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Graduate employability in an age of uncertainty
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28 May 2026
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Graduate employability in an age of uncertainty
Universities have long prepared students for employment through subject expertise and academic rigour. But as AI reshapes industries and employers demand greater adaptability, institutions are increasingly being asked a more difficult question: are graduates truly ready for the realities of modern work?
This was the focus of a recent QS webinar, Ready or not: What Skills Graduates Need Right Now, featuring leaders from QS, the University of Limerick and the University of York.
Across the discussion, panellists agreed that the issue is no longer simply about delivering knowledge. Graduates are entering a labour market defined by uncertainty, technological acceleration and increasingly complex workplace expectations. In that environment, critical thinking, communication, adaptability and problem solving are becoming just as important as technical expertise, reflecting a broader shift towards the skills universities need to build in their graduates now.
Why “transferable skills” need redefining
While “transferable skills” remains a common phrase in higher education, several panellists questioned whether the term still captures the reality graduates face today.
Joan Concannon, Chief Reputation and Stakeholder Relations Officer at the University of York, argued that universities need to be far more explicit about what these skills actually are and how students develop them throughout their studies. Too often, terms such as communication, critical thinking or problem solving are discussed in broad terms without clear frameworks or practical application.
Dr Chris McInerney, Director of the Transferable Skills Unit at the University of Limerick, noted that students are frequently told they need to become “better communicators” or “better problem solvers” without understanding what those capabilities look like in practice or how to demonstrate them to employers.
In response, the University of Limerick has developed competency frameworks covering areas including critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, communication, digital skills and sustainability literacy. The goal is to move skills beyond abstract terminology and make them visible, measurable and actionable across the student experience.
That shift matters because employers are increasingly looking beyond technical expertise alone. As McInerney explained: “They really are more interested in the type of person that’s coming into them. They want the rounded person.” The discussion also pointed to a broader challenge for higher education institutions. Universities are no longer judged solely on academic delivery, but increasingly on how effectively they prepare graduates to contribute to economic growth, workforce resilience and future innovation.
The visibility gap: Students develop skills but struggle to evidence them
One of the webinar’s strongest themes was that universities are already teaching many of these skills, but students simply may not recognise them.
Presentations, group projects, work placements, problem-based learning and extracurricular experiences all contribute to graduate capability. However, unless students can identify and articulate those experiences, their value is often lost when entering the labour market.
Martín Serrano, QS Product Director, Skills & Labour Markets, described this as both a visibility and alignment problem. Students need clearer ways to connect what they learn at university with what employers are actually looking for.
The University of Limerick developed a “recognise, record, reward” model that encourages students to identify their skills, gather evidence through e-portfolios and receive digital badges that can appear on graduate transcripts and professional platforms such as LinkedIn. McInerney summarised the ambition simply: “We want them to be skills active, skills conscious and skills confident.”
The panel also stressed that skills development cannot remain purely optional or extracurricular. Students who most need support are often the least likely to opt into additional employability programmes, making embedded institutional approaches increasingly important.
AI, unpredictability and the future graduate
AI emerged as one of the defining themes of the discussion. Panellists warned against viewing AI only through the lens of plagiarism or academic misconduct, arguing instead that universities must prepare students to use AI critically and responsibly in professional contexts.
At the University of York, some assessments now explicitly require students to use AI tools before evaluating the quality, accuracy and effectiveness of the outputs they generate. The emphasis is not on avoiding AI, but on developing the judgement needed to use it well.
At the same time, there are concerns around “deskilling” – overreliance on AI risks weakening core cognitive abilities such as creativity, independent thinking and analytical reasoning if students stop exercising those skills themselves.
The discussion also highlighted how unpredictable career pathways have become. Graduates increasingly move across industries and professions throughout their working lives, often into roles only loosely connected to their original degree subject. For universities, this changes the employability conversation entirely. The goal is no longer preparing students for a single profession, but equipping them to adapt continuously in uncertain environments.
Universities must move from teaching skills to proving them
The webinar closed with a broader reflection on the future role of higher education.
Knowledge remains essential, but in an AI-enabled labour market, universities are increasingly being judged on how effectively graduates can apply that knowledge in real-world settings. That means institutions must do more than embed skills into curricula – they must help students evidence and communicate them clearly.
The panel made clear that many universities are already doing meaningful work in this space. The challenge now is scale, visibility and alignment: building systems that allow students to recognise their capabilities, articulate their value and adapt to a labour market that will continue to change long after graduation.
Watch the full discussion on demand.
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