Achieving the employability of higher education graduates is one of the four main purposes of higher education, representing the capacity of individuals to successfully enter, navigate and progress within the labour market throughout their lives. While commonly associated with the immediate ability to find employment after graduation, employability is in fact much broader, including the acquisition, application and continuous development of competences that enable graduates to respond to dynamic social, economic, and technological challenges.

Within the Bologna Process, the ministers for higher education committed to support higher education systems’ ability to deliver study programmes that enhance graduate’s employability. Across various communiqués, they pointed out that employability involves not only technical and academic knowledge, but also transversal competences such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, critical thinking, digital literacy, adaptability, and the ability to engage in lifelong learning.

Employability has been a core objective of the Bologna Process since its beginning. In the Bologna Declaration (1999), ministers committed to “promote employability of European citizens” as one of the fundamental purposes of higher education reform. Over time, this objective has been reaffirmed and refined in the subsequent Ministerial Communiqués:
The London Communiqué (2007) underlined the need to strengthen the employability of graduates through structured partnerships between higher education institutions, employers, and other relevant stakeholders.

·       The Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve Communiqué (2009) framed lifelong learning as a public responsibility and key enabler of employability, stating that widening access to higher education and lifelong learning improves employability and strengthens social cohesion.

·        The Bucharest Communiqué (2012) called for enhanced cooperation with employer representatives to support entrepreneurial skills, lifelong learning, and the overall improvement of graduate employability.

·       The Yerevan Communiqué (2015) acknowledged the rapidly evolving labour market and the emergence of new employment opportunities. It underlined the need for higher education institutions to respond by equipping graduates with relevant, future-proof competences to facilitate smooth transitions to employment.

The tools developed in the EHEA, such as the Qualifications Framework of the EHEA and the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the EHEA, also play a role in supporting the employability of graduates: while the former creates a common reference framework that helps graduates and employers understand what a graduate can do, based on the level descriptors, the latter put in place commonly agreed standards for quality assurance that has the employability of graduates as one of the core objectives of quality assurance processes.

Employability continues to be a strategic focus within the EHEA, strongly embedded in quality assurance processes, qualifications frameworks, and the design of student-centred and outcome-based learning. It is closely linked to the development and implementation of learning outcomes, curriculum relevance, flexible learning pathways, and the recognition of prior and non-formal learning.