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Introduction
In recent years a number of models of employability have been proposed. Whilst these models go some way towards capturing the meaning of this elusive concept of employability, they are either too elaborate to be practically useable or too simple to do justice to this multifaceted issue. For many people employability is simply about getting a job, and the term is increasingly used carelessly and interchangeably with "enterprise", which in turn is confused with "entrepreneurship". The aim of this paper is to present a practical, coherent model,that is firmly based on existing research findings in employability and on the various individual elements that make up the framework. Employability is an issue of concern in many areas of the economy, but in this context the focus is on students and graduates in UK higher education.
Employability in higher education
Current interpretations of employability range from the use of simple measures, such as whether or not a graduate has secured a job (using graduate first destination surveys), to in-depth scholarly books on the subject. If employability is measured in the simplistic terms of whether or not a graduate has managed to secure a job within six months of graduating, it only provides a very vague and imprecise indication of what the student has gained. Questions need to be asked about whether or not the graduate is using the skills, knowledge and understanding gained in their degree studies in a "graduate level job", which in turn opens up a whole new debate about what exactly a "graduate level job" entails. There is so much more to employability than gaining employment, and first destination statistics do not take into account the fact that some graduates may have taken lower level jobs in order to deal with financial pressures, particularly after incurring debts through their studies.
[8] Hillage and Pollard (1998, p. 2) suggest that:
In simple terms, employability is about being capable of getting and keeping fulfilling work. More comprehensively employability is the capability to move self-sufficiently within the labour market to realise potential through sustainable employment.
They propose that employability consists of four main elements. The first of these, a person's "employability assets", consists of their knowledge, skills and attitudes. The second, "deployment", includes career management skills,...