Pedagogy 2025

Abstract

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Optimising graduate employability is a key focus for UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), particularly under increasing pressure to address skills gaps and meet government and economic priorities. While many students pursue higher education to enhance career prospects, employers in the creative industries report that graduates often lack the readiness to perform at entry level. Careers teams recognise the need for more subject-specific employability support, though individualised approaches, strongly advocated in the literature (Williams et al., 2019), are often time and resource intensive. With graduate employment statistics used as key performance indicators, HEIs face mounting pressure.
Employability is increasingly understood as more than just securing a job; it involves sustaining employment over time (Yorke, 2006) and developing a lifelong set of personal attributes. Student agency and ownership of employability, supported through guidance and tailored learning, are central to this development. This paper explores how HE teaching and learning materials can evolve to better support creative graduates’ employability. Through co-design, we developed ‘The Design Graduate’ app—an employability toolkit embedded in undergraduate courses. A qualitative methodology was applied, incorporating design thinking, co-design, and phenomenographic semi-structured interviews.  Perspectives were gathered from students, graduates, employers, careers teams, and academic staff across nine UK institutions. The paper adapts the concept of the best self to employability, recognising wellbeing as integral to sustainable employment. It proposes a co-designed, digital resource that complements physical teaching, supports widening participation, and enables continuous refinement of employability development within creative education.