New Article – Exploring critical perspectives on labour market information through the lens of elite graduate recruitment

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I have just had a new article published in HIgher Education Quartlerly on graduate schemes as sources of LMI. It is available through Open Access so anyone should be available to download it. In this article I look at how graduate schemes discuss career and conclude that they see it as a ‘liminal’ experience that enables individuals to realise an authentic self. I use this to explore the ideological foundations of Labour Market Information. I have also recently had another journal article published on a similar topic which you can read about here.

Here is a quick video about the article

And here is the full abstract

This article provides a critical discourse analysis of how career is discussed on elite graduate recruitment websites. Building on previous work from Handley (2018) and Ingram and Allen (2019) this article draws attention to how career is constructed, first, as something which graduates consume and, second, as a ‘liminal experience’ which transforms the graduates’ identities and allows them to gain access to a new authentic self, now able to progress towards their personal goals. This ideological reading of careers information is different to traditional understandings of careers information in Higher Education research which focuses on the objective nature of information which can be used to support the rational decision making. Focussing on the ideology of career draws attention to the need for careers delivery, in Higher Education and beyond, to engage with more critical pedagogical approaches.