Speaker
Description
The rapid pace of socio-economic and technological transformation has amplified the urgency for reskilling initiatives, educational reform, and multistakeholder collaboration to support sustainable and future-ready career systems. Responding to this global shift, this study focuses on how Vietnamese EFL lecturers integrate employability into English language curricula in higher education to promote graduates’ career sustainability. Despite growing attention to employability, significant challenges persist. These include students’ limited self-directed learning skills; lecturers’ pedagogical constraints and lack of experience in delivering employability-oriented instruction; institutional limitations such as inadequate resources and professional development opportunities; and weak collaboration between higher education institutions (HEIs) and external stakeholders.
To address these limitations, this study aims to propose a conceptual framework for integrating employability into English language curricula through the collaboration of HEIs, EFL lecturers, students, and employers. The central research question is: What are the essential and interconnected components of a conceptual framework that can guide the collaborative integration of employability into English language curricula in higher education?
A review of the literature identifies three core components of the proposed framework: (i) the integration of career sustainability theory with Tomlinson’s (2017) Graduate Employability Capital Model to guide the development of graduate career sustainability; (ii) pedagogical strategies for embedding employability through stakeholder collaboration; and (iii) the creation of dynamic, cooperative learning environments to facilitate integration. Further empirical and longitudinal research is needed to validate the framework and evaluate its long-term impact on curriculum innovation and graduate employability outcomes.
Biography
Linh Nguyen is the founder and an English language teacher at English4us – Linh Sarah, a private English center based in Hanoi, Vietnam. She has extensive experience in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to learners across all age groups and is passionate about learning experience design, educational technologies, and blended language learning.
She is currently undertaking a research project that explores how Vietnamese EFL lecturers integrate employability into English language curricula in higher education, with the goal of supporting Vietnamese graduates’ career sustainability in a rapidly changing world. Her research is supervised by Dr. Tran Le Huu Nghia from the Australian National University.
She is honored to present part of her study at the VietTESOL 2025 Conference and looks forward to engaging with fellow educators and researchers for constructive feedback and academic exchange.
