Seminar presentation at the La Trobe University Career Practitioners' Seminar 2017.

1. Jason Brown
Manager, Careers & Employability
REFRAMING
EMPLOYABILITY: A
REVIEW OF
CURRENT IDEAS
AND PRACTICES

2. REFRAMING EMPLOYABILITY
Reframing employability
Career Ready Advantage
Defining employability

3. DEFINING EMPLOYABILITY

4. THREE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS
1. Macro
Big picture view; labour markets (local and global); government policies; future of work
2. Meso
Institution level – programs and policies of educational institutions and employing organisations
3. Micro
Individual level – what people do; how we support them
THREE TYPES OF EMPLOYABILITY
1. Competence-based
2. Dispositional
3. Perceived
DEFINING EMPLOYABILITY

5. COMPETENCE-BASED EMPLOYABILITY
•Possession of a set of skills, knowledge,
understanding, attitudesAssumptions
•Core Skills for Work (Aust. Government, 2013)
•USEM (York & Knight, 2006), CareerEDGE (Dacre
Pool & Sewell, 2007)
Frameworks
•Addressing skills gaps (deficit model)Interventions
•Embedding graduate attributesCurriculum

6. DISPOSITIONAL EMPLOYABILITY
•“A form of work specific active adaptability that
enables workers to identify and realize career
opportunities”
(Fugate & Kinicki, 2008)
Assumptions
•Fugate’s 3 dimensions: Career Identity; Personal
adaptability; Social & Human CapitalFrameworks
•Development of career identity; adaptability;
networks, and KSAOsInterventions
•Career development learning, work-integrated
learning, connectedness learningCurriculum

7. PERCEIVED EMPLOYABILITY
• How an individual judges their chances of obtaining
employment based on factors internal and external to the
person
(Rothwell, Herbert, & Rothwell, 2008; Vanhercke et al., 2014)
Assumptions
• Rothwell’s perceived employability: University's brand; Status of
the student's field of study; State of the external labour market;
Student's self-belief
Frameworks
• Increase self-efficacy; Labour Market information; institutional
interventions to increase university’s brand, connections to
industry
Interventions
• Improved quality of teachingCurriculum

8. REFRAMING EMPLOYABILITY

9. Employability is a disposition that captures
individual characteristics that foster
adaptive behaviours and positive
employment outcomes
(Fugate, Kinicki & Ashforth, 2004)
REFRAMING EMPLOYABILITY

10. DISPOSITIONAL EMPLOYABILITY
The focus is on the personal attributes of an individual that facilitates proactive behaviour
Three underlying dimensions:
• Career identity
• Personal adaptability
• Social & Human Capital
REFRAMING EMPLOYABILITY

11. KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, ABILITIES & OTHER ATTRIBUTES (KSAOs)
Dispositional employability states that it is the responsibility of employees to develop the KSAOs that
employers seek (Fugate et al., 2004)
The underlying dimensions of dispositional employability predispose an individual to proactively
develop those KSAOs (Fugate et al., 2004)
KSAs are outcomes of education
REFRAMING EMPLOYABILITY

12. Characteristic adaptations are “specific
motivational, social-cognitive, and
developmental variables that are
contextualized in time, situations, and
social roles”.
McAdams & Pals (2006, p. 212)
REFRAMING EMPLOYABILITY

13. CHARACTERISTIC ADAPTATIONS
• make people who they are as an individual
(compared to dispositions which are broad individual differences, like Big 5 personality traits)
• easier to change via interventions than dispositions
• include goals, values, coping strategies, self-efficacy, career adaptability, intercultural sensitivity
REFRAMING EMPLOYABILITY

14. CAREER ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOURS
Adaptive behaviours (Lent & Brown, 2013) are those that people use to develop their educational and
career goals and include behaviours such as:
• Exploring career paths
• Developing employability skills
• Making and implementing career decisions
• Developing networks
• Acquiring work experiences
Adaptive behaviours are important because they:
• increase the chance of outcomes, like skill development, job interviews, employment
• can be influenced by factors addressable through career interventions. For example,
environmental supports, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, learning experiences.
REFRAMING EMPLOYABILITY

15. CAREER READY ADVANTAGE

16. Career Ready Advantage will support students to develop the skills
and attributes that employers value in graduates.
• Build your skills: Develop skills and personal
attributes by learning, doing and reflecting.
• Manage your career: Employers told us that
students who take control of their career
management really stand out.
• Track and assess your progress:
Assess where you are and take control
of your growth and development
through your personal dashboard
online and through the MyLaTrobe app.
• Unlock rewards: Be rewarded by your
progress with opportunities such as
mentoring and employer networking.
• Tell your story: Build your story through the
Career Ready Portfolio highlighting various
experiential learning activities you’ve
undertaken and the skills and attributes you
have developed.
My
purpos
e
Understanding
business and how it
operates including
the impact of new
media and
technology
Working effectively with
others in any cultural or
organisational context
to take advantage of
diverse knowledge and
skills
Using personal
presence, listening and
questioning to engage
others effectively in
conversation,
presentation and written
communication
Proactively taking
ownership and
accountability for
individual and
shared outcomes
Personal
judgement
Communicating &
influencing
Results
orientation
Big picture
awareness
Business &
digital
acumen
Cultural
intelligence
Innovative
thinking
My
Purpose
Collaboration

17. CAREER READY ADVANTAGE

18. CAREER READY ADVANTAGE
The cornerstone of Career
Ready Advantage is the
Capability Framework.
https://youtu.be/HkUDq3dM8bU

19. CAREER READY ADVANTAGE

20. CAREER READY ADVANTAGE

21. LEARN
24 online learning modules to develop Career Ready Capabilities
Content curated from high quality sources: LinkedIn Learning, TED Talks, Podcasts
CAREER READY ADVANTAGE

22. DO
Completion of experiential learning activities
• Paid employment
• Volunteering
• Leadership programs
• Mentoring
• Internships
• Business Innovation Challenges
CAREER READY ADVANTAGE

23. REFLECT
Students complete a ‘STAR’ reflection on submission of a ‘Do’ activity
Reflections are then revisited at key points in the program
Career Ready ‘health checks’
• 1:1 and group sessions with careers advisers
• Plan the ‘Learn’ and ‘Do’ activities that students will focus on
Assessment Centres
• To earn digital badges, students attend an assessment centre facilitated by a careers adviser
• Employers attend and assess students Career Ready Capabilities
• Feedback provided by employers
Career Ready Portfolio
• Students build a portfolio of their key learning experiences through Career Ready Advantage
• Content published to LinkedIn, CVs
CAREER READY ADVANTAGE

24. HOW DOES CAREER READY ADVANTAGE ENHANCE EMPLOYABILITY?
Engages students in career adaptive behaviours
• Recognises and rewards student engagement in career adaptive behaviours like employment,
internships, career planning
Development of skills and personal attributes
• Provides a toolkit to guide development of skills and personal attributes
• Focus is on developing all skills, and engaging in activities you wouldn’t normally do
• Helps makes connections between study and other activities and skills employers seek
• Provides students with a language to talk to employers about what they can offer
Career management
• Increase in opportunities for students to learn about career development
• Employer engagement events
CAREER READY ADVANTAGE

25. QUESTIONS?