Graduate Employability in a Changing World: A Critical Review of Evidence and Influencing Factors

The issue of graduate employability has emerged as a more challenging one recently with the trend of global economic changes, technological growth, and the growth of higher education structures increasing the strain on the new graduates. Although the past research pinpoint skills, career identity, social networks, and adaptability as key determinants of employability, the literature is still disjointed and does not have a comprehensive view of how all these factors interact in national settings. This is a synthesis of worldwide studies and studies in the region and especially in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where education to employment transition is complicated by demographic strain, culture and labour market segmentation. The paper analyses conceptual underpinnings of the employability concept, the major stakeholder views on it, systemic labour market issues and the many variables that have a complex impact on graduate work-readiness, through a structured narrative review approach. The results indicate the pivotal role of problem-based learning (PBL) to build the human and social capital, career identity, and personal adaptability. The review ends with an overview of the research priorities that need to be addressed in the future, namely the contextual effectiveness of the PBL, the culturally specific models of career identity, and the empirical research of the functioning of the social and human capital in the specifics of the UAE labour market.