Employability in a knowledge-driven economy

Brown, Phillip ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7608-5421, Hesketh, Anthony and Williams, Sara 2002. Employability in a knowledge-driven economy. [Working Paper]. School of Social Sciences Working Papers Series, vol. 26. Cardiff: Cardiff University.

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Abstract

This paper examines the concept of employability. The recent policy emphasis on employability rests on the assumption that the economic welfare of individuals and the competitive advantage of nations have come to depend on the knowledge, skills and enterprise of the workforce. Those with degree-level qualifications are seen to play a particularly important role in managing the ‘knowledge-driven’ economy of the future. But the rhetoric that shrouds the idea of employability has been subjected to little conceptual examination. The purpose of this article is to show that the way employability is typically defined in official statements is seriously flawed because it ignores what will be called the ‘duality of employability’. It also introduces ‘positional conflict theory’ as a way of conceptualising the changing relationship between education, employment and the labour market.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Publisher:	Cardiff University
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	28 Oct 2022 10:22
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/78067

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