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Developing a processual employability model to provide education for career self-management

Sam Jan Cees Krouwel (Athena Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Anna van Luijn (Athena Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Marjolein B.M. Zweekhorst (Athena Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Education + Training

ISSN: 0040-0912

Article publication date: 2 January 2020

Issue publication date: 6 February 2020

1867

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a practical model for the evaluation and adaptation of educational programmes in order to incorporate employability development focussed on enabling graduates to self-manage their career.

Design/methodology/approach

The model integrates several perspectives on and conceptualisations of the nature of employability and its development. The integration of various elements is justified on the basis of existing research and the experience of local educational practitioners.

Findings

The model integrates insights from the Graduate Employability Development model (Harvey et al., 2002), the CareerEDGE model (Dacre Pool and Sewell, 2007), the Career Management Employability model (Bridgstock, 2009) and adopts three career competencies as outcome indicators (Akkermans et al., 2013). The resulting model describes in simple terms what educational practitioners may adapt in the process of employability development to enhance the ability of prospective graduates to manage their own careers.

Research limitations/implications

The model remains theoretical and the relations it implies require further validation. Involving graduates and students in evaluating the model may contribute to validating its scope and applicability.

Practical implications

The model provides a practical tool to retrospectively and prospectively evaluate the institutional provision of employability development education. It may serve as a basis for adaptation to other programmes.

Originality/value

By adopting a processual perspective on employability, the model shifts away from the possession of a predefined set of characteristics, and towards enabling students to actively influence their own employability.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The present study was funded by a Comenius Teaching Fellowship awarded by the Dutch organisation for scientific research (NWO) to Anna van Luijn (MSc) in 2017. The Comenius Teaching Fellowship is intended to fund small scale projects for educational innovation for the benefit of students in Dutch higher education.

Citation

Krouwel, S.J.C., van Luijn, A. and Zweekhorst, M.B.M. (2020), "Developing a processual employability model to provide education for career self-management", Education + Training, Vol. 62 No. 2, pp. 116-128. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-10-2018-0227

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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