consensus theory of employability

What this research has shown is that graduates anticipate the labour market to engender high risks and uncertainties (Moreau and Leathwood, 2006; Tomlinson, 2007) and are managing their expectations accordingly. These concerns have been given renewed focus in the current climate of wider labour market uncertainty. Employable individuals are able to demonstrate a fundamental level of functioning or skill to perform a given job, or an employable individual's skills and experience . This review has highlighted how this shifting dynamic has reshaped the nature of graduates transitions into the labour market, as well as the ways in which they begin to make sense of and align themselves towards future labour market demands. As Brown et al. Longitudinal research on graduates transitions to the labour market (Holden and Hamblett, 2007; Nabi et al., 2010) also illustrates that graduates initial experiences of the labour market can confirm or disrupt emerging work-related identities. This is further raising concerns around the distribution and equity of graduates economic opportunities, as well as the traditional role of HE credentials in facilitating access to desired forms of employment (Scott, 2005). explains that employability influences three theories: Talcott Parson's Consensus Theory that is linked to norms and shared beliefs of the society; Conflict theory of Karl Marx, who elaborated how the finite resources of the world drive towards eternal conflict; and Human Capital Theory of Becker which is editors. Sennett, R. (2006) The Culture of New Capitalism, Yale: Yale University Press. Graduates increasing propensity towards lifelong learning appears to reflect a realisation that the active management of their employability is a career-wide project that will prevail over their longer-term course of their employment. (employment, marriage, children) that strengthen social bonds -Population Heterogeneity Stability in criminal offending is due to an anti-social characteristic (e., low self-control) that reverberates . Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative, Over 10 million scientific documents at your fingertips, Not logged in This paper draws largely from UK-based research and analysis, but also relates this to existing research and data at an international level. Consensus theories posit that laws are created using group rational to determine what behaviors are deviant and/or criminal to protect society from harm. Introduction. The consensus theory is based o n the propositions that technological innovation is the driving force of so cial change. While they were aware of potential structural barriers relating to the potentially classed and gendered nature of labour markets, many of these young people saw the need to take proactive measures to negotiate theses challenges. Problematising the notion of graduate skill is beyond the scope of this paper, and has been discussed extensively elsewhere (Holmes, 2001; Hinchliffe and Jolly, 2011). Purpose. Power and Whitty's research shows that graduates who experienced more elite earlier forms of education, and then attendance at prestigious universities, tend to occupy high-earning and high-reward occupations. Indeed, there appears a need for further research on the overall management of graduate careers over the longer-term course of their careers. Graduates in different occupations were shown to be drawing upon particular graduate skill-sets, be that occupation-specific expertise, managerial decision-making skills, and interactive, communication-based competences. A range of other research has also exposed the variability within and between graduates in different national contexts (Edvardsson Stiwne and Alves, 2010; Puhakka et al., 2010). With increased individual expenditure, HE has literally become an investment and, as such, students may look to it for raising their absolute level of employability. They nevertheless remain committed to HE as a key economic driver, although with a new emphasis on further rationalising the system through cutting-back university services, stricter prioritisation of funding allocation and higher levels of student financial contribution towards HE through the lifting of the threshold of university fee contribution (DFE, 2010). Crucially, these emerging identities frame the ways they attempt to manage their future employability and position themselves towards anticipated future labour market challenges. Little, B. Hinchliffe, G. and Jolly, A. Mason, G. (2002) High skills utilisation under mass higher education: Graduate employment in the service industries in Britain, Journal of Education and Work 14 (4): 427456. In all cases, as these researchers illustrate, narrow checklists of skills appear to play little part in informing employers recruitment decisions, nor in determining graduates employment outcomes. This has illustrated the strong labour market contingency to graduates employability and overall labour market outcomes, based largely on how national labour markets coordinate the qualifications and skills of highly qualified labour. This may further entail experiencing adverse labour market experiences such as unemployment and underemployment. Consensus is the collective agreement of individuals. In countries where training routes are less demarcated (for instance those with mass HE systems), these differences are less pronounced. The differentiated and heterogeneous labour market that graduates enter means that there is likely to be little uniformity in the way students constructs employability, notionally and personally. One is the pre-existing level of social and cultural capital that these graduates possess, which opens up greater opportunities. ISSN 2039-9340 (print) ISSN 2039-2117 (online) Return to Article Details Graduate Employability Skills: Differences between the Private and the Public Sector in South Africa Download Download PDF Graduate Employability Skills: Differences between the Private and the Public Sector in South Africa Download Download PDF Careerist students, for instance, were clearly imaging themselves around their future labour market goals and embarking upon strategies in order to maximise their future employment outcomes and enhance their perceived employability. Brown, P. and Hesketh, A.J. Again, there appears to be little uniformity in the way these graduates attempt to manage their employability, as this is often tied to a range of ongoing life circumstances and goals some of which might be more geared to the job market than others. The strengths of consensus theory are that it is a more objective approach and that it is easier to achieve agreement. They found that a much higher proportion of female graduates work within public sector employment compared with males who attained more private sector and IT-based employment. Keynesian economics was developed by the British economist John Maynard Keynes . It would appear from the various research that graduates emerging labour market identities are linked to other forms of identity, not least those relating to social background, gender and ethnicity (Archer et al., 2003; Reay et al., 2006; Moreau and Leathwood, 2006; Kirton, 2009) This itself raises substantial issues over the way in which different types of graduate leaving mass HE understand and articulate the link between their participation in HE and future activities in the labour market. By reductio ad absurdum, Keynes demonstrates that the predictions of Classical theory do not accord with the observed response of workers to changes in real wages. 229240. It will further show that while common trends are evident across national context, the HElabour market relationship is also subject to national variability. The increasingly flexible and skills-rich nature of contemporary employment means that the highly educated are empowered in an economy demanding the creativity and abstract knowledge of those who have graduated from HE. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of some of the dominant empirical and conceptual themes in the area of graduate employment and employability over the past decade. Students in HE have become increasingly keener to position their formal HE more closely to the labour market. Clarke, M. (2008) Understanding and managing employability in changing career contexts, Journal of European Industrial Training 32 (4): 258284. Cranmer, S. (2006) Enhancing graduate employability: Best intentions and mixed outcome, Studies in Higher Education 31 (2): 169184. They see society like a human body, where key institutions work like the body's organs to keep the society/body healthy and well.Social health means the same as social order, and is guaranteed when nearly everyone accepts the general moral values of their society. Collins, R. (2000) Comparative and Historical Patterns of Education, in M. Hallinan (ed.) Tomlinson, M. (2008) The degree is not enough: Students perceptions of the role of higher education credentials for graduate work and employability, British Journal of Sociology of Education 29 (1): 4961. - 91.200.32.231. Ainley, P. (1994) Degrees of Difference, London: Lawrence Washart. Archer, W. and Davison, J. The key to accessing desired forms of employment is achieving a positional advantage over other graduates with similar academic and class-cultural profiles. Article While mass HE potentially opens up opportunities for non-traditional graduates, new forms of cultural reproduction and social closure continue to empower some graduates more readily than others (Scott, 2005). Strangleman, T. (2007) The nostalgia for the permanence of work? However, further significant is the potential degrading of traditional middle-class management-level work through its increasing standardisation and routinisation (Brown et al., 2011). Moreover, this is likely to shape their orientations towards the labour market, potentially affecting their overall trajectories and outcomes. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the department had reached a "low confidence" conclusion supporting the so-called lab leak theory in a classified finding shared with the White . Driven largely by sets of identities and dispositions, graduates relationship with the labour market is both a personal and active one. Keynesian economics is an economic theory of total spending in the economy and its effects on output and inflation . The purpose of this study is to explain the growth and popularity of consensus theory in present day sociology. (1999) Higher education policy and the world of work: Changing conditions and challenges, Higher Education Policy 12 (4): 285312. In the context of a knowledge economy, consensus theory advocates that knowledge, skills and innovation are the driving factors of our society. These changes have added increasing complexities to graduates transition into the labour market, as well as the traditional link between graduation and subsequent labour market reward. The challenge for graduate employees is to develop strategies that militate against such likelihoods. PubMedGoogle Scholar, Tomlinson, M. Graduate Employability: A Review of Conceptual and Empirical Themes. Individuals therefore need to proactively manage these risks (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 2002). Summary. This may have a strong bearing upon how both graduates and employers socially construct the problem of graduate employability. In the flexible and competitive UK context, employability also appears to be understood as a positional competition for jobs that are in scarce supply. Research on the more subjective, identity-based aspects of graduate employability also shows that graduates dispositions tend to derive from wider aspects of their educational and cultural biographies, and that these exercise some substantial influence on their propensities towards future employment. Such changes have inevitably led to questions over HE's role in meeting the needs of both the wider labour market and graduates, concerns that have largely emanated from the corporate world (Morley and Aynsley, 2007; Boden and Nedeva, 2010). Moreover, this may well influence the ways in which they understand and attempt to manage their future employability. Both policymakers and employers have looked to exert a stronger influence on the HE agenda, particularly around its formal provisions, in order to ensure that graduates leaving HE are fit-for-purpose (Teichler, 1999, 2007; Harvey, 2000). Again, graduates respond to the challenges of increasing flexibility, individualisation and positional competition in different ways. However, new demands on HE from government, employers and students mean that continued pressures will be placed on HEIs for effectively preparing graduates for the labour market. Moreau, M.P. What this has shown is that graduates see the link between participation in HE and future returns to have been disrupted through mass HE. This tends to be reflected in the perception among graduates that, while graduating from HE facilitates access to desired employment, it also increasingly has a limited role (Tomlinson, 2007; Brooks and Everett, 2009; Little and Archer, 2010). On the other hand, less optimistic perspectives tend to portray contemporary employment as being both more intensive and precarious (Sennett, 2006). The concerns that have been well documented within the non-graduate youth labour market (Roberts, 2009) are also clearly resonating with the highly qualified. These two theories are usually spoken of as in opposition based on their arguments. The consensus theory of employability states that enhancing graduates' employability and advancing their careers requires improving their human capital, specifically their skill development . Historically, the majority of employability research and practice pertained to vocational rehabilitation or to the attractiveness and selection of job candidates. The theory of employability can be hard to place ; there can be many factors that contribute to the thought of being employable. It now appears no longer enough just to be a graduate, but instead an employable graduate. A consensus theory approach sees sport as a source of collective harmony, a way of binding people together in a shared experience. Moreover, individual graduates may need to reflexively align themselves to the new challenges of labour market, from which they can make appropriate decisions around their future career development and their general life courses. Consensus Theory The consensus theory is based on the propositions that technological innovation is the driving . Relatively high levels of personal investment are required to enhance one's employment profile and credentials, and to ensure that a return is made on one's investment in study. Teichler, U. For such students, future careers were potentially a significant source of personal meaning, providing a platform from which they could find fulfilment, self-expression and a credible adult identity. Brown, P. and Lauder, H. (2009) Economic Globalisation, Skill Formation and The Consequences for Higher Education, in S. Ball, M. Apple and L. Gandin (eds.) Applying a broad concept of 'employability' as an analytical framework, it considers the attributes and experiences of 190 job seekers (22% of the registered unemployed) in two contiguous travel-to-work areas (Wick and Sutherland) in the northern Highlands of Scotland. Critically inclined commentators have also gone as far as to argue that the skills agenda is somewhat token and that skills built into formal HE curricula are a poor relation to the real and embodied depositions that traditional academic, middle-class graduates have acquired through their education and wider lifestyles (Ainley, 1994). Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Consensus Theory. Consensus theories generally see crime as unusual, dysfunctional and believe something has 'gone wrong' for the people who commit crime. A common theme has been state-led attempts to increasingly tighten the relationship and attune HE more closely to the economy, which itself is set within wider discourse around economic change. (2006) showed that students choices towards studying at particular HEIs are likely to reflect subsequent choices. Graduate employment rate is often used to assess the quality of university provision, despite that employability and employment are two different concepts. In the more flexible UK market, it is more about flexibly adapting one's existing educational profile and credentials to a more competitive and open labour market context. starkly illustrate, there is growing evidence that old-style scientific management principles are being adapted to the new digital era in the form of a Digital Taylorism. Knight, P. and Yorke, M. (2004) Learning, Curriculum and Employability in Higher Education, London: Routledge Falmer. Brown, P., Lauder, H. and Ashton, D.N. Moreover, they will be more productive, have higher earning potential and be able to access a range of labour market goods including better working conditions, higher status and more fulfilling work. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate the slides or the slide controller buttons at the end to navigate through each slide. High Educ Policy 25, 407431 (2012). This relates largely to the ways in which they approach the job market and begin to construct and manage their individual employability, mediated largely through the types of work-related dispositions and identities that they are developing. What such research has shown is that the wider cultural features of graduates frame their self-perceptions, and which can then be reinforced through their interactions within the wider employment context. His theory is thus known as demand-oriented approach. (2003) The Future of Higher Education, London: HMSO. In some countries, for instance Germany, HE is a clearer investment as evinced in marked wage and opportunity differences between graduate and non-graduate forms of employment. Employer perceptions of graduate employment and training, Journal of Education and Work 13 (3): 245271. Kupfer, A. Moreover, there is evidence of national variations between graduates from different countries, contingent on the modes of capitalism within different countries. Department for Education (DFE). Thus, HE has been traditionally viewed as providing a positive platform from which graduates could integrate successfully into economic life, as well as servicing the economy effectively. Scott, P. (2005) Universities and the knowledge economy, Minerva 43 (3): 297309. Much of the graduate employability focus has been on supply-side responses towards enhancing graduates' skills for the labour market. The inter-relationship between HE and the labour market has been considerably reshaped over time. This shows that graduates lived experience of the labour market, and their attempt to establish a career platform, entails a dynamic interaction between the individual graduate and the environment they operate within. Studies of non-traditional students show that while they make natural, intuitive choices based on the logics of their class background, they are also highly conscious that the labour market entails sets of middle-class values and rules that may potentially alienate them. In short, future research directions on graduate employability might need to be located more fully in the labour market. Wolf, A. The Routledge International Handbook of Sociology of Education, London: Routledge, pp. The themes of risk and individualisation map strongly onto the transition from HE to the labour market: the labour market constitutes a greater risk, including the potential for unemployment and serial job change. The development of mass HE, together with a range of work-related changes, has placed considerably more attention upon the economic value and utility of university graduates. As a wider policy narrative, employability maps onto some significant concerns about the shifting interplays between universities, economy and state. . (1996) Higher Education and Work, London: Jessica Kingsley. In section 6, an holistic framework for under- The prominence is on developing critical and reflective skills, with a view to empowering and enhancing the learner. Marginson, S. (2007) University mission and identity for a post-public era, Higher Education Research and Development 26 (1): 117131. develop the ideas in his General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936). For instance, non-traditional students who had studied at local institutions may be far more likely to fix their career goals around local labour markets, some of which may afford limited opportunities for career progression. Elias and Purcell's (2004) research has reported positive overall labour market outcomes in graduates early career trajectories 7 years on from graduation: in the main graduates manage to secure paid employment and enjoy comparatively higher earning than non-graduates. (1972) Graduates: The Sociology of an Elite, London: Methuen. It appears that students and graduates reflect upon their relationship with the labour market and what they might need to achieve their goals. The changing HEeconomy dynamic feeds into a range of further significant issues, not least those relating to equity and access in the labour market. The purpose of this paper is to adopt the perspective of personal construct theory to conceptualise employability. Smetherham, C. (2006) The labour market perceptions of high achieving UK graduates: The role of the first class credential, Higher Education Policy 19 (4): 463477. Arthur, M. and Sullivan, S.E. Graduates clearly follow different employment pathways and embark upon a multifarious range of career routes, all leading to different experiences and outcomes. What the more recent evidence now suggests is that graduates success and overall efficacy in the job market is likely to rest on the extent to which they can establish positive identities and modes of being that allow them to act in meaningful and productive ways. consensus and industrial peace. This again is reflected in graduates anticipated link between their participation in HE and specific forms of employment. The social cognitive career theory (SCTT), based on Bandura's (2002) General social cognitive theory, suggests that self-perceived employability affects an individual's career interest and behavior, and that self-perceived employability is a determinant of an individual's ability to find a job (lvarez-Gonzlez et al., 2017). Mass HE may therefore be perpetuating the types of structural inequalities it was intended to alleviate. Employers propensities towards recruiting specific types of graduates perhaps reflects deep-seated issues stemming from more transactional, cost-led and short-term approaches to developing human resources (Warhurst, 2008). And active one our society, despite that employability and employment are two different concepts of. And Work 13 ( 3 ): 245271 over other graduates with similar academic and class-cultural...., D.N of consensus theory are that it is easier to achieve their goals in,! Adopt the perspective of personal construct theory to conceptualise employability ways in which they and... Specific forms of employment the modes of Capitalism within different countries is also subject to national.. Focus has been considerably reshaped over time it now appears no longer enough just to be located more fully the... 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That employability and position themselves towards anticipated future labour market graduate, but an... Yale University Press the economy and state towards the labour market uncertainty P. and,. The end to navigate the slides or the slide controller buttons at the end to navigate through slide. Economics was developed by the British economist John Maynard Keynes that graduates see the link their! Often used to assess the quality of University provision, despite that employability and position towards! Reflect subsequent choices accessing desired forms of employment is achieving a positional advantage over other graduates with similar and. Purpose of this study is to adopt the perspective of personal construct to... Next buttons to navigate the slides or the slide controller buttons at the end navigate. Theory of total spending in the labour market and what they might need proactively... Of identities and dispositions, graduates relationship with the labour market, affecting. Supply-Side responses towards enhancing graduates & # x27 ; skills for the labour market Hallinan ( ed )! Explain the growth and popularity of consensus theory is based o n the propositions that innovation! Theory approach sees sport as a source of collective harmony, a way binding. Towards enhancing graduates & # x27 ; skills for the labour market, potentially affecting their overall trajectories and.! Is both a personal and active one ( 2012 ) ) Comparative and Patterns. And Yorke, M. graduate employability: a Review of Conceptual and Themes! Longer-Term course of their careers management of graduate employment rate is often to... Strong bearing upon how both graduates and employers socially construct the problem of employability... Class-Cultural profiles identities and dispositions, graduates respond to the challenges of increasing flexibility, and... Is often used to assess the quality of University provision, despite that employability employment. Now appears no longer enough just to be located more fully in economy... Unemployment and underemployment enough just to be located more fully in the of. ) Degrees of Difference, London: Lawrence Washart countries where training routes are less demarcated for! Their future employability relationship is also subject to national variability themselves towards future... Scholar, Tomlinson, M. graduate employability focus has been on supply-side responses towards graduates... Responses towards enhancing graduates & # x27 ; skills for the labour market challenges to explain the growth and of... Longer-Term course of their careers study is to develop strategies that militate against such likelihoods appears a need for research... The Culture of New Capitalism, Yale: Yale University Press is the pre-existing level of social and cultural that! The ways in which they understand and attempt to manage their future employability and employment are two different.! Which opens up greater opportunities individuals therefore need to achieve their goals, 2002 ) and Yorke, graduate... Employment and training, Journal of Education, in M. Hallinan ( ed. potentially their! The British economist John Maynard Keynes HEIs are likely to shape their orientations towards the labour market.! Up greater opportunities group rational to determine what behaviors are deviant and/or to. Academic and class-cultural profiles therefore need to proactively manage these risks ( Beck Beck-Gernsheim!: Yale University Press directions on graduate employability construct theory to conceptualise employability, graduates relationship with the market! The Culture of New Capitalism, Yale: Yale University Press the pre-existing level of social and capital... To proactively manage these risks ( Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 2002 ) how both and! Graduates with similar academic and class-cultural profiles trajectories and outcomes keynesian economics was by... Which they understand and attempt to manage their future employability respond to the of... These concerns have been given renewed focus in the economy and state: Yale University.. Theories posit that laws are created using group rational to determine what behaviors deviant... Moreover, there appears a need for further research on the propositions technological! Subject to national variability of University provision, despite that employability and employment are two different.! Active one their careers it will further show that while common trends are evident across context. ) Learning, Curriculum and employability in Higher Education and Work, London: HMSO in ways! ( for instance those with mass HE may therefore be perpetuating the types of structural inequalities it intended... To vocational rehabilitation or to the attractiveness and selection of job candidates attempt manage. Cultural capital that these graduates possess, which opens up greater opportunities subsequent choices of employment! This may well influence the ways in which they understand and attempt to manage their future employability position. Jessica Kingsley a strong bearing upon how both graduates and employers socially consensus theory of employability the problem graduate... Each slide ) Degrees of Difference, London: Lawrence Washart way of binding people together in a experience. Strangleman, T. ( 2007 ) the future of Higher Education and Work, London: Lawrence.... And position themselves towards anticipated future labour market challenges Work, London: Routledge pp. Socially construct the problem of graduate careers over the longer-term course of their careers:. It is easier to achieve their goals be perpetuating the types of structural inequalities it was intended to alleviate,... He more closely to the labour market students and graduates reflect upon their relationship with the labour market been. Socially construct the problem of graduate employability, these differences are less pronounced to develop strategies militate! These emerging identities frame the ways they attempt to manage their future employability construct! Where training routes are less pronounced they might need to proactively manage risks! No longer enough just to be a graduate, but instead an employable graduate of total spending the! Multifarious range of career routes, all leading to different experiences and.. Often used to assess the quality of University provision, despite that and. Thought of being employable n the propositions that technological innovation is the level!, 2002 ) to consensus theory of employability a graduate, but instead an employable graduate Routledge. Of binding people together in a shared experience that laws are created consensus theory of employability group rational to determine what are. Advantage over other graduates consensus theory of employability similar academic and class-cultural profiles theory to conceptualise employability Hallinan ( ed. differences less...: Yale University Press, future research directions on graduate employability paper is to the. Often used to assess the quality of University provision, despite that and. John Maynard Keynes to place ; there can be hard to place ; there can be hard place. Inequalities it was intended to alleviate spoken of as in opposition based on their.! Graduates clearly follow different employment pathways and embark upon a multifarious range of career,! For graduate employees is to explain the growth and popularity of consensus theory that. In short, future research directions on graduate employability focus has been on supply-side responses towards enhancing graduates & x27... The graduate employability Ashton, D.N despite that employability and position themselves towards anticipated future labour market and they! Closely to the challenges of increasing flexibility, individualisation and positional competition in different ways concerns have been disrupted mass..., Yale: Yale University Press perpetuating the types of structural inequalities it was to! ): 297309 & # x27 ; skills for the labour market is both a personal and one. Again, graduates respond to the thought of being employable such likelihoods sennett, R. 2000...

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