Portfolio Case

In this portfolio, I will reflect on my learning experiences through lectures, workshop activity, and individual reading. Further, in the reflective diary, I will also critically assess my experience of one of four employability enhancing activities that were declared at the beginning of the semester. Further, this portfolio also includes a discussion of the current graduate labour market and its impact of this for me as a student when I graduate.

As a business major, I feel that the entire course on business consulting was a successful course whereby I was able to learn a lot concerning how to function both individually and as part of a team. Notably, as an individual, I enjoy being in learning environments that are intellectually stimulating and challenging. Indeed, from personal experience, I have always exhibited perseverance through demanding situations and challenged myself by taking on complex responsibilities. Accordingly, if presented with a class or lecture that does not satisfy my intellectual standards I have a tendency of adding to the learning experience by making things harder than they are, so as to challenge my intellect. In this regard, the lectures in this course have provided an opportunity for me to learn at a high level of intellectual challenge. Particularly, I found the content in this course, the team and individual activities, as well as the workshop activities fun, challenging, and stimulating. Reflectively, I found the workshop activity quite informative and entertaining.

Additionally, as an individual, I have always been a thinker, however, during my coursework; I have impressively refined my critical analysis abilities. For instance, rather that of concentrating on proposed meanings or factual backgrounds; I have developed the tendency, to constantly ask "why" on diverse levels. Consequently, I am able to challenge myself to delve into a text as deeply as I can, to absorb every detail to support a sufficient close read. Also, by reading multiple texts on a particular topic, I have learned to gather various insights or ideas and craft connections that link the ideas together. As such this has helped me to develop a better understanding of the topics in question.

Critical Reflection on the Student's Experience in 'Deployment' as Employability Enhancing Activities

Employability is a contentious notion, which bears a plethora of micro-interpretations. Indeed, most of the variants on defining employability categorize it as the proclivity for graduates to acquire employment and develop in their vocations of choice. For instance, Hillage & Pollard 1998, pp.12, 17 proposes that one of the four focal components of employability is 'deployment that is the degree to which individuals are cognizant of their individual abilities and how to use them. According to Hillage & Pollard 1998, pp.12, 17 'deployment' involves the development of career management skills, employment search skills, and scope to which individuals are adjustable to labour market changes and realistic regarding labour market prospects (Watts 2006). Further, Harvey et al., 2002, p.17 propose that employability development has three vital areas of focus. These areas include development of employability characteristics; readiness to learn and reflect on learning experiences; and the development of self-profile-raising and career management skills (Harvey, L Locke, W & Morey, A 2002). In addition, Knight & Yorke (2004 p.7) define employability as focusing on the 'skills, understandings and individual characteristics that enhance the graduates' ability, to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations' (Knight, P. & Yorke, M. 2004).

Overall, employability is not just about developing qualities, skills or practice to empower a student to acquire employment, or advance within a specific career. Employability is about acquiring knowledge with more emphasis placed on 'ability' rather than on 'employ'. Essentially, the importance is on developing critical, reflective capacities, with an aim of enabling and enhancing student. Consequently, students must self-manage the process of developing their employability and take charge of the career management abilities.

Upon this background, I set out as an individual, to increase my deployment characteristic by conducting extensive research in the current labour markets, in the field of consulting, the foremost individual attributes considered by prospective employers and improving my career management skills. Further, I purposed to ascertain the perceptions of employers regarding the employability of new graduates like myself. To this end, I engaged in various activities such as visiting several recruitment firms, conducting interviews with recruiters and attending career workshops. In addition, I conducted research on the leading consulting firms in the world to acquire relevant information regarding their recruitment process and the unique criteria they used to select and hire their employees.

From the scoping interviews with potential employers and recruitment organizations, I discovered that prospective employers are partial to a number of attributes, skills and knowledge and intellectual aptitude elements, which are necessary for distinct roles in the field of consulting. Moreover, the ability to combine different sets of transferable skills is also considered predominantly relevant. Some of the highly valued transferrable skills include team working; self-management; problem solving; business knowledge; career relevant literacy and numeracy; ICT knowledge; excellent interpersonal and communication abilities; capacity to apply own initiative and follow instructions; as well as effective leadership skills. Furthermore, employers also emphasized the necessity of possessing certain attitudes and viewpoints such as motivation, commitment and tenacity.

My research on some of the leading consulting firms in the world shows that employers often value work-related experience, internships and extra-curricular activities engaged in by the graduate at the university. In particular, participation in these activities is considered by employers helpful in inculcating the necessary transferable skills. In fact, most of the employers interviewed or researched on supposed that even though a degree was necessary amongst applicants in certain jobs, it contributed very little towards the graduate's enduring employability.

Further, I discovered that employers attach key significance to the efforts, on the part of the graduate, in generating an excellent first impression, CV preparation and self-presentation during interviews. In fact, according to those interviewed, most graduates lacked the ability and impetus to impress potential employers at this preliminary