ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to provide an introductory overview of the current policy and conceptual landscape of graduate employability. A related goal is to set the scene for the subsequent material that follows in this collection, including the many personal narrative accounts featuring in the second part. It finally introduces newer approaches to developing graduate employability based on concepts of graduate capital, identity, and agency – concepts that inform much of the analysis in the subsequent chapters. There can be little dispute over how strongly woven into the fabric of contemporary higher education institutions (HEIs) the employability agenda has become. More open to debate is how this issue has been conceived, how adequately both national policy and HEIs are approaching this agenda and how best it can be developed in order for current students, graduates, and other key stakeholders to experience the benefits of higher education (HE).
