Keyword: governance in higher education

ABSTRACT: Employability has emerged as a central strategic concern in higher education, requiring institutions to adopt integrated, system-level approaches rather than fragmented skill-based interventions. This study develops a Cognitive Model of Employability that aligns Daubney’s KASE framework (Knowledge, Attributes, Skills, Experience), Kolb’s experiential learning cycle, and Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) to examine how employability is constructed, governed, and operationalised within digital learning environments. Drawing on a systematic theory mapping approach and a thematic analysis of 100 undergraduate student reflections from a virtual internship platform, the study demonstrates how cognitive mediating factors—such as self-regulation, motivation, and metacognition—link experiential learning processes to the development and articulation of employability outcomes. The findings position employability as a cognitively mediated and strategically governed process, shaped by institutional design, pedagogical structure, and individual agency. The study contributes to the field of strategy and governance in education by proposing that employability should be understood as an interaction among designed learning, embedded cognition within curriculum governance, and an integrated system in which employability is strategically scaled, rather than as a fixed list of skills.