What does employability really mean? Inside UCL’s Pillars of Employability launch

At a time when the graduate job market can feel increasingly competitive and difficult to navigate, the question of employability often sits in the background of university life. Which skills actually matter? When should students start thinking about their careers?  How can everything accomplished during a degree be understood in relation to future work? 

The launch of UCL’s refreshed Pillars of Employability brought these questions into focus. Rather than positioning employability as something to consider at the end of a degree, the event reframed it as an ongoing process, one that develops through academic work, extracurricular experiences, and personal reflection. At the centre of the event were the five refreshed Pillars of Employability: deepen your knowledge, explore your values, innovate and create, make a social and global impact, and gain experience and networks. Presented as a flexible framework rather than a checklist, the pillars aim to provide a common language for understanding the skills developed throughout a degree.  

Developing Skills and Making them Visible 

Speakers emphasised that the value of the framework lies not only in building skills, but in making them visible. By encouraging students to reflect on what they are learning and how those experiences translate beyond university, the Pillars offer a way to navigate what can otherwise feel like an unclear and overwhelming process. 

This framing was reinforced by Professor Jennie Shaw, Vice-Provost for Education and Student Experience, who positioned the Pillars as central to how students should approach their time at UCL. Instead of leaving employability to the final stages of a degree, she emphasised the importance of recognising and developing skills from the outset. The aim is not only to build capabilities, but to ensure that students can reflect on and articulate them as they evolve. 

In this sense, the Pillars extend beyond career preparation. They bring together academic, personal, and professional development, encouraging a more holistic understanding of what it means to leave university prepared for an uncertain and changing world. The emphasis on adaptability and continuous learning reflects a broader shift away from fixed career paths towards more fluid and evolving trajectories. 

From the GRIND up: UCL Alumni Keynote David Abrahamovitch 

This shift from framework to practice was brought into sharper focus through the keynote by UCL alumnus and GRIND coffee founder David Abrahamovitch. Rather than offering abstract advice, his reflections centred on the realities of building something from the ground up, including uncertainty, failure, and persistence. Starting with his father’s former mobile phone outlet, which he transformed into a coffee shop, he built GRIND from scratch. His emphasis on “starting something” challenged the idea that experience must follow a clear or linear path, suggesting instead that initiative, even when it does not succeed, can shape future opportunities in unexpected ways. 

David’s focus on communication and the ability to “sell” ideas reframed employability as an active process. Whether pitching to investors, collaborators, or employers, the capacity to articulate value is a critical skill. His insistence on proving the ability to deliver also shifted attention away from potential and towards execution. These insights grounded the Pillars in practice, illustrating how skills are developed not only through structured opportunities, but through taking ownership, making decisions, and following ideas through to completion. 

The UCL Alumni panel brought these ideas into sharper focus through a range of post-university experiences. The discussion featured Claudia Cera, Product Manager at Methods Business & Digital Technology, Yasi Qureshi, founder of The People’s Classroom, Lena Fricker, working as a Senior Consultant at PA Consulting, Diana Babei, a Principal Product Manager at The Economist, and Natacha Gros, working as a Principal in the Real Estate Investor Relations team at BC Partners. While their successful paths differed, their reflections revealed a shared emphasis on exploration and adaptability in the early stages of their careers. 

Across the discussion, there was consistent recognition that employability is rarely shaped by a single defining decision. Instead, it develops through a series of experiences, from extracurricular involvement to internships and independent projects, that allow skills to be tested and refined over time. Communication, collaboration, and critical thinking emerged as essential across sectors, alongside a growing need to navigate and engage with technologies such as AI. The panel’s insights reinforced the value of approaching university as a space not only for academic study, but for actively experimenting, reflecting, and building a clearer sense of direction. 

Key Takeaways 

With all of these valuable insights, the event positioned employability as something embedded within the university experience itself, rather than something to be considered alongside it. The Pillars of Employability are not designed to sit separately from academic study, but to be integrated across curricula, support systems, and extracurricular opportunities, shaping how students engage with their degrees from the outset. In this sense, the framework moves beyond preparation for future work, instead encouraging a more deliberate and reflective approach to learning as it unfolds. 

For those looking to engage with the Pillars more directly, the newly launched skills assessment offers a practical starting point. By prompting reflection on existing strengths and future goals, it translates the ideas discussed at the event into something actionable, reinforcing the central message that employability is not something to be left until the end, but something to be developed, understood, and articulated throughout the university experience. 

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