Student employability is a key focus of Universities and Higher Education. Students often invest in a degree programme in order to increase their chances of a good job, and so they expect to be considered employable at the end of their education journey. However, a skills gap has been reported, with employers indicating that recent graduates are not always prepared for full-time employment.

In order for Universities and other institutions to provide adequate guidance on employability to their students, it is vital that research is conducted to examine what influences employability, and how we can maximise it.

Our current research in this area is focused on the utility of work experience as an employability strategy. Key questions include what type of work experience is perceived most positively, how the relevancy of the experience influences employability and the inter-play between academic qualification and work experience in recruiter / employer decision-making.