This special issue expands the scope of a panel presentation at the Society for Research into Higher Education Annual Conference 2019 and makes two identified contributions to the field. First, drawing from existing literature, this introductory paper proposes three categorisations of employability as: outcomes approach, process approach and conceptual approaches. This moves beyond normative conceptualisation of employability from mostly the outcomes approach. The applicability of the categorisation is further enumerated by the diversity of contributions in this special issue that highlights (a) the complexity in the field and (b) the interrelatedness of the categories. Second, the special issue puts together a rarely combined collection of global perspectives on conceptualisations of employability, and insights from research on little studied groups in Western and non-Western contexts (the UK, Portugal, Australia, the Indo-Pacific Region, Germany, Kenya and Kazakhstan). The papers, therefore, illustrate the need to widen our scope of understanding employability beyond current dominant perspectives. The broadening that is required in employability discourses is further needed in view of unprecedented disruption brought on higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. This suggests the need to rethink our conceptualisations of employability amidst uncertainty and potential disruption to the future of work.

中文翻译：

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探讨全球不同地区就业能力的理论和实证方法

本期特刊扩大了 2019 年高等教育研究协会年会小组演讲的范围，并对该领域做出了两项确定的贡献。首先，根据现有文献，这篇介绍性论文提出了就业能力的三类分类：结果方法、过程方法和概念方法。这超出了主要结果方法对就业能力的规范概念化。本特刊中的贡献的多样性进一步列举了分类的适用性，突出了 (a) 该领域的复杂性和 (b) 类别的相互关联性。其次，这期特刊汇集了很少结合的关于就业能力概念化的全球观点，以及对西方和非西方背景下（英国、葡萄牙、澳大利亚、印度-太平洋地区、德国、肯尼亚和哈萨克斯坦）研究较少的群体的研究的见解。因此，这些论文说明需要扩大我们对就业能力的理解范围，超越当前的主流观点。鉴于在 COVID-19 大流行期间对高等教育造成了前所未有的破坏，进一步需要扩大就业能力论述。这表明需要在不确定性和对未来工作的潜在破坏中重新思考我们对就业能力的概念化。说明需要扩大我们对就业能力的理解范围，超越当前的主流观点。鉴于在 COVID-19 大流行期间对高等教育造成了前所未有的破坏，进一步需要扩大就业能力论述。这表明需要在不确定性和对未来工作的潜在破坏中重新思考我们对就业能力的概念化。说明需要扩大我们对就业能力的理解范围，超越当前的主流观点。鉴于在 COVID-19 大流行期间对高等教育造成了前所未有的破坏，进一步需要扩大就业能力论述。这表明需要在不确定性和对未来工作的潜在破坏中重新思考我们对就业能力的概念化。