Being a graduate is no longer sufficient to secure a fulfilling and rewarding graduate role. This paper drew on Tomlinson's Graduate Capital Model to analyse the job-seeking narratives of recent computing graduates searching for a graduate job. Participants (n = 38), drawn from a national placement programme, were interviewed up to 12 months after…

To be competitive, universities across the world are embedding an international perspective into every layer of an institution's operational structure. For higher education (HE) providers that offer sandwich degrees (4-year undergraduate courses with a compulsory placement after the second year), this allows students to choose a range of options.…

Within the UK, sandwich courses, i.e. degree programmes that include a year spent on a work placement, usually during the third year of a four-year course, are increasingly offered by higher education institutions to maximise the proportion of their graduates moving into employment and, particularly, jobs that are deemed 'graduate-level'. Indeed,…

Purpose: There is strong evidence that year-long work placements make students more employable and produces better academic performance. Despite this, UK participation rates remain stubbornly low. The authors examine the influence of academic performance on students' willingness and ability to complete work placements. Design/methodology/approach:…

This paper studies the main determinants of salaries for economics students in their year-long industrial placements. Using three different sources of data on three cohorts of economics placement students, including demographic characteristics, academic performance, programme of studies and employability-related characteristics, we find that…

Purpose: Drawing on human capital theory and sustainable career theory, this paper aims to explore the impact of undertaking an industrial placement on the "Great Eight" competencies as perceived by university students and line managers. Design/methodology/approach: 618 students and their line managers across three cohorts (pre-COVID-19)…

The COVID-19 pandemic reduced the availability of work placements in commercial organisations for university students and potentially changed the nature of placements in the future. Similarly, charitable organisations who were already suffering budget restrictions have been financially affected by COVID-19 due to reduced revenue on trading…

This study contributes theoretically and empirically to our understanding of students' transition from work placement to the graduate labour market, by exploring earning differentials due to heterogeneous job transitions. We developed a theoretical framework that underpins the relationships between work placement, job transition and graduate…

Year-in-industry schemes provide new or enhanced skills beyond the academic environment, a context for consolidation for the academic skills and a maturity in the approach to subsequent studies. The present work aims to quantify the impact of the year in industry placement scheme on academic outcomes for engineering students according to whether…

Globalisation, technological changes and the industry-to-service economy transition has produced dramatic changes in the labour market, thus affecting higher education. It is no longer sufficient to provide students with disciplinary knowledge. Graduates are also expected to be adaptive, innovative and flexible. As these competencies are better…

We study whether the completion of an optional professional year placement during undergraduate studies enhances job quality, in terms of earnings, job security and career fit, for economics graduates from a UK university. Using linear and discrete choice models, we estimate the effect of doing a professional year placement on four graduate…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to report the motivations and perceived benefits of companies that collaborate with universities by offering student work-placement positions. Design/methodology/approach: The study follows a mixed methodology based on (1) a literature review on the topic, (2) a case study survey including companies that…

The 2020 EUA Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Group on "Meeting skills and employability demands" explored how universities can ensure that their study programmes reflect the dynamic demands of society and the labour market, and address skills demands throughout the student experience. In this paper, employability is considered as…

Are some graduates going on to do non-graduate jobs? Evidence collected from interviews with universities careers services shows many have in fact seen an improvement in graduate employment -- specifically, in more graduates entering 'high skilled professions' and unemployment rates going down. Many universities have implemented a mandatory work…

The OECD Career Readiness project makes use of quantitative evidence to identify how teenage career-related activities and attitudes are linked with better adult employment outcomes. Review of multiple national longitudinal datasets confirms that teenage experiences of the workplace through part-time working and volunteering are routinely…