From LinkedIn feeds to strategic plans, discussions about the future of work are everywhere, but the future of employability is barely discussed. This gap has consequences as unemployment and underemployment remain elevated, and graduates struggle to translate education into first jobs and sustainable careers. This is not just semantics. Terms shape priorities, and the terms we use can undermine what we value, overpromise what’s achievable, or obscure what deserves attention.
A poorly chosen term can undermine the very value of what it represents, as I write about “soft skills” in “Moving Beyond Soft Skills: Why It Is Time for a New Term.” No matter how much you stress that they are important or should be a priority in terms of their development, calling skills “soft” signals something else. Terms can also overpromise and underdeliver, as the term “future proof” does. It is not possible to be future proof in the way that you can waterproof something, and I suggest in “The Problem with ‘Future Proof,’ and What to Say Instead” that terms like future ready or futures empowered better reflect the unpredictability of the future and the need to envision, explore, and learn from multiple versions of the future. Underutilizing a term can undermine a key priority, which is why I argue in this post that we need to talk about the future of employability as much as we talk about the future of work.
The Future of Work Receives Most of the Attention
The future of work is important. A definition from SplashBI that captures what I think most people mean by the future of work defines it as “the evolving state of how, where, and why work gets done.” It is important to think about how work is evolving from the perspective of organizations and individuals, which is why there is a great deal of research on the future of work. Yet the future of work focuses almost exclusively on the activity and location of work rather than the qualities of people doing the work. While a discussion on the future of employability is sometimes included when the future of work is examined, it is often an implied rather than an explicit analysis. The imbalance can be seen when the future of employability is searched in Google Scholar. Google Scholar returns 219,000 scholarly articles for the exact phrase “future of work” but only 75 for “future of employability.” A Google search yields 122,000,000 results for the “future of work” compared to 163,000 results for “future of employability.” The future of employability has been treated as a subset of future of work discussions rather than recognizing it as a distinct field of inquiry. This represents both a critical gap and an extraordinary opportunity.
The Quality Assurance Commons defines employability through the Essential Employability Qualities, which “represent a set of attributes, competencies, and qualities that enable individuals to be successful in the rapidly changing workplace.” The Institute for Employment Studies defines employability as “the capability to gain initial employment, maintain employment and obtain new employment if required.” Drawing on these definitions, the future of employability explores the skills, attributes, and professional habits that enable individuals to gain initial employment, sustain employment as work evolves, and transition to new roles throughout their careers.
Why This Distinction Matters
You might ask whether this semantic distinction actually matters. Here is why it does. The future of work and future of employability are connected but not synonymous. Work-focused discussions examine changes in how, where, and why work gets done. Employability-focused discussions examine whether people have the attributes and skills to secure and sustain meaningful work across changing conditions. Currently, the future of employability is not getting the attention it deserves. We see the challenges that many recent graduates face in the workforce, as unemployment and underemployment rates are higher than they were before the pandemic. Additionally, many of the durable skills valued will be applied differently given changes in work and technology. This makes the future of employability not just worthy of focus but deserving of equal billing with the future of work.
Educators, employers, and individuals should care about the future of employability. Educators should focus on creating the foundation students need to secure their first job and to thrive in a career. This is challenging, especially for multi-year educational programs, but necessary as securing meaningful employment is one of the primary reasons people pursue post-secondary education. The future of employability is even important in technical fields as specific technical skills relevant in the present may be outdated in a year or two. Employers should ensure that their development programs focus on the future of employability so that their team members are prepared for changes in how work is done. And individuals should manage their own careers by ensuring they have the skills and other qualities needed to achieve their employment goals in the future.
What Is Next
When we talk about the future of work without equal focus on the future of employability, we prioritize understanding how work will change over ensuring people can thrive through that change. This gap represents a missed opportunity for educators preparing students, for organizations developing talent, and for individuals navigating their careers. Closing this gap requires more than acknowledging that employability matters. It requires understanding what the future of employability actually means and how to act on that understanding. Part 2 establishes what the future of employability means as a field of inquiry and introduces employability futures as a methodological approach that brings foresight to this field.