ABSTRACT
The term ‘employability’ is widely used in relation to individuals and groups perceived as having barriers to entering the labour market, government programmes aimed at getting people back to work, and in recent years by universities in their programmes to develop skills and relevant experiences for students. There are many definitions, including the one provided by the Enhancing Student Employability Coordination Team (ESECT) at the Higher Education Academy (HEA) (2006: 3) that employability consists of ‘a set of achievements – skills, understandings and personal attributes – that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy’.
