Problem representations of employability in higher education: using design thinking and critical analysis as tools for social justice in careers education

ABSTRACT We present an analysis of narratives that emerged from a recent interdisciplinary design thinking careers intervention exploring how employability is represented within one UK University. We conducted a critical discourse analysis using a policy analysis framework that revealed four emergent problem representations. These exposed tacit assumptions about students’ lack of employability skills and the responsibilisation of ‘employability’, amplified silences around opportunity structures and highlighted unquestioned expectations about employability in the neoliberalist paradigm. The need for critical discourse is foregrounded, as is the importance of collective engagement in reframing these narratives. Design Thinking shows promise as a novel intervention for future career education practice, enabling practitioners and individuals to begin to co-create a new critical consciousness.