Young people and employability

The logic of employability corresponds to the perspective according to which a worker, or an aspirant worker, is deemed responsible for making himself or herself desirable in the labor market in the eyes of an employer or potential employer in the profession or trade to which he or she aspires. Enhancing young people’s ability to be employed – i.e., their “employability” – has been a focus of media and scholarly attention for the last 20 years or so. Inserted into the context of considerable changes in the labor market and higher education, a discourse of employability has become dominant in higher education policy and has encompassed a more specific focus on the school-to-work transition. Young people spend longer periods of time obtaining their educations, and as a result, they are better qualified than were previous generations. However, despite their increased qualifications, young people now earn less compared to adult workers than they did 25 years ago, and in many ways they remain at the argins, as failing to obtain a proper job is also, in many ways, failing to become an independent adult. In seeking to address social exclusion by helping young people obtain paid employment, the policy emphasis has been on giving advice and training to help young people become more “employable.” In other words, policy has focused on the supply of youth labor and, in particular, on the perceived deficits and failings of unemployed people as potential employees. The logic of the discourse of employability is to “capture” young people inside a mainstream discourse of integration and poses as an objective to engage or reengage young people with the labor market. Despite its diffusion, employability has primarily remained a policy concept which has perhaps not found a theoretical assessment. This chapter seeks to provide a definition of employability and critically identify the main issues related to its diffusion. This allows us to highlight the assumptions that are encompassed through its use and, more importantly, what implications it has for young people who are navigating the agitated sea of insecure employment.