Fostering students’ employability and community engagement

Much has been written about the connections between higher education and the economy, with rhetoric nowadays increasingly describing the principal or sole purpose of higher education as being to train an educated workforce and to contribute to the market economy by supplying a continuous stream of graduates to plug gaps in the job market. While many of us would rebel against such a dirigiste and instrumental perspective, we nonetheless recognise the importance of fostering employability among our graduates, and this chapter explores how we as educators can do so, while at the same time helping students to become fulfilled and capable members of society.