Connecting Graduate Employability and Workplace: A Sociocultural Perspective

Abstract

The social and cultural dimensions of professional learning in workplace contexts may nurture individual’s involvement and belongingness within the community. This chapter proposes a sociocultural perspective to understand the social and cultural aspects of a workplace. Such sociocultural approach is invaluable as most of the time, our graduates do have the qualifications and knowledge, but they lack the ability to integrate and interact with the social process. A sociocultural perspective allows us to understand the constraints and dynamics of a working context, whereby individuals may find struggle at work and feel stressed when they face challenges or setbacks. The present chapter provides insights of a sociocultural perspective on the graduate employability and workplace of individuals. This proposed approach aims to develop individual ability to survive and achieve in the future workplace, as well as it highlights the importance of understanding the social and reflexive process amongst individuals. This chapter makes a theoretical contribution, in that it elaborates sociocultural aspects of a workplace and provides insights into graduate employability by integrating individual, interactional and sociocultural practices. It thereby offers the possible and future directions of sociocultural research in the context of workplace community and lifelong employability.