From Enrolment to Employment: The Case for Careers Services to Be at the Heart of Student Success and University Strategy
There is a growing disconnect in higher education between what students expect, what universities offer, and what employers need (Jackson, 2023). As students increasingly question the value of a degree (Jackson, 2020) and vice chancellors juggle financial strain with TEF ratings, NSS, and league tables, one question is becoming louder: what is a university for in today’s world?
For me, the answer, while multifaceted and certainly not something I have in full, must include this: supporting students into meaningful, sustainable employment and in the development of lifelong career-management skills. And if that is the case, then it is time to stop viewing careers services as peripheral and start placing them where they belong – front and centre of institutional strategy.
The Game Has Changed, and So Have Employers
The traditional model of graduate recruitment is being rapidly dismantled. As highlighted in the recent Wonkhe article “Employers will increasingly focus on graduate skills over technical knowledge,” today’s labour market is being reshaped by AI, demographic shifts, and talent shortages. In response, employers are pivoting away from credentials alone and adopting skills-based hiring strategies.
A recent Institute of Student Employers report – From Early Career to Emerging Talent – found that 68% of early career employers have already adopted or are in the process of adopting skills-based hiring, with another 29% considering it. Organisations are looking less at what a graduate has studied and more at what they can do. Adaptability, communication, resilience, critical thinking, and problem-solving are now key to graduate success.
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report reinforces this shift, noting that resilience, flexibility, and agility were ranked among the top five skills required by 69% of UK organisations. These capabilities will only increase in importance as we move further into this decade and beyond. This has massive implications for how universities prepare students for the future of work.
This shift raises an important question: how can universities better balance subject-specific knowledge with the broader skills increasingly demanded by employers? Academic expertise remains a cornerstone of higher education and is one of the main reasons students choose their degree subjects. At the same time, the world of work is evolving. Employers are placing greater emphasis on adaptability, resilience, critical thinking, and communication – capabilities that transcend any single discipline. Traditional academic learning still matters, but it must be complemented by opportunities for students to develop and apply these broader skills. Careers services are uniquely placed to support this, sitting at the intersection of academic learning, employability development, and labour market insight.
Careers Services Speak Employer… and Student
While academics are experts in their discipline, careers professionals are experts in labour market trends, recruitment practices, and graduate transitions. Careers services are often the only department consistently engaging with both employers and students, giving them a rare dual perspective. They help students translate their academic experiences into real-world value. As the Wonkhe article notes, “a student who does a group activity successfully may think they’ve nailed teamworking skills.” But meaningful employability is not about ticking a box – it is about developing, articulating, and evidencing complex capabilities over time. Careers services help scaffold that reflective journey.
From Bolt-On to Built-In
There is a growing body of research and practice around employability pedagogy. While universities have made real progress, they need to go further. With all the changes happening in the labour market, embedding careers education and learning into the curriculum is no longer a ‘nice to have’. It is essential.
Various frameworks now align graduate skills with employer expectations (Dos Santos et al., 2023), and the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (Office for Students, 2023) explicitly measures institutions against outcomes such as the proportion of graduates in skilled employment (Office for Students, 2022). These metrics are more than just numbers – for me, they highlight a fundamental truth: students need to see the relevance of their learning (whether they are in primary, secondary, further, or higher education), and universities must make that relevance visible and meaningful.
But why is there still a disconnect between what is happening in the classroom and what students need in the workplace? It is time for all universities to recognise that employability skills cannot be an afterthought or a box-ticking exercise. Careers services are not just an add-on; they must be embedded within the curriculum. This is where careers services thrive. Working with academic colleagues, careers professionals can co-design authentic assessments, integrate reflective practice into course structures, ensure students have multiple touchpoints to reflect on their personal and professional development, and help surface the employability value of subject content.
Literature consistently supports integrated pedagogical approaches that combine career development learning with employability skills training (Healy, 2023; McGrath et al., 2019). The HEA’s Employability Model (2015) reinforces this, promoting strategies such as work-integrated learning, reflective practice, and authentic assessment, all designed to build both technical and transferable skills while enhancing students’ adaptability and career resilience.
But this is about more than embedding a few careers-related activities. It is about creating meaningful learning experiences that help students become confident, creative, and reflective graduates. That means aligning assessments and learning outcomes with employability, embedding career education across disciplines, and connecting academic learning with real-world contexts through experiential methods. Work placements, for example, are proven to enhance employability (DfE, 2021), especially when co-designed with employers. Careers teams can and do lead this work across departments.
Whole-Student Education
A genuinely inclusive and effective education connects academic learning with purpose. Careers services bring this whole-student approach, helping students make meaning of their studies, build self-awareness, and gain the tools they need to navigate complex and evolving career landscapes.
And this is not just about skills. Careers guidance professionals bring a social justice lens to employability. A truly inclusive curriculum must work for all students, especially those whose social or cultural capital may not align with traditional recruitment models. Careers education can either reinforce inequality or actively challenge it. That is why we need career learning that does more than build resilience – it must also develop critical consciousness. It must empower students to recognise and challenge the structural barriers that shape their career journeys.
Supporting Retention and Belonging
The value of careers services extends well beyond the final year job hunt. When students understand the purpose behind their studies and how it connects to their future, they are more likely to persist, succeed, and feel like they belong.
They are also there in critical moments. Whether it is supporting students who are unsure if they are on the right course, helping them reflect on their options, or providing coaching to build confidence and resilience, careers professionals play a key role in retention and progression. And yes, sometimes that means helping a student find a path that is better aligned to their goals, values, and motivations, even if that means leaving university altogether. Supporting students to make informed, empowered decisions is central to what careers services do.
Outcomes That Matter… For Everyone
Let’s be honest: whether we like them or not, graduate outcomes matter. Not just because they affect league tables, but because students are increasingly looking for evidence of a return on their investment, and outcomes are a key part of that proof point. They are a critical indicator of whether a university is fulfilling its obligations to its students. Research by Donald et al., (2018) emphasises the value students place on employability, noting that many perceive the development of these skills as crucial to their career success.
In a world shifting towards skills-based hiring and lifelong adaptability, helping students understand, build, and articulate their skills and capabilities has never been more important. Careers services play a vital role in this process, supporting students through interview preparation, CV/cover letter development, and connecting their learning to real-world opportunities.
And for anyone out there who still thinks that careers services are just about jobs, let me be clear: careers services are not just about getting students into work. They are about helping them develop agency, navigate complexity, and embrace change – qualities that will serve them along their lifelong career journey. And that, in my view, is what higher education should be all about: education with purpose.
Time to Reframe
I think it is time for senior leaders to see careers services not as support functions, but as strategic partners. Partners in curriculum design. Partners in access and participation. Partners in student success. Partners in employer engagement. Partners in institutional reputation.
In a labour market where the link between what you study and what you do is anything but linear, and where the value of degrees is being redefined through a skills-based lens, careers services are not just relevant – they are essential if universities want to remain relevant in the 21st century.
References
Department for Education (2021). Employability programmes and work placements in UK higher education. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/619bc17b8fa8f50381640305/employability_programmes_and_work_placements_in_UK_HE.pdf
Donald, W. E., Ashleigh, M. J. and Baruch, Y. (2018). Students’ perceptions of education and employability: Facilitating career transition from higher education into the labour market. Career Development International, 23(5), pp. 513–540. Available at: https://doi:10.1108/CDI-09-2017-0171
Dos Santos, H.S., De Lima, Y.O., and Barbo, C.E. (2023) A Framework for Assessing Higher Education Courses Employability.
Healy, M. (2023). Careers and employability learning: pedagogical principles for higher education. Studies in higher education, 48(8). Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2023.2196997
Higher Education Academy (2015) Framework for embedding employability in higher education. Available at: www.employability.ed.ac.uk/documents/HEA-Embedding_employability_in_HE.pdf
Institute of Student Employers (2025) From early career to emerging talent. Available at: https://ise.org.uk/knowledge/resources/386/from_early_career_to_emerging_talent
Jackson, D. (2023) The employability skills gap: What do students and employers expect? Journal of Education and Work, 36(2), pp. 175-191.
Jackson, D. (2020) The changing nature of graduate roles and the value of the degree. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 43(2), pp. 182–197. Available at: https://doi:10.1080/1360080X.2020.1777634
McGrath, S., Powell, L. and Wood, C. (2019). Integrating employability into the curriculum: The role of career development learning. Journal of Education and Work, 32(1), 45-59.
Office for Students. (2023) Regulatory Advice 22. Guidance on the Teaching Excellence (TEF) Framework 2023. Available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/7d4d14b1-8ba9-4154-b542-5390d81d703d/ra22-tef-framework-guidance-final_for_web.pdf
Office for Students. (2022) Setting numerical thresholds for condition B3. Available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/1206417b-9b11-402c-9706-d88c080b58fc/setting-minimum-numerical-thresholds-for-condition-b3.pdf
Wonke (2025) Employers will increasingly focus on graduate skills over technical knowledge. Available at: https://wonkhe.com/blogs/employers-will-increasingly-focus-on-graduates-skills-over-technical-knowledge/
World Economic Forum. (2025) The Future of Jobs Report 2025. Available at https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/
Darrin Steward, PgCAP, MA, FHEA, MCDI, RCDP, RCL, fCMGr
Employability & Careers Consultant – School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Suffolk.