What is the difference between employment, employability and Graduate Attributes?

Employment is about getting a job.

Employability is about having an effective mix of skills, attributes and attitudes to function successfully in required roles (e.g. in a job, as a student, as a manager, etc) . Employability is taught and developed at module level.

Graduate Attributes:

• Are the high level qualities, skills and understandings that a student should develop as a consequence of the programme learning they engage with while at university. This sense of graduateness is therefore what distinguishes them from individuals who have not studied at degree level, and is the added value graduates offer to employers and society generally, shaping the way they think, interact and contribute in an uncertain future ahead.
• Have the potential to outlast the knowledge and contexts in which they were originally acquired on their programme of study. As such the attributes transcend the disciplinary contexts in which they were originally acquired. (adapted from Bowden et al, 2000 and Barrie, 2009)
   

A Graduate Attributes model is an articulation of these high level learning outcomes that a university community agrees are the hallmark of their students’ higher education experience. However, the cultural impact will vary according to disciplinary area studied, so needs to be considered at this level.