Deciphering graduate employability: Assessing the relationship between employability, work-readiness and career-readiness in a work integrated learning program

Deciphering graduate employability: Assessing the relationship between employability, work-readiness and career-readiness in a work integrated learning program

Graduate employability has made it onto the higher education sector priority list, however its definition lacks clarity (Healy et al., 2022). Work integrated learning (WIL) has been the applied solution for embedding employability skills into higher education qualifications, with many institutions expanding their WIL program options for students (Jackson & Wilton, 2016; Jackson et al., 2024; Rowe & Zegwaard, 2017). This thesis evaluates a current WIL program within a private higher education hospitality industryfocused institution – the International College of Hotel Management (ICHM), offering a unique contribution to the graduate employability literature given its singular approach to a WIL program within the Australian HE sector. Existing research offers limited constructive evidence to guide teachers who support student transitions to the world of work (Cabellero & Walker, 2010; Casner-Lotto & Barrington, 2006; Healy 2023; Jackson & Dean, 2023; Smith et al., 2014). Existing higher education literature also does not provide clear guidance on how educators can design, implement and evaluate WIL programs (Cabellero & Walker, 2010; Kay et al., 2019; Smith et al., 2014). This lack of clarity arguably stems from the multilayered conceptions within the umbrella term of “employability”. Two studies were conducted using a qualitative research approach; both studies employed the semi-structured interview method. Study 1 involved student participants (N = 12) and Study 2 involved lecturer participants (N = 8). Both studies investigated participant conceptions of workreadiness, career-readiness, and their connection to graduate employability within a private higher education WIL program. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) revealed the following major themes: student self-efficacy, assessment of WIL, career management, pedagogy of career management, higher education and industry crossroads and the employability, work-readiness and career readiness transition. All themes informed the proposed adaptation of the Career EDGE model of employability, inclusive of workreadiness and career-readiness to provide additional clarity of terminology. The limited scholarly activity to clearly guide educators on how best to integrate employability and career development learning into their pedagogical approaches and development of assessment found to be a clear hurdle for academic faculty. This finding also impacting the ability of Academic Faculty to engage industry stakeholders in assessment for enhanced student outcomes. Two recommendations for future research are presented; the need for investigation into the impact of educator self-efficacy as it relates to pedagogical practice and assessment construction for employability and CDL outcomes and the need to include future action based research defining best practice examples of whole institution integrated graduate employability and CDL frameworks.

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