Abstract:

The past two decades have witnessed an increased imperative for congruence between higher educational programmes and employment skills (Maher and Graves 2007). The Dearing Review (1997) of British higher education emphasised the importance of transferable skills for employment and economic prosperity. Furthermore Yorke (2006) refers to the emphasis placed upon the investment in human capital for international labour market competition. The current economic crisis serves only to strengthen the argument for workplace utility within Higher education, indeed the current UK Coalition Government highlights employability as a key priority for business (HEFCE 2010)

It is against this backdrop that the author presents a local example of initiatives taken within the Social Sciences Department at the University of Huddersfield in order to firmly embed employment readiness within the curriculum and employment opportunities. She describes the development of an informal collaborative working relationship between the careers service and an academic member of the BSc Criminology programme, and the evolution of a comprehensive careers strategy, consistent with the UK Higher Educational Academy best practice guidance. The utility of Darce Pool and Sewell’s (2007) model ‘The essential components of employability’ as a framework is also considered. This is a multidimensional model which promotes the identification of a variety of skills and attributes for employment including self- efficacy, self esteem and self confidence.
The presentation therefore provides an account of the broad philosophical imperatives for employment focused courses, and the practical implementation of a local framework for employability utilising only existing financial resources.

Keywords:

Employability, collaboration, cost neutral.