Enhancing graduate employability and the need for university-enterprise collaboration

Thi Tuyet Tran

doi:10.21153/jtlge2016vol7no1art598

Authors

Thi Tuyet Tran German Federal Employment Agency, Germany

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2016vol7no1art598

Keywords:

graduate employability, higher education, labour market, university-enterprise collaboration

Abstract

Over the last few decades there has been strong debate over the central mission of higher education and resistance to the employability agenda seemed strong. However, with the changing context of both higher education and the labour market, together with neoliberal pressure, enhancing graduate employability has become one of the central focuses in many universities worldwide.

This article provides an overview of the relevant literature to resonate with why graduate employability has been more popularly presented in many university practices. The notion of graduate employability is examined and it is argued that without input from and collaboration with industry, universities are hardly able to achieve their vocational mission of equipping their students for the labour market.

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Author Biography

Thi Tuyet Tran, German Federal Employment Agency, Germany

June Tran is a senior lecturer in Vietnamese higher education. She has been engaged in the system since 1996 and has taken up different positions, such as administrator, lecturer, researcher, and manager in Vietnam National University, Hanoi. She is currently working toward her postdoctoral research at the Institute for Employment research, gernam Federal Employment Agency. Her research interest is on the issue of enhancing graduate employability.

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