Business school students’ perception of employability: Antecedents and responsibility

Higher education institutions are increasingly pressured to deliver cost-effective and innovative learning that produces employable graduates. This study explores business school students’ perceptions of how their learning experience influences their employability. Through focus groups and paired interviews with current students and alumni, we identify four interrelated antecedents as most influential. These are authentic teaching, assessment, and extracurricular opportunities aligned to workplace practices; accessible and engaged teaching staff; students’ proactiveness and independent preparation; and employability as a distributed responsibility between institutions, educators, and students. While employability-aligned approaches were generally viewed positively, students also identified challenges associated with increased independence in learning and participation in group-based assessment. These challenges reflect tensions inherent in modelling workplace practices within higher education. The study proposes a model showing how student experience, engagement, and perceived employability are mutually reinforcing, offering guidance in prioritising approaches that meaningfully support employability development.