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A Human Capabilities Conceptualization of Graduate Employability

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Universities, Employability and Human Development

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Abstract

In the research project we were concerned with what was described as ‘inclusive development’ in the original proposal; as the project unfolded we sought to provide the idea with more conceptual grip. We also wanted to ask whether graduates obtaining employment was sufficient to make claims about higher education and development, whether opportunities were fair for all, and how we might understand interpersonal differences with regard to opportunities and outcomes. To do this, as we touched on in Chapter 1, we turned to human development (Haq 2003) and the capability approach in which development is understood as a process of expanding the real freedoms and genuine choices that people enjoy in order to lead a flourishing life (Sen 1999).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    My thanks to Merridy Wilson-Strydom for the basis from this vignette was developed.

  2. 2.

    My thanks to Talita Calitz for the vignette from which this story is extracted.

  3. 3.

    Based on theory and empirical data, Walker identified these ‘ideal’ multidimensional higher education capabilities: practical reason; educational resilience, knowledge and imagination; learning disposition; social relations and social networks; respect, dignity and recognition, emotional integrity and emotions and bodily integrity (2006, pp. 128–129).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

    Melanie Walker

  2. University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

    Samuel Fongwa

Authors
  1. Melanie Walker
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  2. Samuel Fongwa
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Walker, M., Fongwa, S. (2017). A Human Capabilities Conceptualization of Graduate Employability. In: Universities, Employability and Human Development. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58452-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58452-6_3

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  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58451-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58452-6

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