The Career Stage Framework: facilitating enhanced engagement with students, institutional partners, employers, and alumni.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20856/jnicec.5402Keywords:
career education, Employabiity, student engagement, employer engagement, institutional engagement, higher educationAbstract
Segmenting higher education students into three distinct groups based on their career stage can significantly boost engagement by providing relevant career learning. This approach allows careers professionals to tailor the employability curriculum to meet the diverse needs of their students. It also benefits institutional stakeholders by offering a nuanced understanding of impact measures and national metrics. Moreover, segmenting by career stage enhances employer engagement beyond the narrow focus on the graduate labour market and fosters more meaningful and diverse connections with alumni.
References
Artess, J., Mellors-Bourne, R., & Hooley, T. (2017). Employability: A review of the literature 2012-2016. Higher Education Academy.
Biggs, J. (1996). Enhancing teaching through constructive alignment, Higher Education, 32(3), 347-364.
Boyatzis, R., & Kolb, D. (2000). Performance, learning, and development as modes of growth and adaptation throughout our lives and careers. In M. Peiperl, M. Arthur, R. Goffee, & T. Morris (Eds.), Career Frontiers: New Conceptions of Working Lives (pp. 76–98). Oxford University Press.
Brammar, L., & Wilkinson, E. (2022). Career stage framework: meeting the students where they are in their employability journey, Phoenix (164), 33-45. https://www.agcas.org.uk/write/MediaUploads/Phoenix/Phoenix_Issue_164_February_2022_-_Students_as_co-creators.pdf
Caddell, M., & Cannell, P. (2011). Rethinking graduate attributes: Understanding the learning journeys of part-time students in the Open University in Scotland. In B. Jones, & S. Oosthuizen (Eds.), Part-Time study: The new paradigm for Higher Education? UALL. http://oro.open.ac.uk/46147/
Cao, Y. (2002). Adult distance learners in distance education: A literature review. [Graduate Research Papers, University of Northern Iowa]. Retrieved 10 21, 2024, from https://scholarworks.uni.edu/grp/462?utm_source=scholarworks.uni.edu%2Fgrp%2F462
Cobb, F. (2019). 'There's No Going Back': The Transformation of HE Careers Services Using Big Data. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 42(1), 18-25. doi: https://doi.org/10.20856/jnicec.4204
Dalrymple, R., Macrae, A., Pal, M., & Shipman, S. (2021). Employability: A review of the literature 2016-2021. AdvanceHE.
Department for Education. (2024, May 10). Lifelong Learning Entitlement overview. Retrieved from Gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lifelong-learning-entitlement-lle-overview/lifelong-learning-entitlement-overview
Donald, W., Baruch, Y., & Ashleigh, M. (2023). Construction and operationalisation of an Employability Capital Growth Model (ECGM) via a systematic literature review (2016–2022). Studies in Higher Education, 49(1), 1-15.
Dumont, H., Istance, D., & Benavides, F. (2010). The Nature of Learning: Using Research to Inspire Practice, Educational Research and Innovation. Paris: OECD Publishing. doi: https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264086487-en
Elliott, S., Kratochwill, T., & Travers, J. (2000). Educational psychology: Effective teaching, effective learning (3rd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Holmes, L. (2013). Competing perspectives on graduate employability: Possession, position or process? Studies in Higher Education, 38(4), 538–554.
Jorre de St Jorre, T., & Oliver, B. (2018). Want students to engage? Contextualise graduate learning outcomes and assess for employability. Higher Education Research & Development, 37(1), 44-57.
Latanich, G., Nonis, S., & Hudson, G. (2001). A profile of today’s distance learners: An investigation of demographic and individual difference variables of distance and non-distance learners. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 11(3), 1–16.
Lavender, K. (2020). Mature students’ experiences of undertaking higher education in English vocational institutions: Employability and academic capital. International Journal of Training Research, 18(2), 141–154.
Luzzo, D. (1999). Identifying the career decision-making needs of nontraditional college students. Journal of Counseling and Development, 77(2), 135–140.
Masdonati, J., Fournier, G., & Lahrizi, I. (2017). The reasons behind a career change through vocational education and training. International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training, 4(3), Article 3.
Monteiro, S., Almeida, L., Gomes, C., & Sinval, J. (2022). Employability profiles of higher education graduates: A person-oriented approach. Studies in Higher Education, 47(3), 499–512.
Moreau, M., & Leathwood, C. (2006). Graduates’ employment and the discourse of employability: A critical analysis. Journal of Education and Work, 19(4), 305–324.
Neves, J., Freeman, J., Stephenson, R., & Sotiropoulou, D. P. (2024). Student Academic Experience Survey 2024. HEPI.
Ng, C. (2018). “I learn for a job promotion!”: The role of outcome-focused career goals in motivating distance learners to learn. Distance Education, 39(3), 390–410.
Pham, T., & Jackson, D. (2020). The need to develop graduate employability for a globalized world. In T. Nghia, T. Pham, M. Tomlinson, K. Medica, & C. Thompson (Eds.), Developing and utilizing employability capitals: Graduates’ strategies across labour markets. Routledge.
Pyvis, D., & Chapman, A. (2007). Why university students choose an international education: A case study in Malaysia. International Journal of Educational Development, 27(2), 235–246.
Reichwald, S. (2024, March 7). Institute of Student Employers. Retrieved from https://insights.ise.org.uk/home_featured/the-future-of-early-careers-recruitment-is-untapped-talent/
Rodríguez, M., González-Monteagudo, J., & Padilla-Carmona, T. (2021). Employability and inclusion of non-traditional university students: limitations and challenges. IAFOR Journal of Education, 9(1), 133–151.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Winter, D. (2023). A framework for analysing careers and employability learning outcomes. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 51(1), 15-25.
Winter, D. (2023). Supporting employability. In D. B. L. Amrane-Cooper (Ed.), Online and Distance Education for a Connected World (pp. 64–94). UCL Press. Retrieved from https://www.uclpress.co.uk/collect
Winter, D., & Yates, J. (2021). The (faltering) renaissance of theory in higher education careers practice. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 46(1), 10-17.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Laura Brammar, Victoria Wade, James Weaver

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.