1. Competences, Capabilities & Capitals: their relationship to graduate employability Michael Tomlinson University of Southampton Southampton Education School

2. Overview of presentation Discuss wider context of graduate employability and its challenges for HE and careers Consider some dominant approaches to graduate employability Explore rationale and basis for a graduate capitals model –Resources and readiness

3. Context of graduate employability Challenging graduate labour market – wage returns but…. differentiated, increasing under-employment (e.g. Future Track Survey, 2013; ONS, 2012) Labour market barriers…formal and perceptual –Role of ‘subjective’ factors (i.e. self-perceived employability, career orientations) Distinction between employment and ‘employability’

4. Challenges for higher education HE as driver for economic growth (within a loosely-coupled relationship) –Policy subtext of adaptive, career-driven, self- optimising graduate The student-consumer in the managed market –Managing student expectations, shifting demands –Value = value for money, value of return, value for time –Massificaiton, diversity, social mobility challenges (see Brown & Carasso, 2013; Tomlinson, 2016; Williams, 2012)

5. Challenges for higher education White Paper challenges (TEF, DHLE) –Metrics drivers and positional markets –Employability frameworks & need for creative responses…. & research base Russell Group HEIs in healthy market position, choice reputation but…. –Early career planning increasingly necessary –Reimaging career planning as self/personal development –False dichotomy between academic and employment- focused orientations

6. Employability and the university experience University as a field of multiple practices & development opportunities –Multiple interactions (peers, disciplinary communities, ECAs, career services, employers) Declining value of formal ‘hard’ credentials Economy of experience / narratives of employability –Bringing together hard and soft currencies

7. Problematic definition Commonly used: “a set of achievements - skills, understandings and personal attributes - that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy.” (Yorke, 2006) BUT pre-empts the very issue in question: what skills, and understanding?; how do they help people gain employment?; how do they lead to successful employment outcomes?

8. Challenging questions HE and employability relationship Normative questions –What can HEIs do to better enhance graduates’ employability? (performative, effective) –What key skills do graduates require? (functional) Critical (equally legitimate) –What specifically is higher education meant to be producing and to what effect? –Do graduates’ relative outcomes reflect a continuum of employability? –What is the role of employers and HRD practice? –What other factors shapes and influences graduates’ successful transitions to working life?

9. Graduate competences Sometimes associated with ‘skills’ approaches Supply-side orientation –Graduate-based ‘attributes’ approaches –Employability = degree qualification + skills, competences and attributes Competency-orientated educational provision –VET ‘learning outcomes’ & occupational fit –Problem-based learning –Embedded ‘skills’

10. Dimensions of competences Conceptual distinctions –‘ entity’/possessive vs relational, situated –Competence vs competencies –Technical vs behavioural Importance of context (Eraut, 2007; Lindberg & Rantatdaldo, 2015) –Occupational selection & socialisation –Appraisal of performance by other –Balance

11. The Limits of Competence revisited Multiple lists and frameworks –No agreed methodology for identification –Questionable conceptualisation / Lack of explanatory power –Semantics e.g. Ryle (1954) technical and non- technical discourse; Wittgenstein – language games Education – workplace division –Behaviouristic underpinnings (e.g. VET check-list of ‘learning outcomes’) –HE purpose – conflation of higher learning and training (Barnett, 1994; Ainley, 2016) ‘

12. Capabilities and employability Employability and opportunity for choice and value (Sen, 1992; 1999; Nussbaum, 2000; 2011) –Internal and combined capability –Freedom and well-being Key capabilities (employment related) –Agency and self-empowerment (includes decision-making) –Judgement formation and practical reason –Emphasis on intrinsic value and goals (understand the value of employment, freedom to choose between options) –Broader framing of university process & curricula Critical challenges – conversion from potential to realised capability

13. Capitals - definition Resources which empower individuals –Higher levels of capitals  stronger level of career readiness and resourcefulness  greater confidence and goal-orientations Acquired and built upon through educational, life and work-experiences Forms of capital are often inter-related and feed into other forms Need to be continually enriched during and beyond graduation

14. Challenges Differentially-acquired amongst graduates but can still be enhanced Emphasis also on agency, not just structure –Family and socio-economic background vs. affordances of higher education experience Graduates’ relationship to job market is subjectively mediated –Impacts on level of engagement with employability management, goal-mapping

15. 15 The graduate capital model

16. Human capital Human capital is the knowledge and skills graduates acquire which is a core foundation to their labour market prospects Technical knowledge (potential occupational links) Skills and competences (codified and tacit) Career-building skills and knowledge

17. Social capital Social capital is the sum of social relationships and networks that help mobilise human capital and bring graduates closer to the labour market and its opportunity structures Bridging and bonding (Portes, 1998) Weak and strong ties (Granovetter, 1985) Formation of positive ‘communities of practice’ (peers, colleagues, employment associations) Impacts include knowledge, insight, ‘trust’, confidence

18. Cultural capital Cultural capital is the formation of culturally- valued knowledge, dispositions and behaviours that are aligned to the workplaces graduates seek to enter Southampton & Warwick graduates largely rich in this (socio-cultural & educational profile, reputational capital of HE) Dynamics of ‘social fit’ –Embodied cultural capital –Importance of cultural sensitivity and awareness –Understanding organisational values, practices –Self-presentation (can this be trained?)

19. Identity capital Identity capital is the level of personal investment people make towards the development of careers and employability Emerging identity, pre-professional identity formation Related to life experiences, personal narrative –ECAs and work experience important for identity-building Presentation and performance of one’s employability (e.g. manicuring CVs, distinctive profile management)

20. Identity & Cultural Capital interplay Necessary conditions: Individual must present self to prospective employer as ‘suitable’ for employment AND Employer must view graduate as suitable for employment Identities are warranted and affirmed by others Holmes (2001; 2013)

21. Psychological capital Psychological capital is the psycho-social resources which enable graduates to adapt and respond positively to inevitable career challenges Self-efficacy / openness to experience / mind-sets Flexibility (contingencies) Resilience Career adaptability and related learning

22. Orientation to market (ends) Careerist Ritualist Rebel Retreatist Non-market orientation Active Passive (means) Strong identity capital (work expression of self) Emerging flexibility, contingency Weak identity capital Psychological distancing Fractured employability management Ambivalence Managing expectations & goals Perceptions of capital defici t Strong identity capital (away from employment) Resistance or alternative employment spaces

23. Capital pre-employment outcomes Examples Be aware and draw upon of formal knowledge and skills and present to employers (human) Knowledge of one’s target industry, trends, demands (human Know key gatekeepers in the industry (social) Making oneself visible to employer networks (social) Awareness and sensitivity to the target work cultures (cultural) Have emerging career goals & aspirations (identity) Be able to reflect on and capitalise on experience and achievements (identity) Manage expectations towards career challenge, uncertainty and risk (psychological)

24. Implications & challenges for HE stakeholders: the adaptable and ready graduate Time dimensions (developmental and renewal of capitals) Career learning and practice – exploiting HE’s landscape of practice Translating discourse of capitals to students –Critical reflection, enhancing career identity, self- belief, resilience management Employer engagement, networks and work experience opportunity (esp. for marginalised students) Academic community engagement (a different vocabulary)

25. Future directions Enhance research base Future empirical directions (e.g. ‘Learning Gain’) Relationship between capitals and other issues –Different subject disciplinary developments –Impacts of work experience / internships –Mediating factors in capital formations –Student self-diagnostics

26. Thank you