The Pros And Cons Of Employability

Historically, employability connotation came into use in 1955 (Versloot et al., 1998). Since the late 90s, it has been empirically discussed from different fields and levels (e.g. individual, organizational, and industrial). It has been included in various academic programs like: business and management, human resource management and development, psychology, educational science, and career theory. However, it is still confusing when used across different contexts and periods (Johns, 2006), and few studies have tried to emerge these different perspectives of employability (e.g. Fugate et al, 2004; Van Der Heijde & Van Der Heijden, 2006). Employability-related developments a cross three historical periods is illustrated in table 3.1.

Literally, the term employability has been widely discussed. The definition first suggested by Hillage and Pollard (1982:2), who saw it as ‘the capability to move self-sufficiently within the labour market to realize the potential through sustainable employment’. According to S. Speight et al. (2013), two of the limitations with this description are: it eliminates the realities of the labour market and it is much individualized. Further definition is given by (Dearing, 1997), when describes it as an individual’s ability to get a job …show more content…
(1998) clarify that individual’s employment depends on: the way individual use and deploys these three assets, how to present them to potential employers, and the context of the labour market. They defined the term as ‘the use of an individual’s skills, knowledge, and attitudes and also the way of marketing them to employers and the context within which they seek work’ (p.2). In this definition, they determined the three fundamental assets of individual’s employment, which are: knowledge, skills, and attitudes relevant to the job looking for. According to Hillage and Pollard (1998), the main three elements that might be subsumed under the term of person’s employability