Overview

Career readiness is ‘an underpinning from which students and graduates demonstrate the competencies that are required to succeed in the transition to the Graduate Labour Market and to support lifelong career management. Career readiness provides a framework for embedding curricular and extracurricular career-related goals and outcomes. For employers, career readiness plays an important role in recruiting talent, providing a way of identifying key skills and abilities and offers employers a framework for developing talent” (National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2024).

Career readiness at the University of Bedfordshire

In the context of the University of Bedfordshire, career readiness refers to the ‘preparedness’ of graduates to secure and succeed in paid work. It encompasses a combination of competencies, namely skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours that enable graduates to navigate and develop their careers effectively. Career readiness includes technical skills specific to a particular profession or industry, as well as soft skills such as communication, critical thinking, teamwork, problem-solving, and professionalism. Additionally, being career-ready involves having a clear understanding of one's strengths, interests, and career goals, as well as the ability to adapt to changing workplace demands, dynamics and technologies. Career readiness can be cultivated through education, work experience, and ongoing professional development.

A dedicated Course Audit and Planning toolkit is available for academics to support identification of potential employability gaps and planning within the curriculum. (See “Curriculum Framework: Careers and Employability – Course Audit and Planning Toolkit”, available via the Academy document library

Approaches to measuring career readiness

• Assessments: Evaluate proficiency in relevant professional and power skills required for the industry sector of interest.
  
  
• Work based/work related learning performance:
  
  
  • Employer feedback: Gain feedback from employers who have already worked with or employed graduates to determine the student's preparedness and performance (where relevant) in the workplace.
    
    
  • Portfolio review: Evaluate the quality of students’ portfolios showcasing projects, experiences and achievements relevant to their chosen career paths.
    
    
  • Standardised tests: Utilise standardised tests or certifications relevant to chosen industry sector to measure technical competence.
    
    
  • Self-assessment: Encourage students to reflect on their own strengths, weaknesses and career goals to assess their career readiness.
    
    
  • Networking skills: Evaluate student’s ability to build professional connections, engage in networking events and communicate effectively with industry professionals.
    
    
• A holistic approach within the curriculum, the utilisation of specific pathways within Beds Career Builder, engagement with Bedfordshire Career Development Award, extra and co-curricular employability activities (i.e. participating in a BedsSU Student Society) can all provide a comprehensive understanding of a students’ career readiness. 

In order to achieve this, students will:

• have the ability to reflect upon and articulate their career development journey and readiness for their next steps
• understand the labour market in the UK and globally (job types, supply and demand)
• know how to research opportunities for lifelong learning and employability
• recognise the value of enterprise and entrepreneurship