Boundaryless and Protean Career Orientation: A Multitude of Pathways to Graduate Employability

Abstract

The neo-liberalisation of UK Higher Education (HE) seeks to establish an intellectual capital base (Giroux 2014). Discourse focuses heavily on the economic role of graduates and increased participation in HE (Tomlinson 2012). The political, economic and national ambitions and considerations as perceived from a macro-level Government mentality viewpoint are well documented (Holmes 2013; Baruch and Leeming 2001). In line with a paucity of existing literature in this area, it is less clear how the micro-level target population, the students; perceive their career orientation towards and following their graduation. We discuss these themes with the purpose of exploring the undergraduate student perception of graduate employability.