Gracia, Louise (2009) Employability and higher education: contextualising female students' workplace experiences to enhance understanding of employability development. Journal of Education and Work, Vol.22 (No.4). pp. 301-318. doi:10.1080/13639080903290454

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Abstract

Current political and economic discourses position employability as a responsibility of higher education, which deploys mechanisms such as supervised work experience (SWE) to embed employability skills development into the undergraduate curriculum. However, workplaces are socially constructed complex arenas of embodied knowledge that are gendered. Understanding the usefulness of SWE therefore requires consideration of the contextualised experiences of it, within these complex environments. This study considers higher education's use of SWE as a mechanism of employability skills development through exploration of female students' experiences of accounting SWE, and its subsequent shaping of their views of employment. Findings suggest that women experience numerous, indirect gender-based inequalities within their accounting SWE about which higher education is silent, perpetuating the framing of employability as a set of individual skills and abilities. This may limit the potential of SWE to provide equality of employability development. The study concludes by briefly considering how insights provided by this research could better inform higher education's engagement with SWE within the employability discourse, and contribute to equality of employability development opportunity.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Accounting Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	College graduates -- Employment -- Great Britain, Wages -- Effect of education on -- Great Britain, Women employees -- Great Britain, Women college students -- Economic conditions, Employability -- Great Britain
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Education and Work
Publisher:	Routledge
ISSN:	1363-9080
Official Date:	September 2009
Dates:	Date Event September 2009 Published
Volume:	Vol.22
Number:	No.4
Number of Pages:	18
Page Range:	pp. 301-318
DOI:	10.1080/13639080903290454
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access

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