In this section:
Latest Research and Innovation
Access key research, literature and resources
How can you make a difference to your students? Where to start and how we can help.
Find out more about models and tools that can be used to support good practice on the topic of Employability. Find out more about the Graduate Capital Model and the Career Readiness Test how they can be used to help students develop lifelong skills and assess their career readiness
Examples of good practice and innovation from across the University
Latest Research and Innovation
Higher Education Academy
As well as their free resource pack (Embedding Employability) the Higher Education Academy website includes a range of employability research. In 2017, the HEA supported the publication of Employability: A review of the literature 2012 to 2016 (2017) . Examining 187 pieces of research, it gives a detailed insight into how the subject of employability has been addressed during a four-year period with key implications for higher education providers, academic and employability practitioners.
However, key patterns in the literature suggest that effective strategies include:
- embedding employability in the curriculum and ensuring that students are able to make a connection between employability outcomes and their discipline
- providing a range of co-curricular and extra-curricular opportunities for students to enhance their employability
- building links with the labour market and encouraging students to do the same. The literature finds value in a wide range of connections between HEPs and employers. In particular, there is evidence of the impact of providing students with real connections to employers and actual experience of the labour market
- supporting students to increase their confidence, self-belief and self-efficacy through their studies
- encouraging reflection and increasing students' capacity to articulate and communicate their learning to employers
- encouraging student mobility and fostering a global perspective
Employability and Assessment
JISC includes advice about how to align employability and assessment, as well as some example case studies of good practice in assessing employability.
Useful resources and guidance
We are currently building this section. Once complete you will find resources relating to good practice.
The Graduate Capital Model
The Graduate Capital Model was originally created by Dr Michael Tomlinson, Associate Professor, in the School of Education. It builds on his extensive research in the field of employability. Careers, Employability and Student Enterprise have adapted the model to meet the needs of students at the University of Southampton by creating a set of learning outcomes suited to our students.
Tomlinson defines capitals as ‘key resources that confer benefits and advantages in the labour market’ (2016). Importantly for us, Dr Tomlinson thinks that there is scope for capitals to be reflected upon and developed to better serve students during and after their education.
There are five capitals in Tomlinson’s model: Human Capital, Social Capital, Cultural Capital, Psychological Capital and Identity Capital.
Introduction to the Graduate Capital Model
Find out more about the Graduate Capital Model and the 5 capitals
Making use of the Graduate Capital Model
Help students to develop lifelong skills
An online test for students to assess their career readiness in line with the Graduate Capital Model learning outcomes
To find out more and make use of the Graduate Capital Model and the Career Readiness Test, please contact:
We welcome comments and feedback about the content and application of the materials from colleagues at the University of Southampton and beyond.
All use of these materials should be fully acknowledged as the Intellectual Property of the University of Southampton. The original concept being Dr Michael Tomlinson's (Tomlinson, M.B. (2017) 'Forms of graduate capital and their relationship to graduate employability', Education + Training Vol.59 Issue:4, pp338-352) and subsequent material including the Learning Outcomes and Career Readiness Test being created by Mccafferty and Port (2017).
The Career Readiness Test
An online test for students to assess their career readiness in line with the Graduate Capital Model learning outcomes
Excellence in Employability
We are currently building this section. Once complete you will find examples of practice from across the University that have had a demonstrably positive impact on students. Examples will include a combination of Faculty-led initiatives and those developed and delivered in partnership with Careers, Employability and Student Enterprise.
Do you have an example to share? Please get in touch.