Employability skills initiatives in higher education: what effects do they have on graduate labour market outcomes?

The present paper makes use of detailed information gathered at university department level, combined with graduate survey data, to assess the impact of different kinds of employability skills initiative on graduate labour market performance. We find that structured work experience and employer involvement in degree course design and delivery have clear positive effects on the ability of graduates to secure employment in ‘graduate‐level’ jobs. However, a measure of departmental involvement in explicit teaching and assessment of employability skills is not significantly related to labour market performance.