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rences between what educations at universities offer and what employers are actually demanding when hiring students. Universities should assess that the education they offer students are in line with what the labour market demands, which in turn will enable improvements. Moreover, assessments should be carried out regarding who hires the students and how well they perform at work. Penrose (2002) recommends universities appoint an alumni advisory board to deal with these issues, since alumni can provide valuable external information for low effort and low costs. (Penrose, 2002)

3.7 Employability through Career Development Learning

The enhancement of employability has attracted much research; how HE can influence the student development in its education programmes, following an extensive review of the provision of HE education, Little (2004) concluded that while:

“International concern that higher education should enhance graduate employability, there is little evidence of systematic thinking about how best to do it, let alone any model that can be badged as ‘best practice' and adopted wholesale”. (Little, 2004: 4)

The UK government has introduced initiatives and programmes in an attempt to produce and promote the development of graduate skills; these have included projects to develop key and transferable skills. Stanbury (2005) defines career education as:

“Those formal processes that empower individuals to identify develop and articulate the skills, qualifications, experiences, attributes and knowledge that will enable them to make an effective transition into their futures and manage their careers as lifelong learners, with a realistic and positive attitude”. (Stanbury, 2005, p2)

It is important for students to be in the position of being employable by being equipped with the necessary skills for graduate employment. The CBI (2006), however, criticised HE institutions for being slow in recognising how the job market has changed and then producing graduates who are equipped to fulfil the graduate employment vacancies.

The government policy of engaging 50% of 18 to 30year olds into HE by 2010 will have a profound impact on the amount of graduates in the labour market all looking for graduate vacancies. This expansion will raise concerns that the increase in the number of graduates may not be synchronised with the rise in demand for their skills and qualifications from graduate recruiters. This concern was expressed:

‘The fit between the supply of graduates and employers' demand for their knowledge and skills clearly falls some way short of ideal'. (Purcell et al, 2005, p16)

The AGR (2007) report suggests that there is still a growing demand for graduates even with the increasing numbers leaving HE establishments; however the AGR does raise issues about the requirements of employers and what skills graduates are being equipped with. It is therefore important for graduates to be fully prepared to take on the challenges of the competitive jobs market in an increasingly challenging commercial environment with increasing number of students.

3.8 Recruitment Strategies

“Recruitment is the process of seeking and attracting a collection of people from which candidates for job vacancies can be chosen” (Analoui, 2007)

According to Price (2007) there are three main approac