There is continued pressure on universities to develop future-oriented graduates given documented skill gaps and global talent shortages. Although work experience supports work-readiness and is prioritised among graduate employers, little is known about the labour market gains from student employment compared to work experience embedded within the…

This study provides a "narrative synthesis" of the findings published in journal articles from a broad range of scientific fields about the impact of extracurricular activities (ECAs) on the academic success and employability of university students. The analysis included 39 articles from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, published…

Much research has investigated international graduate employability in home "or" host countries. However, limited studies have accounted for such employability "across" the home and the host. Drawing on Bourdieu's relational and reflexive sociology, this paper critically examined the first author's narrative of his employment…

Employability skills and capabilities are equally important as academic and technical knowledge in the current job market. Consequently, universities are increasingly focusing on providing employability skills to their students. While universities in Australia are experimenting with various methods for employability embedding, we could not find…

This study deployed a mixed-method approach to explore how international graduates identified and strategically utilised their resources to negotiate employability in the host country. One hundred and eighty international graduates from Australian universities participated in a survey and in-depth interviews. Findings revealed that employability…

Despite a significant number of international graduates staying in the host countries on post-graduation visas, their experiences in gaining access to the host labour market are less documented. This article addresses this critical but under-researched topic. It discusses the ecological circumstances impacting international graduates'…

In this paper we seek to understand how structural, contextual and institutional conditions influence the construction of individual agency in career development policy. We focus on responsibilisation, the process by which responsibility for outcomes is transferred from the state to the individual, through a combination of policy actions and the…

Internationalization and the concomitant flow of cultural diversity often associated with it are highly prized by universities; many tertiary institutions claim internationalization of the campus, the curriculum, research, and the student body as a major goal, a key performance indicator. However, in the current climate of global international…

The study examines the prevalence of emergent professional identity (PI) among different groups of higher education students as well as the determining factors in the formation of PI. Drawing on evidence from a survey among Australian and UK students (N = 433), from two institutions and across a range of disciplines, empirical and conceptual…

Purpose: This study aims to investigate graduate employer perceptions of determining factors in recruitment decisions and their preferred use of recruitment channels. This study drew on the employability capitals model to interpret findings and identify ways to better prepare higher education students for recruitment and selection. This is…

Increasing competitiveness in the graduate employment field combined with growing numbers of degree bearing applicants means that gaining employment after completing university studies can be a lengthy and complex undertaking. This is even more the case for students who do not have ready access to the social or family capital often required for…

International graduate employability is critical to host universities' positioning in the education export market, internationalisation agenda and ethical responsibility to international students and alumni. However, little is known about the positioning and re-positioning of international graduates in their home labour market. This article…

Extracurricular activities (ECAs) and their impact on student employability has become a focus of the higher education sector, with a recent emphasis on experiences such as global exchange and skill acquisition that prepares graduates for the workforce. Despite the initiatives and effort put into supporting the general student population, students…

In this article, we draw from a recent empirical study to consider how a person's classed trajectory impacts students from different class backgrounds in higher education (HE). Students face rapidly evolving social and academic circumstances and must build reasonable strategies to navigate their trajectory from education to work. In these…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a measure of soft skills suitable for use in a large survey of Australian adolescents. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted with N = 4,704 Australians aged 15-19 over 2 years. Principal components analysis was performed on 14 self-report items, followed by generalised linear mixed…