1 Introduction

In the last decades, employability has emerged as a buzzword. It has been discussed in different contexts and by different stakeholders, aiming to boost graduates’ employment rate and meet employers’ demands. For example, the Canadian government’s Labour Force Development Board (1994) defines the concept of employability as the ability of an individual to gain employment given the connection of personal competencies and the labour market conditions. Scholarly, Hillage and Pollard (1998) consider employability as an individual’s capacity to be employed, maintain employment, seek alternative jobs and promotions. They believe that the possessed skills, knowledge, and attitudes should meet employers’ expectations and the working context. From industry perspectives, the Confederation of British Industry (1999) views employability as an individual’s characteristics that are required by employers and customers to meet the workforce requirements. In general, the main difference in these employability perspectives appears to revolve around whether the focus is upon individuals’ competencies to enhance their employment, or upon the external factors such as employers and the labour market influencing a person when getting his job.

Amongst a plethora of definitions of employability, Yorke’s (2004) perspective seemed to receive much support from audiences. He refers to the term employability as a ‘set of achievements, skills, understandings and personal attributes—which makes graduates more likely to gain employability and be successful in their chosen occupations’ (Yorke, 2004, p. 8). Further developing on Yorke’s (2004) definition, Oliver (2015, p. 63) proposes that employability is not only about acquisition but also about how students and graduates can ‘discern, acquire, adapt, and continually enhance their skills, understands and personal attributes that make them more likely to find and create meaning paid and unpaid work that can benefit themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy’. One of the latest frameworks of employability that has received applauses from other academics belongs to Tomlinson (2017) who proposes that human capital, social capital, cultural capital, identity capital, and psychological capital can benefit graduates in the competitive labour market. This framework, instead of seeing employability in terms of skills, views it in a holistic perspective, shifting the focus on developing employability skills for students to developing a variety of assets or capital that enable graduates to access job information, succeed in a job interview, adapt to the new work environment, and thrive in their chosen careers. As such, there has been a revolution in employability concepts through time.

With the internationalization and globalization process, the English language has become a dominant international language used by millions of people. English language education has become central in the national language policy of many countries, as reported in Chap. 2, because it fosters individuals’ success in their careers in the local labour market and integrates into the global one. Several studies have suggested the relationship between English language education and some types of employability skills or capital (e.g., Aclan et al., 2016; Kostikova et al., 2021; Dash et al., 2020; Kim & Kim, 2017; Ye, 2020; Gao et al., 2015). However, such relationships are still not well-defined, and the contribution of English language education to the development of some employability skills or capital is missing. As such, this research gap needs to be addressed to help policymakers, curriculum designers, teachers and students approach English language education in a way that best prepares graduates for the world of work that is intensively internationalized and globalized.

In this chapter, we will present a theoretical framework to be used for this book. We will start by reviewing the literature to show what employers need from graduates, then report evidence of English language education as a contributor to graduates’ employment and careers prospects. Whilst we discuss how English language education facilitates the development of employability capital, we argue that this is a missing link in the research areas of graduate employability and English language education, thus calling for further research to address such a literature gap. We also save a large portion of this chapter to review prominent models of graduate employability, showing a revolution of perspectives towards the graduate employability concept. We finally identify the graduate employability model, explaining its relevance and how it will be used in this book project.

2 Skills Employers Need in Different Occupational Sectors and Countries

Studies about the employers’ expectations of graduates’ employability skills have been increasing in the last decades. Scholars have pointed out that hard skills, also known as technical skills, appear not to sufficiently equip graduates with the capabilities to cope with the challenges of the current business world. Instead, soft skills have become more important in enhancing graduates’ quests for lifelong personal development, increasing employability, and achieving academic success in different fields (Doan & Hamid, 2019; Dolce et al., 2020; Ting et al., 2017). Below are the skills employers from different industries look for.

In Accounting, British employers perceive that the deficiencies in problem-solving, time management, teamwork, and communication skills (Arquero Montanoet et al., 2001) prevented accounting graduates from successfully landing a job. Italian employers favoured graduates with the ability to work in a team and to communicate well (Dolce et al., 2020). According to the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ) and CPA Australia (2018), to succeed as a professional accountant, applicants need to master functional skills, personal skills, communicative skills, intellectual skills, interpersonal skills, and business management skills. In Ghana, most employers ranked analytical and critical thinking skills as the most important skills, followed by communication and computer skills, as their desired skills for Accounting graduates (Awayiga et al., 2010). Also, collected data from 65 internal auditors in South Africa revealed that graduates were expected to perform high levels of soft skills such as adaptability, self-management, teamwork and communication (Plant et al., 2019). Employers in Malaysia expected accounting graduates to gain teamwork, communication, and leadership skills before entering the job market (Ghani et al., 2018).

In Information Technology, US employers ranked soft skills such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, interpersonal, analytical skills higher than technical skills for entry-level positions (Jones et al., 2018). Also, in the Philippines, the data gathered from Bringula et al.’s (2016) study revealed that graduates needed to master technical, critical thinking, and communication skills to get hired. In India, employers required IT graduates to advance their technical skills and then focus on developing their communication, interpersonal, and teamwork skills (Pillar & Amin, 2020). North Florida-based employers in the IT industry specified that they needed both technical and general competencies from graduates. Top wanted technical competencies were infrastructure design, information technology architecture, operations support, configuration management, and data management, amongst others; top wanted general competencies were interpersonal skills, self-management, professional learning, oral communication, and customer service, to name a few (Hollister et al., 2017).

In Business fields, Bangladeshi employers ranked communication skills (both verbal and written) as the most desired soft skills, followed by interpersonal skills, the ability to work under pressure, teamwork, analytical ability, and self-motivated attributes (Nusrat & Sultana, 2019). Meanwhile, Greek employers perceived soft skills such as interpersonal, teamwork, communication skills and technical skills were crucial for business graduates to get a job (Tsirkas et al., 2020). Indian employers required Business graduates to possess teamwork, verbal and non-verbal communication, analytical and management skills (Kushal & Nargundkar, 2021). A study conducted in the USA by Robles (2012) showed that Business employers valued both technical and soft skills, especially the latter. Accordingly, the top ten most desired soft skill attributes were integrity, communication, courtesy, responsibility, interpersonal skills, positive attitude, professionalism, flexibility, teamwork skills, and work ethics.

In the tourism and retailing industry, US employers require employees to routinely communicate with customers to fulfil the transactional experience; therefore, communication, teamwork, leadership, self-management, and interpersonal skills are highlighted as the most desired skills in this industry (Nedry, 2016). Similarly, in Wesley et al.’s (2017) study showed that communication skill was ranked as the most important skill graduates should possess at an entry-level position in the retailing and tourism industry. It was followed by other soft skills such as leadership, teamwork, self-management, professionalism, and experience. Adeyinka-Ojo (2018) conducted a critical literature review related to rural hospitality and tourism to identify the skills valued by employers. The study found skills deficit in the industry; it also identified skills sought after by employers, such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, planning and organization, lifelong learning, technology, global mindset, awareness of health and safety issues, amongst others.

Although there are some differences in the skills employers need in different sectors and countries, it appears that communication skills, interpersonal skills, teamwork, technical skills, and management skills are commonly highlighted in the aforementioned studies. Especially, communication skills seemed to be the most wanted soft skills that graduates should possess since these skills enable employees to connect with their team, negotiate with their customers, and therefore, bring huge benefits to their company.

3 English Proficiency and Career Prospects in Non-English Speaking Countries

Many studies around the globe have stated that globalization leads to a higher demand on graduates’ ability to communicate effectively with people from different backgrounds, nationalities, languages, and cultures to build relationships and adapt to external contexts (Dash et al., 2020; Hoang, 2019; Ting et al., 2017). Therefore, having efficient international language communication skills has become one of the most important elements in individuals’ career prospects.

Although there are millions of people using English currently, many English users do not come from an English speaking country. Kachru (2001) states that the world’s English users are divided into three main groups: L1 (English as a First Language), ESL (English as a Second Language), and EFL (English as a Foreign Language). These groups are also described as Inner, Outer, and Expanding Circle respectively. Although English is widely used, most of its users do not come from the Inner circle. The learners from the other circles use English for different purposes such as school and job requirements, overseas learning and work (Hopkyns et al., 2018). In this section, the importance of English skills for graduates’ job application and job promotion in different occupational sectors in various non-native English speaking countries will be presented.

3.1 Job Application

In European countries, possessing a high level of English skills is an advantage for any job application. According to Grasmane and Grasmane's (2011) study, 38% of undergraduates, 30% of masters’ students, and 30% of doctoral students in Latvia came to an agreement that foreign language skills such as English and Russian contributed to successful job application in the EU labour market. Latvian recruiters need someone who can overcome the language barriers during business negotiations, meetings, and presentations. Similarly, 23 representatives of 23 companies in the Czech Republic which include Information Technology, Finance, Engineering, and Automotive answered in the interview that they expected the job applicants to have excellent oral and written communication in English (Kralova & Dolezelova, 2021). They expected graduates to be confident in giving effective presentations and negotiations during the company business trips. The applicants were required to show their ability to make spontaneous and informal spoken interactions such as small talks or idioms in English at the workplace. Unfortunately, 73.9% of these employers claimed that graduates were not able to use sufficient English vocabulary in business contexts.

In many Asian countries, English communication skills are highlighted as the passport to secure a job. In Vietnam, employers look for potential applicants who can communicate well in global trading communication (Hoang, 2019; Tran, 2018). For example, Doan and Hamid (2019) collected two samples of job advertisments in 2015 and 2018 on a credit job-seeking website, showing that there is a huge demand for English skills for employment in Vietnam: 65% and 67% of the job adverts mentioning English as one of the job requirements in 2015 and 2018 respectively. Similarly, according to a survey from World Bank (2014, p. 24), 81% of employers said that a lack of English communication skills was one of the stumbling blocks for Malaysian graduates obtaining employment at an entry level. In Thailand, graduates need to show their ability to communicate in English effectively with clients from different language backgrounds during the interviews before getting a job (Trakulkasemsuk, 2018). In India, most employers crave to hire graduates who are qualified, innovative, positive, self-motived to work and learn, open to new challenges, and especially fluent in English communication (Dash et al., 2020; Sheikh, 2017; Sinha et al., 2019). In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), besides technical skills, most employers demand their employees to be good at English communication skills (Fox et al., 2006; Hopkyns et al., 2018; Patent, 2017). This rising demand was attributed to the rapid increase of foreign professionals coming to the UAE to work (Hopkyns et al., 2018) and the desire to make their oil industry to be more successful in the international markets (Patent, 2017).

In Africa, the demand for English skills is similar to that in other continents. In South Africa, although a majority of the population can speak English, employers still prefer applicants with excellent English communication skills. For example, Nudelman (2020) showed that graduates who could not use advanced English language skills struggled with finding a good job. It is because South African employers believed that with good English, graduates could work well in a team and proactively extend ideas in the workplace (Akyeampong, 2014). Similarly, more than half the job opportunities in Morocco, one of the North African countries, require applicants to have adequate English language skills (Soussi, 2021).

3.2 Job Promotion and Career Advancement

Most employers commonly select and offer a promotion to employees with an efficient level of English since these people can perform more tasks that required advanced English (Dash et al., 2020; Ting et al., 2017). For example, ten Malaysian employers in Ting et al.’s (2017) study stated that they would hire employees who can communicate with clients and colleagues effectively, but they would only promote those employees with high English proficiency. They explained that English proficiency was necessary for globally-oriented meetings, business emails, or technical presentations with external clients. Likewise, most employers in India (Dash et al., 2020) crave to hire, train, and promote qualified innovative, and self-motivated people to work and learn, open to new challenges with a positive mindset and especially proper communication skills. Similarly, in the Philippines, graduates first need to pass eighteen units of English to gain a bachelor’s degree in Law to become lawyers or judges, and they will keep using English as the dominant language for every written and courtroom task as an unseparated part of their career development (Martin, 2018). Also, to secure a job promotion, these lawyers should be capable of using advanced English language (Martin, 2018).

A good level of English may also pursue employees with overseas career advancement opportunities. Residing in a new country can be a big challenge for any expatriates since they may deal with language barriers, cultural shock, and job expectations. However, many studies have revealed that the level of English skills can significantly affect their adaptability and employability. According to Othman et al. (2021), expatriates who master English language skills can easily establish friendships and tolerate Malaysian culture. Li et al. (2020) had a survey of 92 males and 147 females from a company in China to investigate the influence of English language proficiency on employees’ willingness to work abroad. The results showed that the employees with high proficiency levels were more willing to enter the global business environment as well as accept expatriation. Similarly, Hamze (2020)’s study on 54 expatriates who worked in Iraq revealed that to build individual relationships with their managers, they had to communicate well in English.

In summary, the English language has become the dominant communication tool in businesses and multi-companies around the entire globe. Employers consider this transferable skill as a strong foundation for any employees to improve their personal and professional development. Without English proficiency, it is difficult for graduates to secure employment opportunities and advance in their careers, especially in non-English speaking countries.

4 Graduate Employability Model

As mentioned above, employability has increasingly drawn much attention to career educators and other stakeholders, despite existing agreement and disagreement about the nature of employability and the role of higher education institutions (HE) in developing employability for students. Different types of employability frameworks, therefore, have been created and modified around such debates. In this section, we will review prominent employability models to provide an overview of the current landscape of graduate employability. To be more specific, we will present five employability models created by Yorke and Knight (2006), Pool and Sewell (2007), Fugate et al. (2004), Clarke (2018), and Tomlinson (2017).

4.1 USEM Model of Employability

Yorke and Knight (2006) develop a graduate employability framework named USEM (Fig. 4.1), which takes the first letter in the main components of employability. Understanding includes knowledge of the subject matter as well as how an organization works. Skills are viewed in terms of ‘skilful practice’ in academic, work and life domains. Such skilful practices implicitly underpin graduates’ self-perceptions and reactions to certain situations. Efficacy beliefs, one representative of personal qualities, reflect the learner’s notion of the self, their self-belief, and the possibility for personal improvement and development. Efficacy beliefs are a focal point referring to learners’ ability to ‘make a difference- not every time but in a probabilistic way’ (Yorke & Knight, 2006, p. 4). Instead of being ‘static’, students are expected to act contextually and flexibly, thus allowing them to be resilient to changes and challenges of the future workplace. Finally, metacognition is about sub-factors of ‘learning how to learn’; of ‘reflection in, on, and for practice’; and ‘a capacity for self-regulation’ (Knight & York, 2006, p. 5).

The four constructs contributing to employability are interconnected. For example, graduates’ efficacy beliefs or self-confidence in order to stand out from others are supposed to be strengthened by their subject expertise and a variety of important skills or abilities they possess upon graduation (Turner, 2014). In this respect, metacognition also plays a pivotal role in building up graduates’ efficacy beliefs, showing their entire responsibility for actions of their own volition. All things considered, the model is a useful model to understand what makes graduates employable.

Fig. 4.1
A model has 5 elements. 4 interconnected elements, namely, subject knowledge, skills, personal qualities, and meta-cognition have arrows pointing to employability.

USEM model

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4.2 The CareerEDGE Model of Graduate Employability

Another similar yet more rigorous graduate employability model is the CareerEDGE model (Fig. 4.2) conceptualized by Pool and Sewell (2007). The strength of this model is that it shows the role of HE in developing different aspects of employability for students. In particular, with specialist knowledge, qualifications, and generic skills acquired from HE, students can build up their self-efficacy and re-evaluate what they have gained, which is a great help for their future career path. In parallel, when at university, students should be trained for career development, allowing them to thoroughly understand what is truly important and meaningful or what fits their dispositions (Law & Watts, 1977). Studying for career development is also a compass that helps graduates navigate well in the job market (Foster, 2006). This is related to the term ‘career-building skills’ presented in Clarke’s (2018) and Tomlinson’s (2017) models, which will be clarified later. In addition, embedding work-life experience training into the curriculum beneficially equips students with knowledge and experiences about the functioning of the job market, hence being able to confidently approach and proactively perform their abilities to potential employers or organizations (Pool & Sewell, 2007). Moreover, ‘emotional intelligence’, a feature unelaborated in the USEM, seems to play a central part in connection with other mentioned constructs. Emotional intelligence makes one sympathize with others and well control their sentiment, predisposing to healthy relationships in the workplace (Goleman, 1998). If harnessing ‘emotional intelligence’ efficiently, graduates can be able to apply what they have learned in the HE environment into practice, cultivating their self-efficacy in return.

All of the mentioned elements form the foundation for graduate employability. However, it requires students/graduates to reflect upon and evaluate such elements to see if they have attained such elements at the level required by a job position. Together with their self-efficacy and self-confidence, their self-reflection and evaluation will contribute to building their self-esteem, which is viewed by Pool and Sewell (2007) as directly leading to employability.

Fig. 4.2
A 4-level, bottom-up block diagram. It has the following elements. 1. Career, experience, degree subject, generic skills, emotional intelligence. 2. Reflection and evaluation. 3. Self-efficacy and self-confidence lead to self-esteem. 4. Employability.

(Adapted from Pool & Sewell, 2007)

Career edge graduate employability model

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4.3 Heuristic Model of Employability

Fugate et al. (2004) take the psycho-social construct into building a heuristic model of employability (Fig. 4.3). In their viewpoint, employability is the intersection between career identity, personal adaptability, and social and human capital. ‘Career identity’ is perceived as ‘who I am’. Together with one’s understanding of ‘hopes, goals, fears, personal traits and values…’, a person can define themselves in order to realize and ‘catch’ career opportunities (Fugate et al., 2004, p. 20). When one can self-understand, personal adaptability should come into play. Personal adaptability allows an individual to be resilient and sustain challenging and ever-changing work environments because he/she is supposed to proactively and optimistically learn about workplace challenges and opportunities. This aspect seems to be associated with ‘emotional intelligence’, which has been clarified in the CareerEDGE model of employability above (Pool & Sewell, 2007). Fugate and his fellow researchers provide more insights into social capital, i.e., social networks, the one that seems to be overlooked in the CareerEdge model (Pool & Sewell, 2007). It is argued that, when combined with human capital, social capital helps strengthen one’s career identity and personal adaptability. This is because one’s possession of subject specialization and generic skills, alongside with close bonds with others, possibly boosts their self-efficacy and self-awareness in the type of job chosen (Clarke, 2018; Fugate et al., 2004; Tomlinson, 2017). As such, the intertwined constructs play an integral part in facilitating graduates’ career outcomes.

Fig. 4.3
A Venn diagram of 3 elements, namely, career identity, personal adaptability, and human and social capital. All intersect in employability.

(Adapted from Fugate et al., 2004)

Heuristic model of employability

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4.4 Graduate Employability Capital Model

Unlike other authors, Tomlinson did not view graduate employability in terms of skills, but capital instead. He conceptualizes graduate employability as ‘largely constitutive of the accumulation and deployment of a variety of interactive forms of capital’, which includes ‘human, social, cultural, identity, and psychological’. (Tomlinson, 2017, p. 339). On that notion, he constructed the graduate employability capital model (Fig. 4.4). Human capital refers to technical and career-building skills which graduates are supposed to effectively harness to empower themselves in the job search process. Social capital is about social networking that helps pave the way for one’ human capital development towards employment outcomes (Clarke, 2018; Fugate et al., 2004; Tomlinson, 2017). In other words, it supports graduates’ human capital for employment outcomes.

The perspective about cultural capital in this model is distinctive from the aforementioned ones. Cultural capital, in Bourdieu’s viewpoint, is conceived as culturally gained values of knowledge, innate characters, and sequential agency that graduates/students apply to morph into the given work or educational situations (Bourdieu, 1986). As for the case of graduates, one should further consider the ‘added-value’ knowledge obtained through diverse socio-cultural milieus and beyond the HE context. Tomlinson exemplifies this aspect by citing Lindberg’s (2013) research finding in which medic graduates, through winning awards, attending symposiums and achieving other types of success, can gain employment benefits (Lindberg, 2013). At this point, necessarily, social capital should also be examined since it is intertwined with its cultural counterpart, given that one can obtain information, including but not limited to that of meetings, workshops, and other means to ‘market’ one’s image with potential employers if he/she has bridging experiences (Tomlinson, 2017).

Pertaining to the identity capital, the term is related to the way one defines and reflexes themselves on the basis of their own values not only to make effort for the sake of their future employability but to stay attuned to the desired working field (Fugate et al., 2004; Tomlinson, 2017). Here should also come the role of psychological capital, which is viewed as one’s capacity to ‘adapt and respond proactively to inevitable career challenges’ (Tomlinson, 2017, p. 347). Tomlinson also argues that for graduates to successfully develop their careers, they need certain psychological attributes and personalities such as adaptability, flexibility, resilience, and optimism—termed psychological capital. It helps graduates to overcome challenges and move forward on the career path they desire to develop.

Fig. 4.4
A model with 5 main elements radiating out from graduate capital at the center. They include social capital with networks, contacts, and opportunity access, cultural capital with embodied behaviors and symbolic values, and identity capital with a presentation of an employable self.

(Adapted from Tomlinson, 2017)

Graduate Capital Model

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4.5 Psycho-Social Construct of Employability

Whilst pointing out important components of employability, the graduate employability models presented above do not articulate clearly the importance of external factors—those associated with the labour market. In her model, Clarke (2018) not only discusses the necessity of human capital, social capital, and personal qualities but also takes into consideration the pivotal interplay between the ‘internal factors’ and the labour market being ‘external factors’ for employability success. She contends that even if an individual has good competencies and skills (i.e., human capital), and a wide circle of social networks (i.e., social capital), there is no guarantee that he/she can successfully secure employment. This is because many market factors, especially the uncertainty of the global economy and the ever-changing labour market as today, may disadvantage individuals who have already possessed a high level of human and social capital. Those who lack geographical mobility or are unable to adapt to challenging working environment are unlikely to get employed (Clarke, 2018; McQuaid, 2006). Working settings and related requirements are, therefore, worth due attention.

Another point drawn out from the model is individual attributes and behaviours, which is supported by Fugate and colleagues (2004). ‘Attributes’ here is observed through the angle of socio-psychology. It means that adaptability and flexibility can assist oneself to malleably handle tough circumstances, thus boosting their chances for desired career achievement (Fugate et al., 2004). ‘Behaviours’ is, in this case, related to ‘career self-management’ and ‘career-building skills’. The former is about an individual’s self-realization regarding his attitudes, knowledge, skills, passion, and balance between work and life, which is somewhat similar to the ‘metacognition’ given in the USEM. The latter, however, is focused on the assistance for a person’s navigation and advancement in the workplace (Bridgstock, 2009).

In this model, Clarke also mentioned perceived employability, the self-evaluated employability that graduates have about themselves. This is similar to the ‘reflection and evaluation’ element in CareerEdge graduate employability model (Pool & Sewell, 2007). Such perceived employability may rise and fall depending on graduates’ achievements of types of employability capital, their attributes, behaviours, and the labour market at the time they conduct the self-assessment on their own employability. Perceived employability works together with labour market factors to determine the actual graduate employability (Fig. 4.5).

Fig. 4.5
An illustration has 7 elements. Human and social capital and individual attributes and behavior point to perceived employability, which in turn point to graduate employability. Labor market points to both perceived and graduate employability.

(Adapted from Clarke, 2018)

Psycho-social construct of employability

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5 The Relevance of Tomlinson’s Employability Capital Model to Our Book Project

The previous sections have presented different models of graduate employability. It is observed that there was a revolution in the perspectives of what graduate employability is and what constitutes it. From early perspectives defining employability as skill sets to more holistic perspectives seeing it as a combination of different capital/resources instead of just skill, to recent perspectives viewing graduate employability in a relative sense as it is influenced by market factors, not solely graduates’ factors. In addition, existing research about English language education indicates some relationship between English language learning and employability capital, but they appear to be patchy and are not guided by a graduate employability model. Thus, it is important to systematically conduct studies into the relationships between them using a rigorous graduate employability theoretical framework.

For the purpose of this edited book, we will adopt Tomlinson’s (2017) graduate employability capital model as the compass for the direction and development of all empirical studies. This model is chosen because of two reasons. First, the employability capital model is aligned with our perspective on graduate employability and research purposes for this book. We view that employability is more than a list of skills; rather, it is a dynamic combination of different types of resources, or capital in Tomlinson’s terms, with the interference of market factors and individual graduates’ factors. We acknowledge that Clarke’s (2018) psycho-social construct of employability better captures the complexity of employability than Tomlinson’s (2017) model. It can explain how employability capital can be translated into employment or career outcomes under negotiation between the graduates, with their self-perceived employability, and labour market. However, in this book, as we do not investigate how employability capital developed via English learning is translated into employment or career outcomes, market factors or perceived employability becomes redundant elements. As such, Tomlinson’s (2017) employability capital model is adequate to embrace our perspective towards graduate employability and fits well into the purposes of our book: (i) to explore the contribution of English language education to the development of employability capital and (ii) to examine the effectiveness of English language teaching and learning in preparing students/graduates for the world of work.

Second, it encourages us to examine new aspects of employability: cultural capital, psychological capital, and career identity capital. Dominantly, cultural capital is viewed in relation to individuals’ education credentials and related experiences, which act as their advantages to accomplish certain social status (Bourdieu, 1986). However, Tomlinson (2017) introduced a new view on cultural capital, seeing it in relation to graduates’ functional ability at the workplace. He defined it as the understanding of the work culture or work practices of an organization, industry, or job sector. He also introduced psychological capital, with self-efficacy, adaptability, flexibility, and resilience being the most important elements. Psychological capital enables graduates to adapt to a new work environment, overcome challenges, and take opportunities to develop their careers. Such abilities or attributes have been researched, but they appeared not to have been classified under a holistic employability framework, except for adaptability (see Fugate et al., 2004). Tomlinson also brought on board the concept of career identity as another employability capital, although it had been introduced by Fugate et al. (2004) earlier. However, few studies have examined the initial career/professional identity as a resource/capital that enables the development of other employability capital and contributes to graduates’ employment and career outcomes. The introduction of these new capital concepts will give us opportunities to conduct our employability-related research innovatively. Putting them into the examination of the contribution of English language education to graduate employability, we may identify new benefits of learning English that previous studies have not identified. From there, important implications may be provided to help modify the current approach to English language education, aiming to make it more practical and applicable for work purposes. It is because learning a language to know, without using it in real life, is the easiest way to waste time, money, and effort invested in the acquisition of the language.

For the aforementioned reasons, we believe that Tomlinson’s graduate employability capital model is a comprehensive and rigorous theoretical framework for the development of this book. It may help us bring out new insights in English language education that have not been addressed or overlooked before. The model will serve as an overarching theoretical framework for conceptualizing and shaping the main contents of the book. More specifically, it will be used to guide studies in Part II of this book where authors explore the contribution of English language education to the development of human, social, cultural, psychological, and career identity capital. It will also be used for discussion in studies presented in Part III of this book where authors examined the current practices of English language education in Vietnam and how it has helped or prevented the development of graduate employability capital, using the experiences of several stakeholders: current students, graduates, teachers, and program coordinators. Finally, this theoretical framework also underpins our discussion in Part IV—the last chapter—where we identify English language teaching practices that can facilitate the development of employability capital, instead of just English language skills. It should be noted that in each empirical chapter, the author may adopt some theoretical framework for their analysis, but the central discussion of their work also relies on the type(s) of capital proposed by Tomlinson (2017). Overall, the employability capital model plays the role of a spine that connects all chapters presented in this book to make the whole book complete, logical, and consistent.

6 Existing Research About English Language Education and Employability Capital

As presented earlier in Tomlinson’s (2017) employability capital framework, employability is constituted by human, social, cultural, psychological, and career identity capital. These types of capital are not separate from each other, but they may overlap and mutually influence their development. In this section, we will note how English education may develop such employability capital based on a review of existing studies in this respect.

First, human capital includes but is not limited to knowledge, technical and soft skills, and work experiences that benefit one’s employment and career prospects. In this regard, English is the most popular language used for the dissemination of the latest news and scientific knowledge. Having an advanced level of English language competence will enable individuals to access different sources of information beneficial for their study and work (Doan & Hamid, 2019); and thus also improve their technical knowledge and skills. In addition, some studies indirectly suggest a relationship between English education and work performances/experiences. For example, Pham (2018) found that HR managers of multinational companies in Vietnam preferred to hire graduates of overseas institutions mostly because of their English competence. Likewise, Malaysian employers tend to believe that better English signifies better employability. They even use English skills as a criterion to decide employees’ salaries and promote them to manager positions (Ting et al., 2017). In contrast, a lack of English was found to prevent Vietnamese employees from contributing their perspectives or actively engaging in the decision-making process (Tran et al., 2017). Furthermore, English education can facilitate the development of some important soft skills, which can be found both in human capital and psychological capital, as defined in Tomlinson (2017). A study carried out by Tevdovska (2015), with the participation of 23 undergraduates from South East European University, found that the participants were able to express themselves appropriately and handle tough circumstances thanks to soft skills trained in English classes. Indeed, several teaching techniques in EFL/ESL classes such as debate, role-play can help students develop soft skills such as critical thinking, analytical, and problem-solving skills (Aclan et al., 2016; Kostikova et al., 2021).

Social capital is ‘the sum of social relationships and networks that help mobilize graduates’ existing human capital and bring them closer to the labour market and its opportunity structures’ (Tomlinson, 2017, p. 342). Due to globalization, the use of English as a worldwide as an international language has kept increasing, with millions of users. Thus, possessing an aquadate English communication skills can help people increase their social network and connect to the rest of the world. Indeed, some studies have found a relationship between English education and social capital development. In India, the study by Dash et al. (2020) revealed that English language skills enhanced employees’ ability to communicate more effectively at work, expand their social network, and enhance their employment outcomes. In contrast, international students in Australia were found not to possess an adequate level of English, making it hard for them to study, network with people and thus negatively affecting their employability (Benzie, 2010).

It is observed that numerous studies have addressed how to train English language teachers in intercultural competence and related pedagogies (e.g., He, 2013; Snow, 2015). However, it appears that there is a lack of studies that seek to determine the relationship between English language education and students’ cultural capital development. It should be noted here that the cultural competence developed for teacher is understood in a common, broad sense: the values and norms attached to a group of people or territory. However, in this book, cultural capital is defined in relation to employment prospects. It is viewed as ‘the formation of culturally valued knowledge, dispositions, and behaviours that are aligned to the workplaces that graduates seek to enter’ (Tomlinson, 2017, p. 333). A limited number of studies have indicated a relationship between English education and cultural capital (Othman et al., 2021; Tran et al., 2017). They generally point out that individuals with good English skills can tolerate and value different cultures and adapt to a new environment when studying or working overseas. For example, a study in Malaysia found that expatriates could establish friendships with the host community, understand the culture, and increase their self-confidence if they could master English communication skills (Othman et al., 2021). Such a paucity of research on this topic suggests the need to explore the relationship between these two variables.

Some studies have attempted to investigate the relationship between psychological attributes and soft skills in English language learning—foremost resilience, and adaptability—to students’ achievement of the language. For example, Kim and Kim (2017) explored factors constituting second language learners’ resilience, and how these factors are related to L2 learning. They found five resilience factors: perceived happiness, empathy, sociability, persistence, and self-regulation. Likewise, Ye (2020) attempted to identify how the psychological adaptability of college students affects their English performance. The researcher found four problems associated with students’ psychological adaptability to English learning: unclear purpose, fuzzy objectives, unreasonable strategy, and unsuitable test method. It was also found that Arts students can adapt to English learning more easily than their counterparts in science, engineering, and agriculture. Although these studies did not examine how English language learning can develop resilience and adaptability, they did indicate that there is a relationship between English language education and such psychological capital, which needs to be further explored.

Career identity is related to one’s ‘career experiences and aspirations’ (Fugate et al., 2004, p. 19), or ‘provides a frame through which they may be able to channel their experiences and profile’ (Tomlinson, 2017, p. 345). It defines who graduates will be or become, and may include goals, hopes, fears, personal traits, values, and beliefs. Regarding the development of career identity in English education, Yihon et al. (2005) conducted a quantitative study, with the participation of 2,278 undergraduates from 30 universities, to examine the change in Chinese college students’ self-identity associated with their learning of English. They found that English learning influenced learners’ identities, especially their self-confidence, one prominent dimension of self-identity. Combining psychological and social perspectives, Gao et al. (2015) carried out a 4-year longitudinal study to investigate English learning and self-identity development of about 1,000 students from 5 Beijing-based universities. Through a complex design of the study with both qualitative and quantitative data, the research group found several positive relationships between different dimensions of identity. The researchers concluded that L2 identity development in EFL settings in the context of globalization deserves broader research attention.

In short, a limited number of existing studies suggest that there are relationships between English language education and the development of employability capital. However, how the former contributes to the development of the latter is still under-investigated. Likewise, such studies are fragmented because they used different perspectives and theoretical frameworks, or no theoretical framework at all to investigate the relationships. It is, thus, urgent to explore this research topic using a strong theoretical foundation—such as Tomlinson’s graduate employability capital model—to generate more nuanced insights to help policymakers, curriculum designers, educators, and students to approach their English language education more effectively, contributing to graduates’ employment and career prospects.

7 Conclusion

Employers around the world are demanding skilled graduates who can hit the ground running. Researchers have attempted to identify lists of skills wanted by employers and develop these skills for students to make them more employable upon graduation. However, these lists of skills may not be of great use as skills needed in the market keep changing. As such, it needs new perspectives about what constitutes employability, instead of skills lists. In the same manner, English skills have become an international language and are highly demanded by employers in almost all job sectors, especially in non-English speaking countries whose economies are emerging. Possessing an excellent command of this language not only enhances graduates’ employment prospects but also affords them several opportunities for job promotion and advancement. So far, English language education is often framed within the concept of developing linguistic abilities for students or introducing prominent cultural features of English speaking countries, despite new efforts to shift the focus to developing English skills for students/graduates to use in real-life situations. As mentioned, framing English language education within the notion of skills development may not be beneficial for students’ employability. Learning English may benefit students/graduates more than just English skills. Unfortunately, there has been a lack of studies about the contribution of English language education to the development of employability capital. Therefore, in this chapter, after we have reviewed different graduate employability models, we adopted Tomlinson’s (2017) employability capital model to be used for the development of this book. This framework is used to conceptualize the structure of the book and string all chapters to make it a logical, well-knit, and complete research-based book.