needs but to what it has needed in the past (Ryan, 1995). Several studies have been conducted in terms of job requirements in tourism-related fields, and a number of qualifications-communicative skills, empathy, motivation, decision-making abilities, planning abilities, and improvisation abilities-have been identified (Verhaar & Smulders, 1999).…”