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The first of a series of three articles examining the role of higher education in preparing graduates for “self‐managing” their careers, with particular reference to small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) as potential employers. Examines key trends in the graduate labour market, including the increasing numbers entering higher education (HE) and the possible consequences for graduate careers. Explores actual and potential responses by HE institutions and related implications for the curriculum of undergraduate programmes. Provides a brief review of career theory. This leads to presentation of a conceptual model to inform the notion of “self‐managed careers”, and examines associated knowledge and skills required for application of the model in practice. Prepares the ground for reporting the results of empirical research in the second article in the series.

The purpose of this paper is to showcase that the integration of academic assessment with workplace performance appraisal practices can help to address the gap between graduate employability skills and employers’ requirements. Employability refers to learning of transferable skills.

The integrated assessment criteria grid by which the quality of the assignments may be judged was developed and discussed with the students. Grades achieved by each assessment criterion are analysed and inferred as to whether students have learned the desired transferable skills.

Such integration strengthens the theoretical argument on the importance of formative assessment as a way to nurture students’ learning. The transferable skills that students appeared to have learnt include “use of relevant data, meticulous, attention to details, structure & systems thinking, critical thinking and writing skill”.

Only one cohort of students is involved and their participation in the discussion is on a voluntary basis. The paper was not able to address students who did not appear to have learnt the transferable skills.

Employers are more cognisant of the quality of the management students graduating from this university. The learning of transferable skills reflects creativity development, and this contributes to the theory of knowledge which emphasises the importance of developing creativity through education.

This paper introduces a new form of formative assessment as a way to nurture students’ learning of transferable skills within a coursework assignment setting.

A sample of 1996 undergraduate students from the University of Central Lancashire were surveyed soon after graduation. Responses were obtained from 143 graduates of the University from an initial census of 315 (45 per cent) drawn from six departments. Although the initial purpose of the survey was to assess the usefulness of survey methodology as a means of assessing graduates’ skills development, the research also addressed a number of key questions relating to the importance and quality of graduates’ generic transferable skills and competencies. Basic findings in terms of skills development are threefold: (a) graduates tend to rate the importance of particular skills more highly than their own ability in those skills, (b) graduates tend to rate their level of ability lowest in IT skills and highest in their ability to work without supervision, and (c) that there are possible differences between the views of males and females. The research has implications for undergraduates, employers and careers advisers. Furthermore, academic departments facing teaching quality assessment might find that this approach offers useful evidence for their self assessment.

This article reports on a pilot graduate apprenticeship in hospitality management, currently delivered at Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies (BCFTCS). The graduate apprenticeship at BCFTCS involves the integration of key skills and level four NVQ units into the established hospitality business management undergraduate degree programme. Key outcomes to emerge from the design, implementation and first year delivery of the graduate apprenticeship are discussed to assess if the integration of key skills and NVQs into an existing programme of study provides added value to the student learning experience. The major benefits and challenges which a programme involving a coalescence of key skills, HE award and NVQs offers HE institutions and employers are discussed.

This paper aims to present a model of the employability confidence of graduates using employability skills. The purpose of the study is twofold: to identify to what extent self-perceived employability skills (input employability) influence the employability confidence of students/graduates (output employability) and to identify if there are determinant relationships between categories of employability skills.

The researchers for this study built and tested an employability confidence model which included seven constructs. Six focussed on employability skills “professional skills, transferable individual skills, transferable social skills, personal qualities, job seeking skills and corporate work-related skills”, while the last one focussed on employability confidence, seen as the students’/graduates’ self-reliance for getting and maintaining a job. The model was refined using structural equation modelling (with SmartPLS 3 SEM software) and was tested by empirically, analysing a sample of participants studying business.

The results illustrated that four categories of skills (personal qualities, professional skills, job seeking skills and transferable social skills) have a positive and significant influence on students’/graduates’ employability confidence, while individual transferable skills and corporate-related skills do not have a significant influence on employability confidence.

The study contributed to the exiting literature by proposing a new model and measurement instrument that links input employability (individual employability skills) with output employability (employability confidence). The model emphasizes the complete range of individual employability skills, the types of skills that are in the control of the individual. It also contributed by collecting data from a less studied country and region, Romania, that can be considered relevant for Central and Eastern Europe due to similar economic, political, cultural and historical characteristics.

From a practical point of view, the results can be of interest to individuals, to universities and the teaching staff, to organizations and their human resource specialists, and to public administrators, as they all can act to support the development of individual employability skills, thereby helping to increase the employability confidence of individuals.

The study contributed to the exiting literature not only by proposing a new conceptual model to analyse employability confidence but also by collecting data from a less studied region, Romania, that can be considered relevant for Central and Eastern Europe due to similar economic, political, cultural and historical characteristics.

The implementation of life cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon footprinting represents an important professional and research opportunity for chemical engineers, but this is not broadly reflected in chemical engineering curricula worldwide. This paper aims to present the implementation of a coursework that is easy to apply, free of cost, valid worldwide and flexible enough to cover such holistic topics.

An analysis of chemical engineering curricula worldwide, a literature review and the implementation of a coursework case study are detailed. The latter combines practical exercises using free LCA software, oral presentations and debates.

The coursework goes beyond the calculation of results, giving the students key transferable skills to increase their employability, such as the capacity to negotiate/discuss in groups, software learning and development of critical thinking. The course is affordable and flexible, enabling adaptation to different sectors and engineering schools. One limitation is the challenge of ensuring robustness and consistency in marking, but this has been already improved with a more explicit rubric. The feedback of the students confirms these findings, including the learning of transferable skills as the major advantage.

This paper addresses, for the first time, the current state of “life cycle thinking” teaching in the curricula of the top 25 chemical engineering schools worldwide, a literature review of previous experience and a description of a novel coursework taking a theoretical and practical approach to LCA, carbon footprinting and socio-economic sustainability via a free software and a comprehensive range of didactic activities.

This chapter proposes authentic leadership as a generic competence and an integral part of doctoral education regardless of field of study. The authors explore its potential to enhance the development of doctoral candidates and academics and search for answers to the questions: Can and should authentic leadership be developed as a generic competence in doctoral education? How can it be designed and implemented in a doctoral training module? What would its learning outcomes be? The authors address these questions in the context of doctoral education. They assert that authentic leadership training should be mandatory for all doctoral candidates, and that supervisors should be actively engaged in the development of this underappreciated transferrable skill.

The purpose of this paper is to examine assessed seminars in law modules across first-, second- and third-year students at a higher education academy in Lancashire (England). This form of assessment is essentially a 1 h tutorial, where students are given marks for their oral contribution to class discussions. Assessment is a feature in all degree programmes conducted throughout higher education institutions. Recently, a move has been made from traditional examinations and coursework to assess students learning, to more inclusive forms of assessment following the changing nature of those entering higher education.

Using a quantitative survey, participants were asked to answer ten questions on their perceptions of assessed seminars as a form of assessment. To enhance the findings, interviews also took place with members of staff who had experience in teaching both assessed and non-assessed seminars.

This research found that although some students were daunted by assessed seminars, over the course of three years, their key legal skills had improved. Key skills enhanced through assessed seminars include communication-based skills and public speaking, whilst also being a positive form of assessment that maintains student retention.

This is a small-scale research project, completed in the fulfilment of the authors PgCert. However, it does provide a template for other legal institutions to follow.

With a growing concern across the higher education sector around student retention, assessed seminars are proven to be a form of assessment that ensures student attendance, whilst enhancing skills ready for the workplace.

This paper introduces a new approach to embedding employability by extracting from higher education curriculum the knowledge, attributes, skills and experience that employers value. The Extracted Employability concept enables academics to surface the innate employability value of what they already teach across all curriculums, disciplines and programmes, enabling students to prepare better for work and make more effective career decisions.

Manual textual analysis of all UK Quality Assurance Agency Subject Benchmark Statements surfaced a database of common descriptors for defining and articulating the innate employability value of higher education curriculum, enriching language in attributes and transferable skills.

Extracted Employability enables academics to articulate the employability value of their existing curriculum without sacrificing rigour or integrity, which is particularly of concern in research-led universities. Piloting the concept, a database of attributes and transferable skills enabled academics to surface significantly greater value for students from curriculum in the language employers recognise, addressing the perceived “skills gap”.

Students, particularly studying subjects not professionally-aligned, will find it easier to connect the extracted employability value of their curriculum with what employers are looking for. Academics can use richer language of skills for creating learning outcomes that also have employability value.

Surfacing employability through curriculum makes it structurally unavoidable for all students to engage with, supporting social mobility and enabling students to realise more effectively the value of their higher education in work.

Research and practice on employability has derived from a position outside academic curriculum established by Knight and Yorke (2003), but this approach redefines employability from within academic curriculum.

The purpose of this paper is to report on research carried out with employers to determine demand for business and management skills in the Scottish workforce.

The research used a questionnaire in which employers were interviewed (either telephone or face to face), completed themselves and returned by e-mail, or completed an online survey. In total, 71 employers took part in the study.

The research found that the factors which are most important to employers when recruiting graduates were; personal attitude, employability skills, relevant work experience and degree result. The most important transferable skills to employers when recruiting graduates were; trustworthiness, reliability, motivation, communication skills and a willingness to learn.

The paper shows the importance of graduates developing excellent job searching skills, high-quality work experience and developing business courses to enhance students’ employability and better meet employers’ wants.

The paper is timely given the introduction of Key Information Sets. The provision of such information will drive HEI to further develop students’ employability to obtain graduate-level jobs.