Many students will never book a career session, but they will see their lecturers, tutors and academic departments every week. Delivering employability at scale means working across the university so that it is embedded in the places students already learn. For those of us working in university careers and employability, that means ensuring that professional services and academic colleagues work together to support each student on their journey to meaningful employment.
The numbers tell the story. At City St George’s, University of London, for example, employability sits at the heart of our strategy. But my department of 40 supports 27,000 students, so it’s clear our impact can’t rely on one-to-one careers appointments alone, no matter how talented and dedicated my team is.
Balancing operational leadership with institutional influence
Employability can’t be delivered in isolation. A large chunk of my time as director of careers and employability is spent collaborating with leaders across the university on projects that deliver institution-wide impact. Not every student will come to us for careers advice, but they will engage with their academics, personal tutors, placements teams and the students’ union. So, if employability is going to be a meaningful part of strategy, it must show up across those touch points.
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Working with academics and professional service colleagues in other departments is key; it builds shared ownership, rather than control, as well as influence. The approach must be collaborative and respectful to colleagues but also focused on what students need. The goal is to create trust quickly, bring colleagues with you and embed employability into work they already care deeply about. The sweet spot is career support that is sufficiently tailored to the needs of specific student groups but is also scalable and impactful within constrained resources.
It’s a misconception that careers services are a nice extra that is separate from the main student experience. An institution’s careers service can be a valuable partner that brings the expertise needed to integrate employability development into teaching and learning practice.
This expectation is also reflected in what students say they want. In an independent survey of 3,000 students conducted by Arlington Research, and commissioned by City St George’s, 98 per cent said employability skills such as communication, responsibility and problem-solving should be embedded within every degree.
Keeping a pulse on the labour market
Another core part of the role is staying connected to the external environment. The labour market shifts quickly. New sectors grow, job roles evolve, and recruitment practices change.
Regular engagement with employer partners, alumni and professional bodies – our network includes the Institute of Student Employers and the Graduate Futures Institute – drives this connection. These contacts provide labour market insight into where demand for graduates is growing and how recruitment practices are evolving.
Careers services then translate those insights back into the university. This can mean sharing labour market trends with academic colleagues when programmes are reviewed, contributing to curriculum discussions or highlighting emerging skills that employers value. The objective is not to dictate the curriculum but to ensure our understanding of the graduate labour market informs institutional conversations.
This is where employability can be misunderstood. It’s often reduced to “getting a job”, but I see it differently. It’s about equipping students to navigate their careers over time, to progress, adapt and succeed through change.
Our work doesn’t stop at graduation, either. We follow up with targeted coaching and internship support six months after graduation and review outcomes again 15 months after through the national Graduate Outcomes Survey. Our service is available for all graduates for life.
Advice for future professional services leaders
For anyone aspiring to director-level roles in university professional services, my advice is simple: take the opportunities that come your way, especially the ones that stretch you.
Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way:
- Keep your purpose close. Careers and employability work is fundamentally hopeful. It’s about opening doors, and sometimes helping students realise that those doors exist.
- Develop data literacy. Careers services are increasingly measured on outcomes. You do not need to build every dashboard yourself, but you do need to understand the data, ask the right questions and translate insights into decisions colleagues across the university can act on.
- Know that influence matters. Some of the biggest wins come from influencing colleagues in other parts of the university. Build trust and shared goals across departments.
- Think creatively about how you can use resources to scale your impact across the institution. Do any existing initiatives complement your goals and could they, with relatively small tweaks, support employability development at scale (through authentic assessments, for example)? What external partnerships, such as with employers, professional bodies or private sector collaborations, could you leverage? How might technology support your goals?
You can’t prepare students for a static destination because careers are not static. When we bring external reality into institutional conversations, what we offer students remains relevant and forward-looking. When it’s done well, it changes not only an outcome metric, but each student’s trajectory.
Gemma Kenyon is director of careers and employability at City St George’s, University of London.
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