Higher education and employment: opportunities and limitations in the formation of skills in a mass higher education system

Starting from an overview of the main interactions between higher education and employment, two alternative approaches to promoting them – that of fostering general ‘employability’ skills and that of linking higher education courses to professional formation – are examined and contrasted, particularly from the point of view of concepts of the integrity of professional practice on the one hand, and notions of a critically evaluative stance within higher education on the other. While the ‘employability’ idea is much commented on in recent literature and policydiscourse, the professional model offers a durable, but little discussed model of linkage, perhaps significantly extendable in an era of mass higher education.