Understand employability

Employability is more than just getting a job.

At UQ, we are committed to enhancing your employability: that means that we will help you to develop the capabilities and mindsets that will make you effective in whatever work you choose to do.

We do that by teaching you how to unpack your experiences to identify the capabilities and persional attributes that you are developing, and to talk about your potential in a way that employers understand.

Our focus goes beyond simply getting a job, to how you can use your capabilities to perform in the workplace, to create work opportunities, and to make an impact through your work.

What is employability?

Employability is not easy to define. Often employability is confused with employment - getting a job - but in fact employability is much more than that.

At UQ, we define employability as the capabilities and mindsets that empower you to perform effectively in the workplace, generate opportunities, and create positive social and economic impact.

While we understand it is important to be able to get a job – we want to make sure that you are able to effectively DO that job. That is what employability development is about.

Watch UQ graduates provide insights on what employability means, and how you can enhance your employability, in this video from EMPLOY101x "Unlocking your employability".

Why is it important to you?

Employability is important for 3 main reasons:

1. Securing work

Understanding what makes you employable allows you to differentiate yourself from your competition in the job market. It helps you to understand what you have to offer an organisation and enables you to communicate your potential to employers.

2. Managing your career

Being highly employable means that you can adapt to different work situations, learn from work experiences and create or take up new opportunities as they present themselves.

3. Making a difference

An employable individual is able to perform effectively in their work. They are able to make a positive contribution through their work to create change.

How do you enhance your employability?

UQ’s approach to student employability development is based on experiential learning. The capabilities and attributes that employers are looking for can be developed and enhanced through your experiences both at university and in your life off campus.

The UQ student employability framework is based on four stages:

Awareness Understanding employability as both degree knowledge, capabilities and mindsets that will enable you to perform effectively in work contexts across your career.
Experiences Engaging with a range of experiences to develop the professional and personal capabilities that employers value.
Learning Using self-reflection to translate experiences into employability development.
Transfer Communicating your employability effectively to employers and and transferring learning into workplace performance.

We will encourage you to reflect on the experiences you have to realise your employability development, and we will help you to understand how to communicate your potential to an employer as well as make a positive contribution through work.

To find out more about enhancing your employability, check out our free, self-paced, online course: EMPLOY101x 'Unlocking your employability'.

You may have opportunities to develop your employability through Work Integrated Learning (WIL) and access industry placements, projects, simulations, and experiences. This workplace practice will exist within your course and program curriculum. These courses combine theory with industry placements; industry projects; work simulations, and field experiences. WIL is commonly arranged by your school so contact your School placement officer or a faculty Student Employability Team (SET) for more information.

To find out about more opportunities for experiences, visit Get The Edge.

The My Career Adviser (MCA) is a flexible, self-paced online learning resource hosted within Blackboard that can be offered in programs, or incorporated within courses to support students in career development and employability learning. An expression of interest form is available to sign up.

Develop the mindset and capabilities to be effective in any path you choose with the Employability Award. This program gives you access to a wide range of extra-curricular opportunities across many different disciplines, both on and off-campus.

Additional opportunities are commonly arranged by your school so contact your School placement officer or a faculty Student Employability Team (SET) for more information.