ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the construct of the professional graduate using two divergent professional exemplars, and illuminates commonalities and variations in the construction of the professional graduate. It explains the concept of graduateness, which is increasingly applied to graduate attributes, values and attitudes that one may ascribe to the dispositional qualities of the graduate. Wheelahan notes the particular strength of the links with graduateness in the UK, citing the Higher Education Quality Enhancement Group (HEQC) report as germinal to a wider academic interest in the term and notion of graduateness and suggests that internationally interest is growing. A number of individual attributes have been suggested as aspects of professionalism, including accountability, integrity, personal mastery/self-control, trustworthiness and interpersonal skills. Professional values are increasingly becoming embedded within nursing curricula. The attributes of professional accountants are fundamental to them being able to apply accounting rules and to monitor their implementation.
