Journal for Employability in the Humanities - Edition Autumn 2009

This third edition of the Journal of Employability and the Humanities reflects to a large extent the massive diversity of discourse surrounding employability within the HE Sector. Now more than ever it is essential that undergraduate students are adequately equipped during their time at University to face the ever-increasing demands that an unstable labour market is likely to place upon them at graduation. Within this edition, academic papers by Leanne McRae, John Canning and Marta Rabikowska provide a critical framework within which we are able to investigate the nexus between the worlds of academia and employment. Ina Maslejova offers a practical case study of good practice that demonstrates how it is possible to engage students with employability on an extra-curricular level and, in some cases, furnish them with the transferable and entrepreneurial skills necessary in order to ride the storm of recession by creating their own employment opportunities.

As a precursor to these engaging and enthralling papers, John Wilson offers some food for thought in the form of a positional paper designed to generate discussion and debate around the often complex relationship between employability and Humanities teaching in higher education. John is a Senior Lecturer in Lancashire Business School at the University of Central Lancashire, and has spent much of his time at the University working with Placement Students and liaising with employers on their behalf. In 2008-9 he also took on the role of Fellow with the Centre for Employability Through the Humanities, and it is via this role that his paper was conceived; providing the ideal conceptual framework within which to engage with the excellent work carried out by the contributors to this edition.

Anna Richardson
Editor

Opinion Piece: The Employability of Humanities Graduates Making the Implicit Explicit
John J Wilson

Post-work and pedagogy:  The casualisation of knowledge, employment and expertise. Leanne McRae
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A skill or a discipline? An examination of employability and the study of modern foreign languages. John Canning
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A Degree in Advertising: an unwanted child of the business. Why academia and advertising should not be bridged. Marta Rabikowska
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Engaging Students in PDP and Employability through U CRe8 Club
Ina Maslejova
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