Investing in the self: structure, agency and identity in graduates' employability

Tomlinson, Michael

doi:10.1080/17496896.2010.499273

Cited by 104 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Thus, academically educated people also have to flexibly adapt to a job market by developing and maintaining their employability (Tomlinson, 2008(Tomlinson, , 2010(Tomlinson, , 2012. Preparing work-ready graduates is currently regarded as a major role of higher education (Daniels & Brooker, 2014).…”

Section: Employability Skills In Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

University students’ perceptions of their ‘ability selves’ and employability: a pilot study

Räty

Komulainen

Harvorsén

et al. 2018

Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy

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This study sets out to investigate the university students' perceptions of their current and expected 'ability selves' and the contribution of such perceptions to students' views of their own employability. The participants consisted of a group of male and female students (N = 104) who were asked to describe their present and anticipated abilities and to respond to a set of statements describing self-perceived employability. The students highlighted social aptness, extroversion and enterprise skills in particular as features related to ability selves in current discussions of working life. These interpretations were subsequently related to the optimism they had about their own employability. 'Ability selves' seem to play a role in the multifaceted process of subjective confidence formation regarding one's employment prospects after graduation. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Section: Employability Skills In Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

University students’ perceptions of their ‘ability selves’ and employability: a pilot study

Räty

Komulainen

Harvorsén

et al. 2018

Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A consequence of globalisation has been 'shifting dynamics in the relationship between higher education and the labour market' (Tomlinson 2010, 3), and, within the knowledge economy that has been created, universities now market themselves as providers of resources -for example, skilled graduates -for the labour market (Cribb and Gewirtz 2013). Preparation of work-ready graduates is now seen by some as a major role of higher education (Green, Hammer, and Star 2009;Holmes 2013;Tomlinson 2010;Tymon 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These skill-sets are known variously as graduate attributes, graduate capabilities, or graduate qualities. 1 Throughout the course of their university studies, students are given learning opportunities to acquire a range of these skills; the aim is to produce graduates who demonstrate 'a set of achievements -skills, understandings and personal attributes' (Yorke 2004, 7) that will enable them to function within a rapidly changing work environment and to contribute to a range of employer requirements over their working lives (Tomlinson 2010). The development of these graduate attributes as significant measures of successful learning has seen an emphasis within higher education on preparation for shaping future identity (Holmes 2013;Tomlinson 2010), with these skill-sets significantly influencing how administrators, academics and students themselves are encouraged to perceive the student experience.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Changing perspectives: universities and their students The broader economic and social changes that have, over the years, impacted on the perceived role of universities, have resulted in significant changes to how higher education is understood (Barrie 2006;Blackmore 2002;Tomlinson 2010). Current debates in the literature attempt to locate its role somewhere on the spectrum bounded by provider of skills, and nurturer of knowledge (Cribb and Gewirtz 2013;Naidoo and Jamieson 2005;Tynjälä, Välimaa, and Sarja 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Student identity development in higher education: implications for graduate attributes and work-readiness

Daniels

Brooker

2014

Educational Research

129

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Background: As universities in many countries engage more directly with industry, the learning emphasis has moved from the student experience to the work-readiness of the graduate. This focus on the student as potential worker is expressed through graduate attributes: particular sets of employability skills developed by institutions and embedded into the curricula. Main argument: Graduate attributes are problematic, however, since they focus firmly on students' future identity as workers, rather than their current identity as students, and in doing so they offer a simplistic, and -for some -troubling, view of the purpose of universities. In this paper, we advocate a return to consideration of student identity. Conclusion: We suggest that, for students, building an awareness of their student identity as they progress through their higher education experience is not only important for student engagement at university, but is also an integral aspect of shaping their work-readiness as graduates.

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“…Put simply, personal economic betterment leads to greater national economic competitiveness-the essence of the human capital model upon which the current neo-liberal economic settlement is predicated (Tomlinson, 2010). However, the discourse of enterprise and of responsibilisation is never simply framed in means-end economic terms; indeed, it is also a profoundly moral discourse which reaches down to the very ethics of what it means to be a good citizen in the modern consumer state.…”

Section: Ii) the Knowledge Based Economy And The Threat Of Occupationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hegemony through Responsibilisation: Getting Working-Class Students into Higher Education in the United Kingdom

Morrison

2014

Power and Education

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This article examines the role of the New Labour governments' agenda for widening participation in higher education as a form of responsibilising discourse of working-class young people. Under the New Labour administrations of 1997-2010, a concerted attempt was made to attract working-class students into higher education through promotional initiatives such as the Aimhigher programme. Drawing from Raymond Williams' discussion of hegemony and also from Nikolas Rose's concept of the 'enterprising self', this article examines three explanatory/promotional documents from the Aimhigher programme aimed at working-class young people and their parents. The documents are analysed as materialisations of a powerfully hegemonic discourse of 'responsibilisation' towards participation in higher education. The article concludes with a discussion of the ways in which the widening access agenda has shifted since the coalition government came to power in 2010.

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Investing in the self: structure, agency and identity in graduates' employability

Cited by 104 publications

References 52 publications

University students’ perceptions of their ‘ability selves’ and employability: a pilot study

University students’ perceptions of their ‘ability selves’ and employability: a pilot study

Student identity development in higher education: implications for graduate attributes and work-readiness

Hegemony through Responsibilisation: Getting Working-Class Students into Higher Education in the United Kingdom

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