Employability: a contemporary review for higher education stakeholders

an article by Lynlea Small, Kate Shacklock and Teresa Marchant (Griffith University, Southport, Australia) published in Journal of Vocational Education & Training Volume 70 Issue 1 (March 2018)

Abstract

Higher education institutions are under pressure to produce employable graduates who are required to contribute to the sustainability of strong economic growth and development. As such, the onus is on the higher education sector to present graduates to the labour market who are both work ready and have attained employability.

This article contributes to the discussion surrounding the employability of graduates by:

• enhancing understanding and discussing contemporary evidence and debate around employability;
• showing the genesis, influence and synthesis of the major models associated with employability;
• summarising the boundaries and barriers to graduate employment;
• and exploring the determinants of employability from the employer’s perspective.

Importantly, the article summarises the contemporary theoretical bases of employability in the one place. Recommendations are made regarding further research and the need for further theoretical contributions.

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Theorising the Spaces of Student Migration

an article by Parvati Raghuram (Department of Geography, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK) published in Population, Space and Place Special Issue: International Student Migration Volume 19 Issue 2 (March/April 2013)

Abstract

Student migration is a key component of knowledge migration. However, as knowledge becomes a central part of migrant selectivity, labour and family migrants too are involved in knowledge acquisition, both prior to and after migration.

At the same time, student migrants are involved in work and family, just like other migrants.

What then is distinctive about student migrants?

This paper attempts to address this challenge.

It begins by reviewing how migration theories have analysed student mobility. It then suggests that migration theorists need to extend existing analyses, which have primarily focused on the spatialities of migration, to take account of the spatialities of knowledge. It is argued that knowledge institutions need to reach out to people in different parts of the world and to produce in prospective students a desire to circulate. This is necessary if the institutions are to obtain a global presence and to maintain their legitimacy as knowledge brokers.

An analysis of student migration where the inducements that the higher education institutions offer to prospective students and the subjective responses of such students to these invitations will throw light on how the spatiality of knowledge is achieved and also highlight the distinctiveness of student migration in a knowledgeable migrant world.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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