The quality question behind the employability gap

Universities are producing ever more qualified graduates, yet questions persist about their readiness for the world of work. Institutions train top thinkers, publish groundbreaking research, and rise in global rankings. But across industries, employers continue to raise concerns about a mismatch between graduate profiles and fast-evolving professional environments.

This tension isn’t new, but it’s gaining urgency. In sectors from tech to sustainability, recruiters cite persistent gaps between academic preparation and job requirements. According to the World Economic Forum, over 60% of employers see skills shortages as a major barrier to business transformation (WEF, 2025).

At the same time, student expectations are shifting. A 2024 global survey by Keystone Education Group found that more than half of prospective students now prioritize employability when choosing a university, often ahead of traditional academic prestige (Keystone, 2024).

So where is the disconnect?

Rankings have helped elevate employability as a central issue. Since 2010, Emerging, through the Global Employability University Ranking and Survey (GEURS), has offered institutions and policymakers a unique lens on employer expectations, aggregated globally, across sectors, and over time. But while rankings provide essential benchmarking, they are just one part of the solution. Institutions increasingly need tools that go deeper: tools that allow them to understand where they stand, why they stand there, and how to improve.

One response: auditing employability from the ground up

One initiative to bridge the disconnect is the Employability Quality Label, developed by the research firm Emerging. Based on years of employer feedback gathered through the Global Employability University Ranking and Survey (GEURS), the label proposes a new way for institutions to assess and strengthen their alignment with labour market expectations.

The label is built on the Employability Performance Audit Grid, which evaluates universities across six global employability drivers: Work Expertise, Graduate Skills, Internationality, Digital Performance, Leadership, and Sustainability. These dimensions are assessed using 140 detailed criteria, directly derived from the GEURS database and enriched by localized employer insights to ensure relevance.

Unlike broad international rankings, the audit offers a tailored evaluation, combining quantitative data analysis with in-depth qualitative work: self-assessment reports, stakeholder interviews, and regional labour market reviews.

The Employability Quality Label is more than a mark of approval. It is a shared framework for dialogue between universities and employers: one that recognizes institutional strengths while identifying areas for alignment and innovation.

In a context where students are more discerning, employers more demanding, and policymakers more data-driven, the label brings new clarity to what employability means in practice.

Towards a broader vision of quality

The goal is not to reduce education to training, nor to pit employability against academic values. It is to recognize that employability is now a core dimension of educational quality and that institutions need robust tools to address it strategically.

By linking employer-defined criteria with institutional audits, the Employability Quality Label contributes to shaping a more nuanced, evidence-based, and globally relevant understanding of what it means to prepare graduates for impact.