A new relational employability approach for universities with Elizabeth J. Cook

Higher Education Researcher

In this episode, Janja Komljenovic talks with Elizabeth J. Cook, who is a Senior Analyst, Strategy and Performance at Edith Cowan University and a doctoral researcher in the PhD in Higher Education, Evaluation and Enhancement at Lancaster University. Elizabeth talks about her doctoral research, which developed and implemented a new relational employability approach for universities. She describes her conceptualisation of relational employability as a broader, holistic and interconnected understanding of employability that incorporates three equally important elements: (1) basic individualistic career development, career management and careers (getting into the workforce and having a successful career to benefit oneself); (2) humanistic interactions and contributions throughout careers; and (3) more-than-human interactions and contributions throughout careers. Elizabeth explains how she conducted this research, using design research methodology and mixed methods, and describes her publishing adventures while being a student at Lancaster, with some publishing tips that may benefit other doctoral researchers.

Elizabeth’s ORCID Profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8406-4049

Elizabeth’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/ejcook4

Publications discussed in this episode:

• Cook, E. J. (2022). A narrative review of graduate employability models: their paradigms, and relationships to teaching and curricula. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 13(1), 37–64. https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2022vol13no1art1483
• Lacković, N., & Olteanu, A. (In Press). Graduate Employment Futures and Relational Employability: In Conversation with Elizabeth J. Cook. In Relational and multimodal higher education. Routledge.