‘But we are already doing so much!’ – The importance of surfacing employability initiatives in undergraduate programmes

Findings from an employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship (EEE) audit including 12 non-vocational undergraduate programmes in a Scottish university suggests that there is no direct link between the number of EEE initiatives that are embedded in a progarmme, and a programme’s NSS employability score (Q9). The results suggest that using reflection to surface skills and competencies students gain on their degree progarmme can compensate for a lack of EEE initiatives in programmes. This suggests that rather than focusing on applying a deficit model, i.e. identifying potential gaps in EEE provisions and getting programme teams to do more, an appreciative inquiry (Mishra and Bhatnagar, 2012) stance should be taken which focuses on surfacing existing employability initiatives to help build a coherent narrative around ‘what employability looks like’ for both students and programme teams. This is in line with Schonell and Macklin’s (2019) suggestion that programme teams should reflect on the strengths of the existing offer and consider ways to enhance the design and delivery.