Demystifying the term 'Employability' 

‘Employability’ always felt like a term that confused me, a ‘thing’ that I needed to learn, a way of being that was inauthentic and exhausting. To be employable, I thought I had to look beyond my degree and constantly justify that I do have skills and value in the workplace. I found the constant conversations about the limiting nature of an English degree boring, and aggravating, and I couldn’t help but start to believe them - maybe I was limited by my degree? 

I knew that I wasn’t alone in this thinking, and as the world around me grew even more sceptical of the ‘value’ of my degree, I started my English Literature MA which felt a bit like an act of defiance. I was determined to prove that the skills I have gained through my undergraduate degree have made me employable, valuable, and successful. As part of this defiance, I began working within the Cornerstone Employability and Placements Hub and noticed that there was still a significant number of students who were also looking for answers to the questions: What do I do next? Should I talk about my degree in an application? Is it okay to not want to have a career related to my degree? I realised that these questions were more universal than I first thought. I began to think about why these questions are so scary, and what could happen to help students feel less intimidated by the working world, and feel more confident in their value to an employer. 

What I did

The School of English Employability Site was created by me, a part-time MA student, who requested to work within the school for my Work Placement Module as part of my studies. I began to work closely with Employability Lead Dr Amber Regis to plot out the journey that students follow in the school and used my lived experience to question what students might need at each of these stages. We decided that students needed a central place to access university-wide resources, information, and guidance and to have clear outlines of what they need to think about and when they should think about these things. 

The site itself is structured to support students' thinking and offer an opportunity for them to put themselves at the centre of their employability, aiming to build their confidence in their value to employers. It was important to highlight that students can use the site in their own way, accessing the pages at whatever stage of their degree they are in, and finding the information that feels the ‘most authentic’ for them.

Approaching a student's employability as a journey encourages the students to take responsibility for adapting their experience and development to suit them. Students should have the freedom to be proactive but should have easy access to all the resources to support this thinking. The site offers an awareness of the real experiences of students within the school and acknowledges the challenges and anxieties students might be facing. The ‘Activities and Guides’ section of the site offers a wide range of activities and guides to support students in the School of English to explore, reflect, and develop their skills and to understand how their skills are transferable into the working world and to feel confident in their career planning.

How it could be adapted and used for your School

This site could be adapted for other schools by considering your students' journeys. Are there specific challenges students in your School face? What common questions and topics come up about their employability? How might the skills they gain in their degrees be transferable to the workplace?

Acknowledging that you are aware of the challenges students might be facing in their employability development is a useful way to make employability conversations feel authentic and productive. This site is, therefore, a resource for staff to use to discuss a student’s employability. Staff can reflect on where students are in their own journey by asking them what their current focus is or working through the activities together. The site offers checklists to structure this thinking, which can be helpful in conversations about employability where students might need clear guidance. 

I hope that this site is an example of how using the student voice, listening to students' experience, and producing resources that are reflective of student experience not only benefit the students who access this site but can also provide the School with a resource to use when talking about employability topics for your students. Building an understanding of the employability journey of the students in your school will help demystify and challenge the idea that employability exists as an external concept they have to learn. 

Sometimes, students need some help feeling confident that they are gaining key knowledge and skills from studying. Therefore, giving them the resources to guide them through their employability journey can help them see the value of their degree. 

Access the School of English Employability Hub here