Towards ‘employability 3.0’: From practice to praxis

Abstract

In addition to higher learning, universities are expected to also ‘do’ employability and help students transition from education to employment. Accordingly, a wide range of approaches have emerged and we, as academics, dedicate substantial efforts to designing and implementing attractive employability offerings for our degree programmes.

We spend considerably less time (and have considerably less time to spend) on reflecting whether these provisions are truly transformational. Brazilian philosopher and educator, Paulo Freire, argued that this transformation can only be achieved through praxis. As the combination of action and reflection into an act of radical agency, praxis is authentic being at both the individual and social level. Praxis is the self-determined creation of one’s own future, while accepting accountability to fellow human beings.

In this opinion piece we contend that praxis should be placed at the heart of employability of the future – employability 3.0. We propose that employability 3.0 should incorporate but go beyond current best practices such as cross-curriculum ‘connectedness’ and the ‘embeddedness’ of community of practice learning. It should be a programme of active learning and reflection, which enables students to rewrite their futures by improving their wellbeing, employment prospects and place in society.