1. Careers Centre
Employability: Deciding,
Planning and Competing
Bob Gilworth,
Director, University of Leeds
Careers Centre

2. Careers Centre
Overview
 National policy discourse
 2012 and consumer information
 Consumerism v. co-production
 So what are we trying to do?
 Decide ,Plan and compete –an example from Leeds.
 Q&A

3. Careers Centre
Policy discourse
 “Future Fit” the Browne report and numerous others seem
to make some or all of the following assumptions:
 There is demand pull from the “knowledge economy” for a
mass higher education system. (A contested notion but
not today’s topic).
 Universities “could do better” in “producing” the
employable graduates required.
 More and better “employability” in universities helps
students and the economy and those universities with the
best employability will do relatively well in a consumer-led
HE “market” with higher fees.

4. Careers Centre
2012 and consumer information
 Understandable that this information has to be that which
can be standardised but..
 Are employment outcome measures such as % grad level
at six months measures of “employability?” Was the class
of 2008 significantly more “employable” than the class of
2009?-the figures say yes.
 Job applicants - appointable/not appointable/didn’t apply
 For potential students, public-domain figures reflect a
situation at least two years before starting and at least five
years before graduating. Jobs which don’t exist now.

5. Careers Centre
Consumerism v co-production
 Choice, partnership and engagement.
 Developing employability is an extreme example of co-
production.
 All will take place in the context of partnership agreements
or similar.
 Public discourse tends to ignore choice at many levels-
reasons for studying-lifestyle choices relating to university
city/travel-career motivation cf skills tick-box and CV –
mania.
 What is the scale of engagement?

6. Careers Centre
So what are we trying to do?
 Improve the figures? In absolute or relative terms?
 Intervene in the opportunity structure?
 Focus on the offer?
 Strategic choice –is there something amiss-or not?
 Employability can be very important without being a crisis!

7. Careers Centre
Overall aims and key components
 For students: To enable all students to develop well
informed realistic plans for the future and the capability to
implement them.
 For the university: To be proactive and well positioned on
employability in the “post-Browne” era.
 DECIDE on options to pursue
 PLAN to acquire the right skills and experiences
 COMPETE effectively in the chosen areas of the global
graduate opportunity structure.

8. Careers Centre
Market fundamentals
 Academic success + evidence of transferable skills
(problem solving, communication, teamwork etc) = the
threshold for serious consideration.
 Career motivation and commercial awareness are the key
differentiators.
 Career motivation = why the “Decide” component is so
important.

9. Careers Centre
Sequence
 Decide provides the context and rationale for skills
acquisition and reflection.
 Plan provides the skills/experience content
 Compete provides the translation-turning features into
benefits.
 Not always linear. Post –hoc rationalisation can be OK
(but can miss out on the key item of experience).
 Starting at Compete doesn’t work (CV-mania)

10. Careers Centre
A one-university effort
 The careers centre has a key leadership role but this has
to be a one-university effort.
 Decide and Compete need CC expertise.
 Plan involves everyone, with Leeds for Life at the centre.

11. Careers Centre
Next steps and key considerations
 Focus on the present and future offer (with historical data
as context)
 Move to faculty-based implementation asap.
 Variety (of approach) is good. Variability (of standard) is
not.
 Placements/internships really matter (open market and
conversion)-best source of commercial awareness (in all
sectors)
 Joined-up (CC coordinated) employer engagement is
essential
 Curriculum review
 Engaging the unengaged is key

12. Careers Centre
Governance, work streams and links
 Employability committee –chaired by PVC (SE)
 Faculty groups
 Work-streams: Data, Placements, Employer Engagement,
Communications
 Links: Leeds for Life, Curriculum Project.