Welcome to this Special Issue, the fifth issue for 2019, which focuses on employability and employment outcomes as drivers of higher education practice. Your guest editors are Associate Professor Denise Jackson from Edith Cowan University, and Professor Ruth Bridgstock from Griffith University.

The return on investment of higher education is attracting increasing scrutiny in the context of rising fees, mass student participation, and a perceived oversupply of non-employment ready graduates. Some have argued that the strategic directive of developing student employability in a bid to improve (often short-term and narrowly-focused) employment outcomes devalues higher education learning. For others, it may provide some assurance that the higher education sector is committed to developing future-capable graduates with skills of relevance to the workforce. Either way, preparedness for work is a critical issue, as graduates transition to an uncertain world of work characterised by digital disruption, intense competition for roles, and precarious working arrangements. To accommodate these trends, the notion of graduate employability has broadened to encompass constructs such as career self-management, professional identity, a collaborative mindset, enterprise and entrepreneurship, cultural capital and social networking capabilities. Developing these dimensions is intended to empower students to achieve their career goals while developing future workers and leaders that can drive innovation and prosperity, as well as make meaningful contributions to community and society.