Harnessing Political Theory to Facilitate Students' Engagement with Graduate ‘Employability’: A Critical Pyramid Approach
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9256.2012.01435.x |
| Date | 01 June 2012 |
| Published date | 01 June 2012 |
| Subject Matter | Learning and Teaching in Politics and International Studies |
Learning and Teaching in Politics and
International Studies
Harnessing Political Theory to Facilitate
Students’ Engagement with Graduate
‘Employability’: A Critical Pyramid
Approachponl_1435129..137
Fidelma Ashe
University of Ulster
Both the business sector and government have claimed that there is a skills deficit among graduates
in the UK. Universities are now under increasing pressure to develop graduate ‘employability’
strategies to improve the stock and quality of graduates’ generic skills. Critical subject communities
have been sceptical of an employability agenda that frames graduate employment solely around
notions of personal career development and planning. This article discusses the intellectual and
pedagogical debates that have surrounded the employability agenda in higher education. It details
a critical pedagogical approach to graduate employment that was developed through a project
funded by the Higher Education Academy’s Subject Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and
Politics.
Introduction
The employability agenda in higher education in the UK has become an object of
critical interrogation by the discipline of politics. Critics have viewed this agenda as
further evidence that the traditional liberal ethos of higher education which placed
a premium on intellectual development is being eroded through a combination of
the increasing influence of commercial interests on university curricula, govern-
ment audits of teaching and research, and increased student fees (see Brown,
Hesketh and William, 2002 and 2003; Lee, 2010, for an overview). More specifi-
cally, critics have claimed that the ‘rolling out’ of the employability agenda in higher
education in the UK has been marked by pedagogical approaches that reduce issues
relating to graduate employment in a challenging economic context to individual
career planning (see Ainley, 2009; Craig, 2009a, for discussion). This approach to
‘delivering’ employability training to students is particularly problematic for lectur-
ing staff working in critical subject areas such as politics and sociology; disciplines
that have a history of focusing on the political, economic and ideological causes of
unemployment (see, for example, McQuaid and Lindsay, 2005). The intellectual
texture of these disciplines means that there is a lack of fit between the subject-
specific material of politics degrees and the dominant pedagogical approaches
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POLITICS: 2012 VOL 32(2), 129–137
© 2012 The Author.Politics © 2012 Political Studies Association
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