Managing Transitions from College to Work: The "Employability" and Career Readiness Challenge

press release: Every month during the academic year, CCWT will host a visiting scholar active in the areas of career advising, labor market issues, and work-based learning in order to cultivate dialogue on these issues for students, staff and the broader community.  In scheduling speakers for the Seminar Series, the Center aims to bring renowned scholars and respected practitioners to share their insights on research findings and policy developments that impact student employability and their career development

Wednesday, April 10, 2019 • 12-1:30pm

Ed Sciences 259, 1025 West Johnson Street

Dr. Michael Tomlinson will provide a critical overview of the problem and construct of graduates’ employability, charting its evolution and the ways in which it has been conceptually and politically applied in understanding macro-level changes between higher education (HE) systems and the labor market. The talk will draw on evidence from the perspectives of students and graduates making the transitions from HE to formal employment, examining the challenges for their career readiness and employment prospects. It will explore salient issues relating to the resources, career values, and identities which graduates develop through and beyond HE.

Michael Tomlinson is an Associate Professor at the Southampton Education School at the University of Southampton, UK where he has been based since 2011. His research interests are in higher education policy, the sociology of higher education and the HE-work relationship and has published widely in these fields. His previous books are Education, Work and Identity (2013, Bloomsbury Publishers) and Graduate Employability in Context (2017, Palgrave Publishers). Funded by the University Lectures Committee