Graduate employability garners significant interest in government policy and heavily influences the discourse around institutional promotion and strategy within Australian higher education.
It is a pervasive theme in institutional strategic documents and frequently cited as a core priority by higher education leaders. Employability is a crucial element in student recruitment messaging, and rightly so, as graduate employment and employability development are both attractive and essential for key stakeholders in student learning. For prospective students, it connects their dreams to tangible steps by enrolling into a degree program. For industry partners, it ensures a steady stream of well-prepared university graduates ready to join the workforce.
Recent Future Campus articles have problematised employability, presenting the paradox of focusing on the short-term employment agenda over graduates’ lifelong learning, or arguing for elements of employability, such as work-integrated learning, to be given a larger platform and recognition. While these are important, high-level arguments, neither pays close attention to how employability is fostered in students.
Who in the university is responsible for making employability happen?
The hidden architects of graduate success
If you were to follow any student along their study journey and observe how employability skills and knowledge are developed, you would come across a range of academic and professional staff that interact directly with students, their concerns, careers, decision-making and learning, who identify themselves as ‘graduate employability practitioners.’ In the editorial of a new special issue in the Journal of Teaching & Learning for Graduate Employability, Hansen et al. (2024) describe graduate employability practitioners reflecting the diversity of roles that contribute to student success. This term includes, but extends beyond, roles within work-integrated learning or career services. Graduate employability practitioners may be career coaches teaching units focused on preparing students for work; work-integrated learning coordinators sourcing placements and developing industry relationships; teachers; librarians; learning support advisors, and more. Uniting this group, is an unwavering focus on student-centred employability development and lifelong learning, empowering students to transition and thrive beyond university.
What makes this collective unique is their ability to bridge the university world with students’ futures. While employment success is important, graduate employability practitioners support students in preparing for lifelong agility, helping them recognise their strengths, interests, and options. They provide practical tools and strategies, translating course content into applications for work. They offer support while students learn in new work environments and provide feedback that empowers and shapes burgeoning identities. They often work closely with students who face additional barriers in finding employment, such as first-generation students or those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
If they matter so much, then why don’t we know more about them?
There can be significant barriers for graduate employability practitioners to navigate within the institution. For example, employability services may be underfunded, limiting their ability to offer support to all students. As research shows, there is increasing need to focus on access and inclusion for all students to employability development, such as work-integrated learning, as not all students experience these opportunities equally. They often advocate for institutional change, pushing for the translation of a strategic priority into practical resourcing on the ground.
Graduate employability practitioners frequently provide personal support, addressing the emotional toll students experience when facing unemployment, rejection, or career uncertainty. Hansen et al. (2024, p.i) highlight that these practitioners are “the people who answer the phone when things go wrong on placement, who bear witness to another rejected application and fight for recognition of their contribution to teaching and learning.” This highlights their prominent claim that “Graduate employability practitioners know students better than most” (Hansen et al., 2024, p.i).
The future of our indispensable graduate employability practitioners
Recognition and resourcing are essential for graduate employability practitioners. For universities to achieve their strategic goals and claims regarding student employability, these dedicated professionals need support.
However, there is also space as a collective across higher education to shine a stronger light and get to know us better. To do so, earlier this year, we raised an invitation and called for papers from professional and academic staff and anyone who identifies as a graduate employability practitioner to share their own voices and experiences.
Launched in late September, the Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability features a special issue on “The graduate employability practitioner: What works to develop career, teaching capability, and organisational capacity?” It highlights the perspectives of graduate employability practitioners, aiming to discuss and challenge their practices and perceptions. It features diverse insights across Australian institutions, from individual reflections to institutional initiatives, illustrating the complexity of student support and learning in this field. The authors emphasise the importance of reflection, collaboration across disciplines, and the urgent need for recognition of those advocating for employability as a vital aspect of their role.
There is a shared responsibility for graduate employability, across students, university staff and even industry partners. However, there is little doubt that the heavy lifting is done by graduate employability practitioners.
Bonnie Amelia Dean is the Head of Academic Development and Recognition at the University of Wollongong. Lauren Hansen is Director, Graduate Employability at Deakin University.
