The student voice in employability within tertiary business and management education

Embedding employability in HE curricula has resulted in an increasing consideration upon forms of capital as resources that confer employability. This chapter considers research of the undergraduate student voice with respect to employability framing of confidence as an important source of psychological capital. There is an expectation students will exit education having developed employability skills to be successful in their chosen occupation. The approach shows students have a deep understanding of the meaning of employability though they considered its development challenging. In contrast to some of the literature, students understood employability goes beyond simple listing of ‘transferable’ skills. Furthermore confidence, a form of psychological capital was found to underpin the meaning of employability for students. It has been concluded that psychological capital is found to be a key enabler for the development of employability. Taking the responses from students’ views this chapter advocates HE and stakeholders should use continuous development and psychological capital to form a revised definition of employability contributing to an improved understanding. Building confidence is important for students – focussing upon who you are becoming, rather than who you are – is useful in developing graduate identity