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Exploring the factor structure of the CareerEDGE employability development profile
Education + Training
Abstract
Purpose
– There has been little empirical research conducted in relation to graduate employability and diagnostic tools available in this area are very limited. The purpose of this paper is to introduce and explore the factor structure of a new measure of employability development, the CareerEDGE Employability Development Profile (EDP).
Design/methodology/approach
– The EDP was completed by 807 undergraduate students, providing data for exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses.
Findings
– The analyses suggest that the EDP is multidimensional and maps clearly onto the CareerEDGE model of graduate employability.
Research limitations/implications
– These findings are discussed and interpreted as offering support for the use of the EDP with students as a developmental tool and as a measurement tool for use in the design, implementation and evaluation of employability interventions or other research purposes.
Originality/value
– The provision of a practical employability development tool that is suitable for use with students of any Higher Education institution. The findings also add to the limited literature on graduate employability.
... Scholars, therefore, call for bridging the worlds of work and higher education (Griffin and Annulis, 2013). Higher education needs to prepare students by supporting the development of employability competences (Boahin and Hofman, 2013;Bridgstock, 2009;Brown, 2007;Dacre Pool et al., 2014;Finch et al., 2013). For this, a clear tool is needed to measure employability competences of (under)graduates. ...
... For the development of our tool, we rely on the integrated overview of employability developed by R€ omgens et al. (2019). The conceptual framework was developed based on literature situated in two streams of research: higher education (Dacre Pool et al., 2014;Rothwell et al., 2008;Smith et al., 2014;Yorke and Knight, 2007;Baumann and Chau, 2011;Boahin and Hofman, 2013;Griffin and Annulis, 2013;Jackson, 2014;Pitan, 2016;Qenani et al., 2014) and workplace learning/HRD (Akkermans et al., 2013;DeFillippi and Arthur, 1994;Forrier et al., 2009; The development and validation of the SECQ Fugate et al., 2004;Peeters et al., 2019;Rothwell and Arnold, 2007;Van Der Heijde and Van Der Heijden, 2006). In addition, literature that specifically focuses on employability of newly qualified employees was taken into account as well (Allen and van der Velden, 2009;Allen and van der Velden, 2011;Caricati et al., 2016;Monteiro et al., 2019). ...
... Instead of social competences some authors use the notion of "interpersonal skills" (Baumann and Chau, 2011;Jackson, 2014), "networking" (Forrier et al., 2015;Smith et al., 2014) or "collaboration" (Baumann and Chau, 2011;Boahin and Hofman, 2013;Dacre Pool et al., 2014;Jackson, 2014;Smith et al., 2014). When we speak of social competences, we refer to an individual's capacity to build and maintain a professional network and to the ability to collaborate and support a cooperative and respectful group climate. ...
Purpose
This paper aims to measure the extent to which students possess the necessary competences of an employable graduate, the authors explored the development and validation of a questionnaire that measures employability competences of students in higher education through combining insights from higher education and workplace learning literature.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper aims to develop and validate the questionnaire a systematic literature review and factor analyses were conducted. The authors applied the questionnaire to two different groups of students. First, to undergraduate students in an applied sciences program in Belgium ( N = 935). The dataset was randomly divided into two subsets to conduct an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis. Next, another confirmatory factor analysis was done to cross-validate the factor structure found. For this, the questionnaire was offered to a group of undergraduate and graduate students at a university in The Netherlands ( N = 995).
Findings
The results support a model of employability based on combined insights from higher education and workplace learning literature. The model consists of the following seven factors: social competences, e-literacy, efficacy beliefs, flexibility, healthy work–life balance, lifelong learning and oral and written communication.
Originality/value
The questionnaire can be utilized to screen students' employability profiles and examine the relationship between teaching practices and students’ employability competences.
... The research literature provides contradicting views and evidences of the effect of education and training on IC. Some researchers assert that education and training has a positive effect on IC (Smith et al., 2006 andPool et al., 2014), while others assert that there is no evidence of their value for subsequent career achievements and effective work (Emad &Roth, 2008 andJørgensen, 2004). Three important contributions can be made by providing empirical evidence for the link between education and training and IC. ...
... However, modern education directed to students' vocational needs shows a correlation between education and work performance. For example, researchers such as Nandan & London (2013) and Pool et al. (2014), emphasise the importance of prior education on employees' future competency. ...
... In contrast, Lave & Wenger (1991), Lindner & Wald (2011) and Pool et al. (2014) argue that there is a link between education and work, and support the practical application of education to meet market needs. Education is a combination of general knowledge and theoretical knowledge which provides foundation for individuals' working knowledge. ...
... Heretofore, concrete empirical research in undergraduate employability remains insufficient. Also, there is a growing demand for more investigation into the association of CareerEDGE with undergraduate employability [12]. In response, in this study, we examined the said relationship using an undergraduate sample in the North-East region of Nigeria. ...
... In the CareerEDGE model, five employability constructs (i.e., career development learning, work and life experience, degree subject knowledge and understanding, generic skills, and emotional intelligence) are linked to psychological factors (i.e., self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-efficacy) through reflection and evaluation [32]. Self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-efficacy are key components in relation to employability development [12]. Self-esteem and self-confidence, unlike self-efficacy, highlighted in the CareerEDGE model, are not given as much weight and attention in the context of employability [33], and, hence, were not included in our model. ...
... In addition, self-efficacy belief in acquiring necessary abilities for employment is critical, because it can greatly influence employees' success [34]. It can be accomplished through high-quality higher education (HE), which provides students with the confidence and skills required to enter the labor market [12]. Warburton [35] also mentioned how HE may help students develop this belief so that they can reach their highest potential in life. ...
(1) Background: Tertiary institutions are facing increasing pressure to produce employable
undergraduates who can drive the sustainability of strong economic growth and development. As
such, responsibility lies with the higher education sector in ensuring undergraduates’ readiness
for entry to the labor market, thus joining the ranks of those already employable. Thus, this study
applied the CareerEDGE model as a theoretical basis to investigate the factors associated with
undergraduate employability. The mediating effect of self-efficacy on the predictive relationships
was also examined. (2) Methods: Data were collected from a sample of 264 from six universities
in the North-East region of Nigeria. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used
to perform the data analysis in this study. (3) Results: Results revealed that the five constructs of
the CareerEDGE model (career development learning; work experience; degree subject knowledge,
skills, and understanding; generic skills; and emotional intelligence) are positively associated with
undergraduate employability. Self-efficacy was found to mediate this relationship. Altogether, these
results signal that the CareerEDGE model contributes to undergraduate employability and that self-efficacy is instrumental in elucidating this relationship. The results add to the extant knowledge on the impact of the CareerEDGE constructs on students’ approaches to careers. (4) Conclusions: The findings have significant implications for higher education institutions and career practitioners in identifying ways of enhancing unde
... El objetivo de este trabajo es proponer un conjunto de escalas validadas a nivel confirmatorio para medir determinantes internos de la empleabilidad. Hasta el momento, los trabajos que analizan los determinantes internos son escasos y, en su mayoría, consideran un único determinante (Andrews & Higson, 2008;Carot, Vila, Conchado, & Mora, 2011;De Guzman & Choi, 2013;Hernández-Fernaud, Ramos-Sapena, Negrín, Ruiz-de la Rosa, & Hernández, 2011;Yusof, Mustapha, Mohamad, & Bunian 2012), siendo pocos los trabajos que incluyan de forma conjunta varios determinantes internos de la empleabilidad (Chou & Shen, 2012;Dacre & Sewell, 2007;Dacre, Qualter, & Sewell, 2014). Además, en cuanto a las escalas para medir estos determinantes, muy pocas utilizan alguna prueba de carácter confirmatorio para su validación y, las que lo hacen, no realizan un análisis completo de sus propiedades psicométricas (ej. ...
... Además, en cuanto a las escalas para medir estos determinantes, muy pocas utilizan alguna prueba de carácter confirmatorio para su validación y, las que lo hacen, no realizan un análisis completo de sus propiedades psicométricas (ej. Dacre et al., 2014) o utilizan un tamaño muestral bajo (ej. De Guzmán & Choi, 2013;Yusof et al., 2012). ...
... Este trabajo valida un conjunto de escalas para medir los determinantes internos de la empleabilidad de los estudiantes universitarios. Motivado por la ausencia de escalas validadas a nivel confirmatorio (Dacre et al., 2014;Yusof et al., 2012), identifica como determinantes internos de la empleabilidad, la autoconfianza, la ambición, las competencias, la formación y la autoeficacia en la búsqueda de empleo. ...
... Although the literature on perceived employability in different fields, such as sociology, psychology, higher education or management, is abundant (Caballero, Álvarez-González, and López-Miguens 2020), empirical evidence about its determining factors is still lacking (Forrier, Verbruggen, and De Cuyper 2015). Some authors have studied individual factors (Hillage and Pollard 1998;Knight and Yorke 2003;Clarke 2018); most have explored the personal characteristics of graduates (Andrews and Higson 2008;Dacre, Qualter, and Sewell 2014;Peeters et al. 2019); and others have considered the abilities acquired during the degree course (Nicolescu and Nicolescu 2019), the attitude toward work transmitted to students by their personal environment (McQuaid and Lindsay 2005), or the help available from personal contacts that may help them obtain employment (Rothwell and Arnold 2007). All these factors are affected by the universities at which students study (Bridgstock and Jackson 2019) and the circumstances of the labourlabour market within the area the student studies (Low, Ramos, and Hernández 2020). ...
... For the rest of the variables, each item was adopted to the context. Skills were measured by 22 items and were adopted from Andrews and Higson (2008) and Dacre, Qualter, and Sewell (2014). Self-confidence for job searching was measured by seven items adopted from Rothwell, Herbert, and Rothwell (2008). ...
... The third factor in order of importance is self-confidence for job searching. Having self-confidence in job searching is the basis for projecting the rest of the factors (Dacre, Qualter, and Sewell 2014), and, consequently, it is a key aspect to enhance their real chances of finding their desired job (Tymon, Harrison, and Batistic 2020). University students recognise that having good qualities is useless if they do not know how to show confidence that they possess them or, even worse, if they do not know how to transmit them to potential employers. ...
This study proposes a holistic model of perceived employability in university students, covering the following five areas: human capital, social capital, cultural capital, individual attributes and behaviours, and contextual factors. Three studies comprising five experts and 1,088 students were performed. Through these studies, the psychometric properties of the scales used were verified, and the proposed theoretical structural model was estimated. The results confirm that university student networks, labour market and self-confidence in job searching and university are the most important factors in graduates’ perception of employability.
... Although there is a lack of concurrence on the definition of employability in the literature (Dacre et al., 2014), the most common definition pertains to an individual's perception of their capacity to find a job, to keep the job they already possess, or to find a new, suitable, and fulfilling job, if necessary (Hillage & Pollard, 1998). ...
... Most of the factors related to employability are theoretically researched (Finch et al., 2016), and the appropriate scales necessary to analyze these factors are also restricted (Dacre et al., 2014). Nevertheless, some research does exist that explains how employability occurs. ...
... Generic skills (Soft/Transferrable Skills) are skills that do not require technical knowledge and ability, but are necessary and transferable for each job (Van der Heijde & Van der Heijden, 2006). Many competences-such as self-statement, adaptation, problem solving, and emotional intelligenceare assessed as generic skills (Dacre et al., 2014). According to Finch et al.'s (2016) exploratory study of university students, generic skills play a key role in employability. ...
This study aimed to investigate the personal and contextual determinants affecting the employability perception of university students using a comprehensive model, and to compare the effects of these determinants with each other. The sample consisted of 463 university students from Turkish universities in İstanbul. Following explanatory and confirmatory analyses, the study variables were tested via hierarchical regression analysis. Across all variables, generic skills, academic performance, personal circumstances, and external labor market had significant and positive effects on the perception of employability, while students’ work experience and the contribution of university and consultants did not. The external labor market was identified as the strongest determinant of employability, and contextual factors were identified as having a stronger influence than personal ones. The results present a number of suggestions for stakeholders—including the Ministry of Education, university administrations, teaching staff, employers, students, families, media, and graduates—vis-à-vis perceived employability.
... El objetivo de este trabajo es proponer un conjunto de escalas validadas a nivel confirmatorio para medir determinantes internos de la empleabilidad. Hasta el momento, los trabajos que analizan los determinantes internos son escasos y, en su mayoría, consideran un único determinante (Andrews & Higson, 2008;Carot, Vila, Conchado, & Mora, 2011;De Guzman & Choi, 2013;Hernández-Fernaud, Ramos-Sapena, Negrín, Ruiz-de la Rosa, & Hernández, 2011;Yusof, Mustapha, Mohamad, & Bunian 2012), siendo pocos los trabajos que incluyan de forma conjunta varios determinantes internos de la empleabilidad (Chou & Shen, 2012;Dacre & Sewell, 2007;Dacre, Qualter, & Sewell, 2014). Además, en cuanto a las escalas para medir estos determinantes, muy pocas utilizan alguna prueba de carácter confirmatorio para su validación y, las que lo hacen, no realizan un análisis completo de sus propiedades psicométricas (ej. ...
... Además, en cuanto a las escalas para medir estos determinantes, muy pocas utilizan alguna prueba de carácter confirmatorio para su validación y, las que lo hacen, no realizan un análisis completo de sus propiedades psicométricas (ej. Dacre et al., 2014) o utilizan un tamaño muestral bajo (ej. De Guzmán & Choi, 2013;Yusof et al., 2012). ...
... Este trabajo valida un conjunto de escalas para medir los determinantes internos de la empleabilidad de los estudiantes universitarios. Motivado por la ausencia de escalas validadas a nivel confirmatorio (Dacre et al., 2014;Yusof et al., 2012), identifica como determinantes internos de la empleabilidad, la autoconfianza, la ambición, las competencias, la formación y la autoeficacia en la búsqueda de empleo. ...
... Another employability model is "The Key to Employability." The model was proposed by Pool et al. (2014) which emphasizes aspects that can encourage employability development in students. This model differs from the previous models which emphasized employability of workers and the elements of employability. ...
... The scale ranged from 1 -"very inappropriate", 2 -"inappropriate", 3 -"slightly inappropriate", 4 -"slightly appropriate", 5 -"appropriate", and 6 -"very appropriate". 3) The employability development profile developed by Pool et al. (2014) Table II, the constant and complementary congruence values had p-value of 0.000 (p-value<0.05). This indicates that the constant and complementary congruence is significant and used in the regression equation. ...
As qualified human resources, vocational education graduates significantly sustain economic growth, specifically in developing countries. However, the graduates’ age that falls into the age range of adolescents and the career pattern direction that remains centered on their parents impact the graduates’ competency development. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the role of adolescent–parent career congruence in students’ employability development. This study used convenience sampling. The sample size was 147 final students at one vocational school in West Java, Indonesia. Multiple-linear regression was used for data processing. The result showed that adolescent–parent career congruence had a significantly positive relationship with employability development. Specifically, the complementary congruence of adolescent–parent career congruence predicted employability development. Complementary congruence means that parents provide real social support for students to explore, plan, and set their future career goals. This study can be used practically as an alternative framework in developing vocational graduates’ employability. Some development programs can be implemented to increase parental awareness about students’ careers. Support provided by parents can make students more optimal in continuing to develop their capabilities for work.
... IT-related training typically focuses on hard technical skills, and IT professionals rarely receive soft-skills training, hindering their growth (Shmatko & Volkova, 2020). This study used two models for its conceptual framework, drawn from the e-leadership and soft-skills educational games design model (ELESS) developed by de Freitas and Routledge (2013) and the CareerEDGE (EDG) employability development model developed by Dacre Pool et al. (2014) to guide the study. The study was created to answer one research question: "What are the perspectives of leaders and IT employees in the U.S. IT industry regarding effective training strategies to instill the soft skills required by IT workers?" with one subquestion: "What perceptions do leaders and IT employees have about how lack of soft skills affects organizations?" EDG was created by Dacre Pool et al. (2014) as a model espousing offering employees career development training, work and life experiences, subject knowledge, skills and understanding, and emotional intelligence to create employable graduates from programs as well as from organizations. ...
... This study used two models for its conceptual framework, drawn from the e-leadership and soft-skills educational games design model (ELESS) developed by de Freitas and Routledge (2013) and the CareerEDGE (EDG) employability development model developed by Dacre Pool et al. (2014) to guide the study. The study was created to answer one research question: "What are the perspectives of leaders and IT employees in the U.S. IT industry regarding effective training strategies to instill the soft skills required by IT workers?" with one subquestion: "What perceptions do leaders and IT employees have about how lack of soft skills affects organizations?" EDG was created by Dacre Pool et al. (2014) as a model espousing offering employees career development training, work and life experiences, subject knowledge, skills and understanding, and emotional intelligence to create employable graduates from programs as well as from organizations. This model was updated by merging the two models and incorporating the business problem of decreased organizational performance and the known skills gap of IT workers lacking soft skills, which created an applied framework ( Figure 1). ...
Information technology (IT) professionals’ deficiencies in soft skills lead to decreased organizational performance. This qualitative inquiry project explored the perspectives of leaders and IT employees about effective soft-skills training practices. A conceptual framework was built on previous models (e-Leadership and soft-skills educational games design and CareerEDGE employability development), including workplace efficiency, elevated hiring expenses, training opportunities, employability, removal of traditional approaches, and customized training. The framework guided the creation of an interview protocol, and open-ended interviews of 10 IT professionals provided data. Thematic analysis led to six themes: organizational effects, hiring concerns, training concerns, IT challenges, training types, and designing soft-skills training. Effectively training IT professionals on soft skills may lead to higher productivity, customer and colleague satisfaction rates, and increased efficiencies.
... We used the employability development model perspective [16] which affords an alternative for students to organize their employability development plans for the future. Employability Development Profile (EDP) is a model of employability that has the developmental purposes of mapping students' employability, considering their strengths and areas for improvement. ...
... EDP has five elements, i.e., career development learning, experience (work and life), academic performance and study skills, generic skills, and emotional intelligence [16]. First, career development learning is the activity that helps students become more self-aware to give real consideration to the things that they enjoy doing for work, are interested in. ...
The main problem of vocational secondary school graduates is unemployment or inactive youth. Apart from developing their ability, external support, particularly from their parents, is also important for students in a collectivistic country like Indonesia. Therefore, this study aims to predict the role of psychological capital and perceived student-parent career congruences to the employability development of vocational secondary school students. Participants were 317 final-year students from rural private vocational secondary schools in Indonesia, 46.23% male and 31.76% female. They were 17–19 years old, mean age of 17.21 and standard deviation of 0.64. The data were analyzed by hierarchical regression analysis. We found that psychological capital and student-parent career congruences were indeed significantly correlated with employability development in the vocational secondary school students. These findings are beneficial for vocational schools in preparing the school program to improve students’ psychological ability and work readiness. The results also give some insights for parents to provide facilitative support for their children to make them more employable as vocational graduates.
... Career EDGE reflects that each employability component is very important for the development of graduate employability. This can be seen in the model developed by Pool (2014) which can be seen in figure 1. ...
... The measuring tool used is career edge from pool and Sewell (Pool et al., 2014), where employability consists of five dimensions, namely career development learning, experience (work and life), degree subject knowledge, skills & understanding, generic skills, and emotional intelligence. The reliability of measuring instrument uses the Cronbach Alpha analysis test with a score of 0.912 which indicates the measuring instrument is reliable. ...
This study aims to compare the employability of final-year students at public universities and private universities so that it can provide an overview to prospective students or the Ministry of Education on the quality of graduates as future worker generations. The research design used is non-experimental quantitative, with 92 students from public universities and 93 students from private universities as the subject. The study used a two-stage cluster random sampling data collection technique. Data were collected based on the employability theory of Dacre Pool (2007). A comparison of employability was calculated using a t-independent test for two independent samples. The results show no significant difference in employability between final-year students at public and private universities. As many as 77% of final-year students in public universities and 76% of final-year students in private universities have employability which tends to be high, which means they tend to have the knowledge, understanding, skills, and personal attributes that can make them feel satisfied and successful in his work. However, there are differences in work readiness patterns, where state university students have the lowest score on the experience dimension, while private university students get the lowest score on the degree subject knowledge dimension. This study requires further explanation on this matter in order to obtain further answers regarding the work readiness of university graduates.
... Does the provision of employability workshops to these near graduates lead, on average, to increased scores on the following validated instruments? (a) CareerEdge Employability Development Profile (EDP) (Dacre-Pool et al., 2014), and (b) Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue) (Petrides, 2014). ...
... Based on this model, Dacre Pool designed teaching interventions focussed on EI (Mayer and Salovey, 1997) that increased EI in a group of undergraduates from various disciplines and improved their employability as a result of increased self-efficacy (Dacre-Pool andQualter, 2012, 2013). Subsequently, the CareerEDGE EDP was validated as a developmental tool for students and a measurement tool for use in the design, implementation and evaluation of employability interventions (Dacre-Pool et al., 2014). ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact on student work readiness outcomes of collaboration with employers in developing and delivering tailored graduate employability workshops in socio-emotional skills for work (SES4Work).
Design/methodology/approach
Framed by the CareerEDGE model of graduate employability, the authors piloted a five-session module for near graduates in five disciplines. The research included an online employer survey (n = 128), employer interviews (n = 21) and tailored workshops for near graduates, culminating in a mock competency-based interview. Using a pre/post-test design, participants (n = 24) also completed the CareerEDGE Employability Development Profile (EDP) and the Trait Emotional Intelligence questionnaire (TEIque).
Findings
After completing the module, there was a statistically significant improvement in participant scores on the CareerEDGE EDP +12.3%, p < 0.001, effect size (Cohen's d) 0.89, large, and the TEIque +6.4%, p = 0.009, effect size (Cohen's d) 0.61, moderate. Furthermore, 70% (n = 17) of participants were “hired” based on their mock interviews, with 12% (n = 4) offered employer connections after graduation.
Originality/value
This is the first academic research in Ireland to develop and evaluate an enterprise-collaborative, discipline-specific module for enhancing graduate employability. Findings suggest that employer collaboration can enhance the efficacy of employability interventions and therefore merits further research.
... Career development learning (CDL) was developed by Pool et al. (2014). CDL is one aspect of the Employability Development Profile (EDP). ...
... Based on the result of this study, we found that work value significantly correlated with career development learning (CDL). CDL is a process of students learning for their career and getting their self-awareness in terms of interests, values, motivations, and abilities (Pool et al., 2014). CDL will equip them to decide what type of occupation they would find satisfying. ...
Background
One of the preferences working in the Generation Z is based on their motivational work values. The relevance of job choices with the work values will contribute to student career planning. The work value instrument among generations is one of the popular instruments used to measure final year students' work value, yet few studies of the psychometric properties of non-English language versions of this instrument. This study's objectives were to adapt a questionnaire of work value in Indonesian final year university students.
Methods
The number of participants in this study was 316 students in Indonesia, comprised of final year students from various majors who were selected by quota sampling. The instrument consisted of 5 dimensions of value, including leisure, extrinsic rewards, intrinsic rewards, altruistic rewards, and social rewards. The reliability analysis was performed using McDonald's Omega, the evidence of validity was obtained from test content, internal structure through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and evidence-based in relation to other variable has conducted the correlation between work value and career development learning using the Pearson's correlation coefficient.
Results
The results showed that the work values instrument had good psychometric properties, including good reliability, good content validity, and internal structure. In CFA, the two-factor structure showed satisfactory model fit. Moreover, the correlation of work value with career development learning builds stronger validity evidence on this instrument.
Conclusion
The adapted instrument can be used practically to identify work value preferences of final year students to help them choose a work preference and setup the career planning before graduating. The result could be of interest for the researcher in work value, motivational work, and career areas in higher education. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no reports about the adaptation of work value instruments in Indonesian final year university students.
... Education and industry are interlinked because after successful graduation from the higher education institutes these graduates are to be inducted by the industry for the jobs for which higher education institutions need to impart the skills as required by the industry (Holmes, 2013;Rosenberg et al., 2012). Listing and identifying the skills required by the market help the graduates and higher education institutions to develop the curriculum and activities for graduates who will help them to polish their strengths and overcome their weaknesses (Dacre Pool et al., 2014). ...
This study aims to identify the employability skills of graduates passionate to join the banking industry in Pakistan. Eleven factors related to employability skills are included explicit knowledge, tacit knowledge, hard skills, soft skills, intellectual abilities, physical abilities, conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability, openness, and extroversion. Managers are requested to indicate the importance of these skills for graduates willing to join the banking industry and share their satisfaction related to the tasks done by the fresh banking graduates under their supervision. The study uses Mean, Standard deviation, One Sample T-test and Coefficient of variation to rank each skill by managers. Results of the study reveal that 'openness', 'tacit knowledge and 'consciousness' ranked in the top three positions as far as the employability skills required in the banking sector, where as 'physical ability’ is ranked lowest. This study's results are imperative for bank managers and educational institutions to guide and train graduate according to the market needs and skills requirements.
... From the employers' perspective, various studies confirmed that employers want graduates with field-related knowledge, adaptability, flexibility, and teamwork skills. Hence researchers found a positive and impactful association between adaptability and employability of graduates (Nicolescu and Nicolescu 2019;Finch et al. 2013a, b;Dacre et al. 2014). Therefore, based upon the above mention evidence, the following hypothesis is formulated: ...
The primary aim of this study underlines the examination of underlying students' skills and their relationship to the employability of students of Pakistan. The current study also examines the moderating impact of "University Reputation" between students' skills and employability. The authors undertook a quantitative approach in the testing of hypotheses. The primary data collection of 265 respondents was carried out. Students and graduates of different higher educational institutes in Pakistan participated in the questionnaire about their employability perception based on their skills. "Partial Least Square (PLS) based Structural Equation Model (SEM)" has been utilized for the analysis of the relationship between students' skills and students' employability. The propelling findings reveal that students' soft skills, adaptability skills, and personal skills are positively associated with employability and consistent with previous studies, while teamwork skills affect negatively. On the other hand, social mobility skills, career skills, managerial skills, and technical skills do not seem to have a significant role in students' employability. Moreover, university reputation plays a role in the moderation of certain students' skills with employability. This current research makes some valuable contributions to developing the skillset amongst students and graduates of a developing country such as Pakistan. The research focused on the moderating role of university reputation between skill and employability, which was previously ignored, and utilized human capital theory. Finally, the study separately used soft skills, personal skills, adaptability, and managerial skills with employability.
... Graduates who have good self-efficacy (Haerazi and Irawan 2020) will tend to have good motivation to complete any given activity or task. Pool, Qualter, and Sewell (2014) state that the Career Edge model of graduate employability (see Figure 1) suggests that to develop their employability whilst in HE, graduates must have access to opportunities relative to the five factors on the lower level of the model. Pool (2020) confirms that these factors are career development learning; work and life experience; degree subject knowledge, skills and understanding; generic skills; and emotional intelligence. ...
Higher education institutions are not properly prepared to meet the expectations of employers regarding the work readiness of human resource development (HRD) graduates from universities. Employers seek to recruit graduates who have pertinent employability competencies. The factors that were determined should contribute considerably to meeting this need. The study was commenced to identify the factors relating to employability competencies for South African human resource development graduates. The sample of the survey comprised 134 professionals from the South African Board of People’s Practice (SABPP) in the nine (9) provinces of South Africa. A factor analysis was employed to identify the issues relating to the employability competencies of HRD graduates. Correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to establish the relationships between identified factors. The results confirmed that there were strong relationships between the factors of the current and the expected competencies concerning the employability of South African HRD graduates. The findings served to formulate specific recommendations on employers’ expectations regarding the employability competencies of HRD graduates. The intention of the study was to improve graduates’ competencies in the world of work.
... USQ's CEL Framework is based on theories including the Australian Blueprint for Career Development (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2010), the DOTS model (Law and Watts, 2003), the psycho-social constructs and dimensions of employability (Fugate et al., 2004), Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent et al., 2002), Systems Theory Framework (Patton & McMahon, 2014) and CareerEDGE Employability Development Profile (Pool et al., 2014). We present the CEL framework in Figure 1. ...
Employability skills and capabilities are equally important as academic and technical knowledge in the current job market. Consequently, universities are increasingly focusing on providing employability skills to their students. While universities in Australia are experimenting with various methods for employability embedding, we could not find any framework for embedding employability at the course level. Mapping employability at the course level is non-trivial but necessary to scaffold employability. e-portfolios form an integral part of employability; however, it is not well defined in the literature how to embed and assess an e-portfolio into a tertiary academic program. Unless an e-portfolio is embedded and assessed in the academic program, the uptake by the students cannot be guaranteed; hence students miss out on the benefits of such an important tool. This paper addresses these two key challenges. It develops an employability embedding framework targeted for a three-year bachelor’s program. This framework also enables the embedding and assessment of e-portfolios. The framework is novel as it offers a scaffolded and organic way to embed employability
... Self-perceived employability has been studied from an individual perspective focusing on personal factors such as demographics (i.e. race, age, gender); personality traits, such as selfconfidence and persistence ( Alvarez-Gonz alez et al., 2017;Messer, 2018;Qenani et al., 2014); individual knowledge and skills acquired during formal education, such as critical thinking (Dacre Pool et al., 2014;De Guzman and Choi, 2013); and attitudes and behaviors, such as organizational commitment and proactivity (Knight and Yorke, 2002;McQuaid and Lindsay, 2005). Wittekind et al. (2010) suggested that generic skills (i.e. ...
Purpose
This study aims to shed light on how internships' features drive employability outcomes and answers the question of how internships that maximize the employability of interns can be designed. The study assumes that the duration of an internship, degree of formalization and the use of internship-specific motivational practices by companies are likely to influence interns' perceptions of employability.
Design/methodology/approach
A study among interns investigated the relationship between different internship features and interns' employability. Data on the duration of the internship, motivational practices specific to internships and the formalization of the internship process were collected from a large sample of 13,565 interns in 27 European countries from 15 to 35 years old.
Findings
The findings suggest that internship duration has a curvilinear effect on employability with increasing effects on employability at the beginning of the internship, followed by a decrease over time. In addition, the use of practices specifically designed to motivate interns also favors the interns' employability. Finally, formalization of the internship placement moderates the effect of motivational practices on employability.
Originality/value
By identifying key features of the internship experience – duration, formalization and motivational practices – the authors contribute to the theory related to the development of career resources and employability in young adults and show that these features significantly shape young adults' employability perceptions.
... Rather than relying on graduates' or employers' views in determining graduate preparedness for work, this research concentrated on students' perceptions. Responses from students, who are the direct beneficiaries of HE employability strategies offer more insight on employability (Dacre Pool, et al., 2014). This is because they are the ones who are directly involved in the process of getting prepared for the future job. ...
This study examined the extent to which experiential learning and career guidance activities, as strategies for equipping students with transferable skills, are used by Higher Education (HE) in two African countries, Nigeria and South Africa to prepare students for the volatile labour market. The contributions of the two strategies to students' preparedness for work, after controlling for the possible effects of gender and type of university, were also determined. Perceptions of students (n=865) from six universities in the two countries, on their level of exposure to the two strategies, were analysed. Hierarchical regression was used to control for the influence of gender and type of university, while findings from the two countries were compared using Mann-Whitney U tests. Students from both countries agreed that the two strategies jointly and individually have significant positive influences on their preparedness for work. However, the students alleged that their universities are not exposing them adequately to these strategies. Students from Nigeria believed they are exposed adequately only to experiential learning, while those from South Africa demonstrated inadequate exposure to both strategies. The effects of gender and type of university on students' responses were significant only among South African students. This study has highlighted the extent to which sampled universities adopt the two strategies in preparing their students for work and has offered suggestions on how to address the identified inadequacies in students' exposure to the strategies. Also, results of the differences in students' perceptions have established the role of dominant contextual differences in employability development, which should be acknowledged when making quantitative comparisons in Higher Education between countries.
... Situated cognition is the theory that proposes knowledge can be framed by practical applications to practice (Wellington, 2015). It can be argued that situated cognition is pivotal to understanding not only how students acquire knowledge and skills, but also how they then perceive them and articulate those skills to potential employersthis has been termed 'vocational credibility' (Dacre Pool et al., 2014). Physical academic learning environments are of direct relevance therefore to situated cognition because they help organise not just how students learn, but how they might transfer their knowledge to the workplace (Senior et al., 2014). ...
This study reports on the findings of a mixed methods study that was undertaken to establish student perceptions of academic learning environments and the perceived impact of these on their articulation of employability skills. This was so student perspectives on employability could be used to inform reflection on pedagogic practices for their educators in higher education. Using a purposive sample of 250 students based in a recently modernised Sciences Complex Building in a Higher Education Institution (HEI), the study was cross sectional and descriptive by design. The social learning spaces researched were perceived by participants to provide optimal academic learning environments for their development of knowledge, skills and professionalism through certain signature pedagogies as they progressed through their programmes of study. Students also expressed the view that their acquisition of functional skills were significantly more important than any personal attributes/characteristics that they brought to programmes. What also mattered was whether the importance of certain graduate skills to the workplace had been made explicit to them so that they could see the relevance of their studies to practice. In defining 'graduateness', in employability terms the research concluded that it was necessary to consider how it was shaped by the context of delivery of subject disciplines, stages of academic progression, and the use of social learning spaces, as they all had a significant impact on the perceptions students held about their potential employability upon completion of their academic programmes.
... At the start of the twentieth century, the notion of employability was proposed to explain the probability of being employed. Employability is a multidimensional concept, and researchers have achieved a lack of consensus regarding common definitions (Pool et al., 2014). Employability is the ability to secure and maintain a job both within the same employer (internal) and outside the current organization (external employability; Vanhercke et al., 2014). ...
Mentoring at its best is a life-altering relationship, and mentors play a pivotal role in protégé career upward progression. In a dynamic labor market, securing internal employability and also finding a better opportunity outside the organization that matched interests and skills are critical factors for individual career advancement. In line with this, the existing study probed to investigate the linkage between mentoring functions (traditional and relational) and protégé perceived employability (internal and external) through the mediation of protégé career self-efficacy. In line with this, the data were collected from 373 staff working in conventional and Islamic banks in Pakistan. Data were analyzed through PLS-SEM. The finding shows that mentoring functions (traditional and relational) were directly associated with protégé employability. Likewise, the results also indicate that protégé career self-efficacy mediates the proposed path. In the current study, both traditional and relational mentoring functions are investigated as the antecedent of career self-efficacy and perceived employability contributes to the existing literature.
... Cronbach's alpha value for this variable was 0.916. CDL was measured using five items developed by Dacre Pool et al. (2014). In the first wave of the survey, the students rated their assessment of statements regarding the outcomes of CDL. ...
This study investigates the relationship between career development learning (CDL) and students’ perceived employability (SPE) with the mediating role of human capital. Using a quantitative method based on structured questionnaires to collect data from 512 Vietnamese students before starting their internship at businesses and 322 of them after 4 months, the results of the partial least square Structural Equational Model analysis showed that CDL positively affects SPE over time. Besides, the study explored the mediating effect of human capital in the relationship between CDL and SPE. In particular, scholastic capital and cultural capital play mediating roles while social capital failed to be in the relationship between CDL and SPE. This study is expected to enrich current literature on students’ employability and human capital theory. From practical aspects, the findings of this work can be of benefit to higher education institutions in supporting their students to enhance their employability in labour market.
... Employability assumes specific types of skills and competencies and employers expect that upon working, graduates will be equipped with the necessary skills [2]. Identification of employability skills has also be used as a developmental tool to enable students to engage with the concept of employability in terms of their strengths and weaknesses [3]. ...
... According to the study by Finch et al. [121], employers look for practical skills while putting less emphasis on the reputation of the university when hiring graduates [121]. Soft skills also known as 21st century skills or 21st fluencies such as interpersonal communication, creative and critical thinking, collaboration/teamwork, and emotional intelligence are a skills set that are desirable for graduates [121,122,123,124]. Another factor found through data mining is the need to develop employment-specific skills (i.e. ...
Motivated by the increasing influence of data analytics in the higher education sector, this thesis focuses on enhancing the effectiveness and quality of an undergraduate student's journey. An undergraduate student's journey begins when they enrol at a university and ends once employed in the graduate labour market. Findings of this research benefits stakeholders of education, such as educational policymakers, education providers, current and prospective students in solving a variety of problems including student drop-out, low course satisfaction, and undesirable graduate employment outcomes.
... Cronbach's alpha value for this variable was 0.916. CDL was measured using five items developed by Dacre Pool et al. (2014). In the first wave of the survey, the students rated their assessment of statements regarding the outcomes of CDL. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of entrepreneurs’ personality traits on firm innovation performance through the mediation role of entrepreneurs’ innovativeness.
Design/methodology/approach
The data consist of 2,574 firms from a survey of small and medium-scale manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam, a developing and transitioning economy where SMEs constitute an integral part of the economy. The estimation results based on the structural equation model was applied to analyze the data.
Findings
The results indicate that an entrepreneur’s innovativeness is positively associated with his extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience but negatively accompanied with his neuroticism. Besides, the three traits – openness to experience, conscientiousness and extraversion have positive indirect effects, while neuroticism has a negative indirect effect on technological improvement and new technology adoption. However, the effects of agreeableness on entrepreneurial innovativeness and firm innovation performance are insignificant. In addition, the diverse backgrounds of the entrepreneur such as education and ethnics are also found to influence his innovativeness and to have indirect effects on firm innovation performance.
Originality/value
This study may contribute to the immature literature on the entrepreneurial process within SMEs by presenting empirical evidence on the relationship between entrepreneurial personality traits and firm innovation with a large sample of SMEs in Vietnam, an emerging economy where SMEs constitute an integral part of the economy.
... We have pointed that authors utilize: descriptive and experimental methodology to address problems related to graduate employability, sometimes from the employers' views or students side. Also, from conceptual studies, we have deducted three famous conceptual frameworks to measure graduate employability: the Graduate Employability Development model [1], the CareerEDGE model [27] and the Career Management Employability model [3]. ...
This paper aims to present an exploratory literature review from the "Education and Training" journal indexed in Scopus, which has published 99 articles about "Graduate Employability" from 2005 to 2021. After cleaning, classifying, and reading these articles with NVIVO; As a result, we have found that authors utilize: quantitative, qualitative, mixed, and experimental methodology to address problems related to graduate attributes, graduate employability skills and constructs, enhance employability, self-employability perception and employers perceptions. Also, we have identified three famous conceptual frameworks to measure graduate employability: the Graduate Employability Development model [1], the CareerEDGE model [2], and the Career Management Employability model [3].
... GSS and GQS are self-assessment measures of graduates' self-perceptions of their skills and qualities, rather than measures of knowledge, skills, or other attributes sought by employers. Although the present findings indicate no substantive relation between GQS and GSS and graduates' actual employment outcomes, we note that the GSS and GQS have not been explored in relation to extant measures of graduates' self-perceived employability (Dacre Pool et al, 2014;Rothwell, 2015). Based on Okay-Somerville and Scholarios (2017), a potential line of research would assess whether career adaptive behaviours mediate the relations between GSS, GQS and employment outcomes. ...
Higher education broadly assumes a conceptual link between generic skills and
employability. We accessed a large sample of data collected by the Australian Government to investigate whether the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) subscales
Good Teaching (GTS), Graduate Skills (GSS), and Graduate Qualities (GQS) predicted graduates’ employment status, overall course satisfaction, and decisions to take further studies. GTS was found to predict graduates’ overall course satisfaction; however, GSS and GQS scales combined predicted negligible increases in employment outcomes. Our findings highlight the imperative for higher education leaders to critically examine discourse about the link between employability skills and employment outcomes.
Purpose
Given the dynamic and fast-evolving labour market, developing students’ employability competences has become of utmost importance for higher education institutions. The ability to reflect is essential to develop these competences, as it helps students to identify their learning needs and make plans for further development. However, reflective abilities are not easy to acquire and students need guidance to help them reflect. Therefore, mentoring is often used as an instructional approach to stimulate students to reflect. Empirical evidence on the relation between mentoring and employability competences is scarce, and the mediating role of reflection especially has rarely been researched. Consequently, the present study aims to investigate this mediating relationship, employing a pre-test post-test design.
Design/methodology/approach
Questionnaire data were collected from students before and after participation in four similar 1-year mentoring programmes in higher education within the Netherlands and Belgium ( n = 160).
Findings
The path analysis demonstrated that, first, trust and availability, autonomy support and empathy were significantly related to students’ employability competences. Secondly, autonomy support and similarity were significantly related to students’ critical reflection. Thirdly, critical reflection was significantly related to students’ employability competences. Last, reflection partially mediated the relationship between mentoring (autonomy support and similarity) and employability.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to demonstrate that mentoring programmes in higher education enable students to reflect and, in turn, develop their employability competences. Furthermore, it provides mentoring programme directors and mentors with concrete guidelines for developing students’ reflection and employability competences.
This study examines how problem-solving skills act as a mediator between external motivation, internal motivation, emotional intelligence, and employee turnover intentions. In order to achieve the objective of this study, a quantitative research approach was employed, and the survey data was collected through purposive sampling from a sample of 101 workers in China. The findings of the partial modeling analysis from Smart PLS 3 affirmed the significant influence of external motivation and problem-solving skills on employee turnover intentions. Problem-solving abilities significantly moderate the association between emotional intelligence and employee turnover intention, even though there is no substantial correlation between internal motivation and emotional intelligence in terms of employee turnover intention. However, this mediating effect is not present in the relationships between external/internal motivation and employee turnover intention. This study provides significant insights into the predictors of employees' intention to leave the workplace in China's Shandong Province and policy implications for retaining key employees. This study can help managers and policymakers formulate policies that increase employees' motivation and problem-solving skills to keep them from leaving the organization. Also, this study shows that creating an organizational environment that fosters the development of emotional intelligence through coaching will help employees be resilient with problem-solving skills and remain in the organization.
Korona virüs korkusu, 2020 Yılı itibarı ile pekçok işletmenin yönetim kararları ve stratejilerini etkilemiş ve istihdam şekillerinde değişikliklere neden olmuştur. Yakın gelecekte istihdam edilecek olan yeni nesil ‘Z’ Kuşağı olacaktır. Algılanan gelecekteki ‘Z’ Kuşağının istihdam edilmesi kavramı, sürdürülebilirliğin en önemli kriteridir. Bu araştırmada, sürdürülebilir örgütsel iş yönetimini ve profesyonelliği devam ettirebilmek için ‘Z’ Kuşağının algılanan gelecekteki istihdam edilebilirliğinde korona virüs korkusunun rolünün ortaya konularak yeni istihdam standartlarının belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Araştırmada tarama yöntemi kullanılarak nitel araştırma tekniği ile desenleme yapılmıştır. Veri toplama, yarı yapılandırılmış mülakatlar şeklinde ve anket uygulaması ile gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda, dünyanın korkusu haline gelen korona virüs korkusunun ‘Z’ kuşağının algılanan gelecekteki istihdam edilebilirliğindeki rolü ve sürdürülebilir örgütsel iş yönetimi için yeni istihdam standartlarının belirlenmesi kavramsal olarak ortaya konulmuştur. Ayrıca, pekçok işletmenin yeni istihdam kararlarına ışık tutacak önemli akademik veriler ve geliştirilen öneriler ortaya konulmuştur. Araştırma sonucunda elde edilen kuramsal bilgilerin ve araştırma verilerinin, bir sonraki akademik çalışmalara temel olması ve yeni değişkenler tespit edilmesi açısından önemi büyüktür.
Aim: The purpose of the current study was to investigate the mediating role of job search self-efficacy, complexity perception, and luck readiness variables in the relationship between career adaptability and employability among Iranian job seekers. Methods: Data gathered using volunteer sampling and recruited a sample of 719 Iranian job seekers. The data was analysed using structural equation modeling. They were administered Career Adapt-Abilities Scale, Job Search SelfEfficacy Scale, Complexity Perception Index, Luck Readiness Index, and Employability Scale Finding: The results showed that the effect coefficients of career adaptability on job search self-efficacy (γ = 0.75 and p< 0.001), complexity perception (γ = 0.64 and p< 0.001), luck readiness (γ = 0.88 and p< 0.001), were statistically significant. Furthermore, the effect coefficients of job search selfefficacy (β = 0.39 and p< 0.001), complexity perception (β = 0.17 and p< 0.001), and luck readiness (β = 0.6 and p< 0.001) on employability, as an endogenous dependent variable, were statistically significant. Career adaptability was also indirectly related to employability through these variables. Conclusion: In general, according to the findings of this study based on the existence of an indirect relationship between career adaptability and employability, it should be noted that in order to increase employability, it is necessary not only to pay attention to adaptability, but also to strategies for increasing job search selfefficacy, perception of complexity based on an open thinking system, and readiness for luck.
Global economic events have had a profound effect upon both businesses and the available workforce. Industries need a more skilful and advanced labour market and individuals who complete tertiary-level education are afforded better protection against economic uncertainties. Consequently, demand for higher education worldwide is growing, due to a rising number of globally mobile students. However, return on investment is important and curriculums offering employability enhancement and work opportunities are motivating factors when international students make their study decisions. This paper details one UK university’s approach to enhancing international student employability skills and employment outcomes, using a 3-day experiential learning residential on an MBA programme. Employing a survey design, the research investigates the benefits of this residential to 182 international MBA students (all from the Indian subcontinent region). The findings report that the international students developed key employability skills via the residential which significantly increased their propensity to obtain subsequent employment. The results of this paper provide much needed insight into improving both the employability skills and employment outcomes of international students, especially students from the Indian subcontinent, via immersive experiential learning activities.
The study examines the impact of organizational-based self-esteem, role breadth self-efficacy, and voluntary learning behavior on perceived employability. Perceived employability is determined by an individual's capabilities and competencies, which enhance their employment opportunities in the future. The study collected data through a survey of employees in the banking sector in Karachi, using SPSS tools to analyze the effects of the antecedents of perceived employability and voluntary learning behavior. The research aimed to investigate the relationship between self-concepts and voluntary learning behavior, highlighting the critical influence of employees on both antecedents. The findings of this study could improve employee performance and help develop specific abilities and skills required by employers, such as creativity and inspiration. The study emphasizes the importance of perceived employability in obtaining better employment opportunities and its impact on the Pakistani context.
India heads to develop entrepreneurial skills in students and supports entrepreneurs among them. Women entrepreneurship is imperative in empowering women and enhancing their quality of life. In higher education, the majority of students are women. The review shows that even though studies about women’s entrepreneurship are plenty, the analysis of the role of education in promoting entrepreneurial skills has yet to come. Against this backdrop, a look at the entrepreneurship skills of women concerning their level of education will help augment the process. This will further the paradigm shift and lead to eliciting the mission of input-based to output-based skill training supported by the educational qualification of women entrepreneurs. Hence the present study explores how education influences entrepreneurial motivation, entrepreneurship skills and success of women entrepreneurs in MSMEs. A descriptive cum analytical design of research based on the survey method utilising primary data collected from414women entrepreneurs from different parts of Kerala. The analysis indicates that education has a mild positive relationship with certain motivation constructs. Among entrepreneurial skills, interpersonal skills, self-confidence, and managerial skill show a positive relationship to education, whereas ‘scaffolding staff and colleagues’ and ‘innovation’ show a negative correlation. Further in entrepreneurial success, the item ‘risk-taking’ shows a positive correlation to education. The study findings conclude that integrating entrepreneurial skills with formal education and linking it with the local economy via MSMEs will be an excellent initiative to instil motivation and skills to take start-up even among young school children.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship skills, entrepreneurial motivation, entrepreneurial potential, women entrepreneurs, Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises(MSMEs)
This paper builds on the dominant employability model by Dacre Pool
and Sewell – CareerEDGE model by developing an extended
CareerEDGE model for embedding, evaluating and monitoring
employability skills relevant to undergraduate students. Drawing on the
current literature on employability, the ‘Extended CareerEDGE Model’ is
developed by formulating a measurement framework. Elements of the
extended model and framework are discussed and their inclusion is
justified on the basis of existing research. The model extends the
CareerEDGE model by facilitating the inclusion of entrepreneurship
knowledge and skills as student entrepreneurial orientation to
engender the requisite entrepreneurial mindset to address the need for
intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial skills required to operate in the
business environment. The study validates the Extended CareerEDGE
Model of graduate employability with responses from 947 students
engaged in a core employability-embedded business school
undergraduate programme. The study confirms a positive relationship
between student entrepreneurial orientation with employability
reflection and evaluation. Also, the results confirm a positive
relationship between Students’ Achievement Orientation with Career
Development Learning. A similar positive relationship was established
between Students’ Achievement Orientation and Degree Subject
Knowledge as well as the acquisition of Generic Skills. Additionally,
student Learning Orientation positively influences Career Development
Learning, Degree Subject Knowledge and Generic Skills acquisition. The
extended CareerEDGE model succinctly informs the planning of
programmes and structured interventions on employability essentials
for students, administrators and academics.
Research has shown that many U.S. college students do not graduate with employable
skills beyond academic competency to facilitate their professional success postgraduation. Moreover, researchers have found that academic- and industry-specific
knowledge alone is inadequate to help college graduates secure a job and meet the
demands of the contemporary, nuanced, dynamic work environment. In addressing
decreases in state and federal allocations for higher education and the added pressure to
produce work-ready college graduates, institutions have grappled with how to enhance
student workforce development and prepare students for the labor market. As a result,
this literature review provides a comprehensive, global outline of both employability and
career readiness literature to understand how these concepts have been defined and
measured in the past, and how researchers view employability as fitting into a 21st
century postsecondary student success initiative
La proyección laboral en el contexto actual es un desafío complejo. El presente estudio describe los determinantes sociales que explican la proyección laboral de un profesional de gestión, cuya formación se realizó en el sistema de educación universitaria, según los datos entregados por la encuesta Casen 2017, en Chile. La muestra estuvo conformada por 536.706 profesionales, todos(as) entre 30 y 65 años. Se trata de un estudio cuantitativo, en el área educacional, a partir, del análisis de datos secundarios. Se usó un modelo probit, cuya variable dependiente es “formación universitaria en gestión”, en Chile. Los resultados del modelo muestran que los determinantes sociales que aumentan la probabilidad de proyección laboral de un(a) profesional universitario(a) en el área de gestión son: sexo masculino, formación continua, quintil más alto de ingreso y ejercicio de cargos directivos en el sector público, también en el sector privado específicamente en el área de finanzas y contabilidad. En conclusión, los determinantes que disminuyen dicha probabilidad están asociados a los grupos con mayor vulnerabilidad, como lo son las mujeres, bajo nivel educacional de los padres y desdientes de pueblos originarios.
In this era of the 4th industrial revolution, one of the challenges we face is employment. There has been a decrease in job opportunities, while competition has also increased. The unemployment rate also continues to increase annually, especially among university graduates. Students need to be aware of how ready they are to enter the labor market after completing their studies. This study aims to test the validity and reliability of the Perceived Future Employability Scale (PFES), to identify whether the Indonesian version of the instrument is valid and reliable. PFES is expected to assist students to get an overview of how ready they are to enter the labor market, so they can prepare themselves better and know what still needs to improve. The process carried out includes a Focused Group Discussion (FGD), forward-backward translation, expert review, readability test, expert judgment, and data collection. The research design is in the form of an online questionnaire. The number of samples in this study amounted to 467 university students aged 18-30 years old. This study examined the construct validity and internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha). PFES has a strong positive correlation with the instrument that measures similar construct, and has a low negative correlation with the instrument that measures different construct. The results also indicated a high level of reliability. Thus, the Indonesian version of the PFES measuring instrument is a valid and reliable measuring instrument.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review empirical research on the measurement of employability, conducted in a 23-year period from 2000 to 2022.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic and extensive search of the literature was conducted to select a set of studies that fit the inclusion criteria and addressed the research questions. These studies were conducted worldwide and published anytime from 2000 to 2022. The process of data extraction involved a tabulation of common themes across the studies. Thereafter, the data from the studies were analysed and interpreted to arrive at the findings.
Findings
The findings of this paper show variations in the measures of employability with respect to location, data points, domains and indicators of employability applied. Based on the type of indicators of employability applied, the studies can be categorised as those applying subjective indicators, objective indicators or a combination of the two.
Research limitations/implications
The paper observed that there has been a great focus on measuring employability using subjective indicators. However, in order to help individuals face the unpredictability of fractious labour markets, going ahead, this measure will not be sufficient. Empirical research needs to focus on applying holistic measures of employability combining both subjective and objective indicators.
Originality/value
This paper presents a detailed categorisation of measures of employability. Thereby, the paper provides useful insights to help practitioners choose a suitable measure of employability for future studies. The paper also makes a case for widening the scope of present measures to apply the construct of employability effectively.
Penelitian ini bertujuan menguji perbedaan mahasiswa yang mengikuti program Magang Merdeka dan magang reguler pada aspek-aspek employability berdasarkan kerangka teori Dacre Pool, Qualter, & Sewell. Analisis uji beda (t-test) dilakukan terhadap kedua kelompok partisipan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan perbedaan skor employability di antara kedua kelompok partisipan hanya ditemui pada aspek work & life experience (t(240)=2,29; p=0,018; Cohen’s d=0,3; 95% CI [0,128; 1,376]). Sementara, pada keempat aspek lainnya tidak ditemukan bukti perbedaan yang signifikan di antara kedua kelompok. Temuan ini penting untuk ditindaklanjuti dalam perumusan kurikulum program magang berikutnya.
Prior studies have examined the historical evolution, multiple stakes, measurements and operation models of graduate employability, and the researches on graduate employability have gradually shifted to the perspective of employers with wider labor market uncertainty and higher education massification. However, there is still a gap in research on the demand for graduate employability by employers in national high-end equipment manufacturing that work closely with higher education in scientific research. Namely, it remains unclear what really matters in the processes of employers’ recruitment decisions in national high-end equipment manufacturing. Drawing on Yorke’s definition and CareerEDGE model, this study defines graduate employability as a set of achievements—skills, understandings and personal attributes—that makes graduates more likely to gain employment in national high-end equipment manufacturing, including “emotional intelligence”, “knowledge and skills”, “generic skills”, “work experience”, “character and personality”. Owing to the importance and arduousness of national high-end equipment manufacturing historical mission and main tasks, we argue that employers pay more attention to graduate employability in the recruitment process. Empirically examining based on 831 questionnaires from employers of national high-end equipment manufacturing in China, we show that employers prefer graduates with higher levels of “cooperative innovation ability”, “knowledge and skills”, “stress management and adaptation” within Chinese national characteristic discipline programs. Particularly, although employers in national high-end equipment manufacturing have always emphasized employees’ loyalty and dedication, “character and personality” of a graduate does not have a direct effect on employer hiring preference, but instead the effect of cooperative innovation ability and knowledge and skills are fully moderated by character and personality.
Opus et Educatio 9. évfolyam 1. szám 48 KRAICINÉ Szokoly Mária-KOVÁCS Zsuzsa-SCHILLER Emese
Az elmélet és a gyakorlat integrációja a munkaalapú tanulás gyakorlatában egy egyetemi mesterszak szakmai gyakorlatának vizsgálata kapcsán Bevezetés A munkaalapú tanulás évtizedek óta erőteljes kapcsolódási pontot képvisel a munkaerőpiac és a felsőoktatási intézmények között. A munkaalapú tanulási formák integrációja a felsőoktatási képzések struktúrájában nem új keletű, világszerte számos hagyományos formája van, azonban az elmúlt évtizedben a munkahely a felnőttkori tanulás kutatásának egyik fontos színterévé vált. A munkahelyi és a munkaalapú tanulás egyetemi képzésben kialakuló új változatai, módszerei és a minőségbiztosítási követelmények folyamatosan kérdéseket vetnek fel, amivel a gyakorlati szakemberek, a kutatók és a felsőoktatásban dolgozók egyaránt szembesülnek. Elmondható tehát, hogy az elmúlt évtizedben a munkahely a felnőttkori tanulás kutatásának egyik legfontosabb színterévé vált. A munkaalapú tanulás koncepciója épít a munkahely tanulási környezetként, a munkatapasztalatok tanulási lehetőségeként való értelmezésére, ami ily módon beépül a szakmai képzések, ezen belül a felsőoktatási szakok keretei közé. A tanulmány elsődleges célja bemutatni egy pilot jellegű kutatási projekt első lépéseinek tanulságait, tapasztalatait, amelyek a munka-alapú tanulásnak egy mesterszak szakmai gyakorlata során megjelenő tanulási tevékenység sajátosságait, tanulási eredményeit tárja fel. A vizsgálat az ELTE Emberi Erőforrás Tanácsadó mesterképzés (EET MA) keretei között valósul meg. A kutatási projekt fő kérdése kapcsán arra voltunk kíváncsiak, hogy az egyetemi képzésben megjelenő változatos tudástartalmakat milyen mértékben használják fel a hallgatók a munkahelyi szakmai fejlődésük során? A kutatás tervezésekor a kiindulópontot az irányított szakmai gyakorlatok során megélt tanulási tapasztalatok elemzése jelentette, hiszen a szakmai gyakorlat az egyik pillér, ami biztosítja a szakmai fejlődés, a szakmai tanulás munkahelyi környezetben megélt, valós lehetőségét. A szakot választó hallgatók összetétele azt mutatja, hogy EET MA hallgatók többsége olyan területen dolgozik, ahol változó mértékben és minőségben HR szakmához kapcsolódó feladatokat látnak el. Így sokan jelentős előzetes szakmai tapasztalattal érkeznek a képzésbe, ami hatással van az egész tanulási folyamatukra, a kurzusokon megjelenő elméleti és gyakorlati tudás feldolgozására, elsajátítására. Az ő esetükben az igazolt, releváns munkatapasztalat kiváltja a szak óra és vizsgatervében előírt kötelező, irányított szakmai gyakorlatot, amelyet "nem irányított" szakmai gyakorlatként fogadhat el az egyetem, s az érintett hallgatók ily módon felmentést kaptak a szakmai gyakorlat teljesítése alól. E hallgatói populáció esetében azonban nincs rálátásunk arra, hogy hogyan alakul e hallgatók szakmai fejlődése, azaz hogyan kapcsolódik a munkatapasztalat az egyetemi kurzusok során elsajátított elméleti tartalmakhoz, hogyan integrálódik a munkahelyi tapasztalat a hallgató szakmai tudásába. Reflektorfénybe került tehát a munka-alapú tanulás kérdésének vizsgálata, amelynek sajátosságait a képzés vonatkozásában két szempont mentén igyekeztünk feltárni: az irányított szakmai gyakorlat hogyan járul hozzá a képzésben elsajátított ismeretanyag gyakorlatban való alkalmazásához? a munkatapasztalatot elismertető hallgatók milyen módon integrálják a képzés során elsajátított ismereteiket a munkahelyen megélt gyakorlati tapasztalataikkal? Kutatásunk szempontjából a felsőoktatásban megjelenő munka-alapú tanulási lehetőségek vizsgálata volt a releváns cél, az alábbiakban ennek néhány mozzanatát, tapasztalatát tekintjük át azzal a céllal, hogy tapasztalatainkat megosszuk és diskurzust generáljunk az elmélet és gyakorlat felsőoktatási vonatkozású kérdésköréről.
To remain competitive in a technology driven, fast changing, globalised business environment, and pursue sustainable development goals; Companies today are demanding a high degree of professionalism, intellectual common sense, emotional maturity, domain knowledge, competitive techno-functional competencies from the new breed of graduating students, engineers and value chain managers. Human Resource capacity enhancement and development of functional capabilities in new work related skills, per say employability skill improvement, has become a major challenge across organizations and institutions, especially from emerging and developing economies. In the context of higher education, to address these challenges, a structured, systematic and collaborative approach by strengthening Industry Academia Interface [I.A.I.] can inherently supplement professional skill development efforts of graduating students. University Industry Collaboration or I.A.I. is emerging as a key growth area in the context of academic value addition and value integration that would inadvertently supplement conventional classroom learning of traditional education formats. A mutually integrative engagement model for I.A.I. is illustrated as Collaborative Engagement for Organizational Development and Employability (CODE) in this paper. Thereupon to infuse a fresh perspective across various competitive skills desired by the employers, in the categories of hard and soft skills, with a blend of basic and advanced life skill traits; various subset elements of graduate employability are grouped to develop a graphical perspective of an Employability Skill Traits Management Quotient (ESMQ). This paper contains the concept proposal, structure, synthesis and theoretical analysis of the ESMQ model, from various organizational frames of references. It is believed that the proposed ESMQ Model would assist in designing varying levels of training interventions, through Accelerated Learning Programs (ALPs) that would distinctly enhance the overall employability of graduating students; consequently making them ready for speedy absorption in Businesses and Industry.
هدف: پیشرفت جوامع بالاخص کشورهای درحال توسعه تا حد زیادی در گرو گسترش نهادهای دانشگاهی است. همچنین یکی از مهمترین ویژگیهای نهادهای آموزشی، درهمتنیدگی ساختارهای آموزش و اشتغال است. در واقع هر آموزشی باید بازدهی یا توجیه اقتصادی داشته باشد که عالیترین نوع آن ایجاد اشتغال متناسب با فراگیر است. بر این اساس پژوهش حاضر به بررسی وضعیت راهیابی دانشجویان و فارغالتحصیلان کارشناسی ارشد و دکتری رشته تکنولوژی آموزشی به بازار کار و عوامل مؤثر بر آن از نظر متخصصان پرداخته است.
مواد و روشها: در پژوهش حاضر از روش توصیفی–پیمایشی استفاده شده و شامل دو مرحله است. در ابتدا جهت شناسایی عوامل مؤثر در راهیابی دانشآموختگان تکنولوژی آموزشی به بازار کار مصاحبه نیمهساختار انجام گرفت؛ در مرحله دوم براساس عوامل شناسایی شده پرسشنامهای تدوین گردید و برای نظرسنجی از دانشجویان و فارغالتحصیلان مقاطع کارشناسی ارشد و دکتری در این زمینه استفاده شد. نمونه آماری در مرحله اول، 24 نفر از اساتید و متخصصان رشته تکنولوژی آموزشی بود که با روش هدفمند از نوع متجانس انتخاب شدند و در مرحله دوم، 192 نفر از دانشجویان و فارغالتحصیلان مقاطع کارشناسی ارشد و دکتری رشته تکنولوژی آموزشی در ایران با روش نمونهگیری در دسترس پرسشنامه را تکمیل کردند. اعتبار عوامل شناسایی شده در مصاحبه قبل از توزیع در جامعه آماری برای 3 نفر از اساتید رشته تکنولوژی آموزشی ارسال شد و نظرات و پیشنهادات ایشان اعمال گردید سپس پرسشنامه نهایی تدوین شد؛ روایی پرسشنامه، به روش داوری تخصصی صاحبنظران رشته تکنولوژی آموزشی و اعمال نظرات و اصلاحات ایشان انجام پذیرفت. پایایی نیز براساس آلفای کرونباخ معادل74/0 محاسبه شد. تحلیل دادهها در نرمافزار SPSS نسخه 22 انجام گرفت. برای تحلیل دادهها از شاخصهای آمار توصیفی فراوانی، میانگین و انحراف معیار و برای تعیین تفاوت بین هر یک از گروههای عوامل مؤثر در اشتغال از آزمون t تک نمونه ای و آزمون فریدمن استفاده شد.
بحث و نتیجهگیری: در مرحله اول پژوهش طبق نظر متخصصان 22 عامل مؤثر در اشتغال دانش آموختگان رشته شناسایی شد. این عوامل براساس قرابت در چهار حیطه، 1. عوامل مرتبط با رشته، 2. عوامل مرتبط با دانشجویان و فارغالتحصیلان، 3. عوامل مرتبط با اساتید رشته، و4. عوامل مرتبط با جامعه و مسئولان کشور دستهبندی شد. طبق نتایج مرحله دوم پژوهش تمام عوامل شناسایی شده به وسیله متخصصان رشته تکنولوژی آموزشی در جذب دانش آموختگان به بازار کار تأثیرگذار هستند. با این حال عوامل آگاهی و بروز بودن دانش اساتید رشته تکنولوژی آموزشی، وجود اساتید تخصصی رشته تکنولوژی آموزشی در اکثر دانشگاههای کشور و تدوین سرفصل های دروس دانشگاه مبتنی بر نیاز بازار کار بیشترین میانگین و عوامل سطح توقع بالای دانشجویان از ماهیت رشته، داشتن دانش بازاریابی، فعالیت انجمن های علمی و شناخت کافی از موقعیت و جایگاه های اجتماعی مرتبط با رشته تحصیلی کمترین میانگین را داشته است.
L’intérêt porté à la pédagogie universitaire et à l’employabilité des jeunes diplômés, réside dans l’ambition d’améliorer la qualité du système éducatif. Et ce, par une mise en question rigoureuse sur le style pédagogique autonomisant du professeur, et son incidence sur les déterminants individuels de l’employabilité. Le présent travail vise à étudier l’effet potentiel du style pédagogique autonomisant sur la perception de l’employabilité des étudiants. Afin de confronter les aboutissements théoriques à la réalité marocaine, nous avons mené une étude qualitative auprès des étudiants en fin de parcours issus des écoles publiques à accès régulé du secteur Commerce, Gestion, et Sciences de l’ingénieur. Les résultats montrent qu’effectivement les jeunes étudiants sont plus susceptible de développer des caractéristiques individuelles et des compétences d’employabilité par la perception d’un style pédagogique autonomisant. The interest in university pedagogy and the undergraduate’s employability lies in the ambition to improve the quality of the educational system. This is done through a rigorous questioning of the autonomy supportive teaching style and its impact on the individual determinants of employability. The present work aims to investigate the potential effect of autonomy supportive teaching style on students' perceived employability. In order to confront the theoretical findings with the Moroccan reality, we conducted a qualitative study with undergraduates from public schools with regulated access in the business, management, and engineering sectors. The results show that young students are indeed more likely to develop individual characteristics and employability skills through the perception of autonomy supportive teaching style.
Goodness-of-fit (GOF) indexes provide "rules of thumb"—recommended cutoff values for assessing fit in structural equation modeling. Hu and Bentler (1999) proposed a more rigorous approach to evaluating decision rules based on GOF indexes and, on this basis, proposed new and more stringent cutoff values for many indexes. This article discusses potential problems underlying the hypothesis-testing rationale of their research, which is more appropriate to testing statistical significance than evaluating GOF. Many of their misspecified models resulted in a fit that should have been deemed acceptable according to even their new, more demanding criteria. Hence, rejection of these acceptable-misspecified models should have constituted a Type 1 error (incorrect rejection of an "acceptable" model), leading to the seemingly paradoxical results whereby the probability of correctly rejecting misspecified models decreased substantially with increasing N. In contrast to the application of cutoff values to evaluate each solution in isolation, all the GOF indexes were more effective at identifying differences in misspecification based on nested models. Whereas Hu and Bentler (1999) offered cautions about the use of GOF indexes, current practice seems to have incorporated their new guidelines without sufficient attention to the limitations noted by Hu and Bentler (1999).
The concept of 'employability' plays a crucial role in informing labour market policy in the UK, the EU and beyond. This paper analyses current and previous applications of the term and discusses its value as an exploratory concept and a framework for policy analysis. It then traces the development of the concept, discusses its role in current labour market and training strategies (with particular reference to the UK) and seeks to identify an approach to defining employability that can better inform labour market policy, by transcending explanations of employment and unemployment that focus solely on either supply-side or demand-side factors. Although the literature offers a range of definitions of 'employability', many policy-makers have recently used the term as shorthand for 'the individual's employability skills and attributes'. It is argued that this 'narrow' usage can lead to a 'hollowing out' of the concept of employability. The paper concludes by presenting a broad framework for analysing employability built around individual factors, personal circumstances and external factors, which acknowledges the importance of both supply- and demand-side factors.
Given the proliferation of factor analysis applications in the literature, the present article examines the use of factor analysis in current published research across four psychological journals. Notwithstanding ease of analysis due to computers, the appropriate use of factor analysis requires a series of thoughtful researcher judgments. These judgments directly affect results and interpretations. The authors examine across studies (a) the decisions made while conducting exploratory factor analyses (N = 60) and (b) the information reported from the analyses. In doing so, they present a review of the current status of factor analytic practice, including comment on common errors in use and reporting. Recommendations are proffered for future practice as regards analytic decisions and reporting in empirical research.
Purpose
Employability concerns the extent to which people possess the skills and other attributes to find and stay in work of the kind they want. It is thought by many to be a key goal for individuals to aim for in managing their careers, and for organisations to foster in workforces. The purpose of this paper is to report on the development of a self‐report measure of individuals' perceived employability. It also seeks to examine its construct validity and correlates.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the analysis of relevant literature, this study developed 16 items which were intended collectively to reflect employability within and outside the person's current organisation, based on his or her personal and occupational attributes. This study administered these items by questionnaire to 200 human resources professionals in the UK, along with established measures of career success and professional commitment, as well as questions reflecting demographic variables.
Findings
This article retained 11 of the 16 items for assessing self‐perceived employability. Concludes that self‐perceived employability can usefully be thought of as either a unitary construct, or one with two related components – internal (to the organisation) and external employability. The measure very successfully distinguished employability from professional commitment, and fairly successfully from career success. Only slight variations in employability could be attributed to demographic characteristics.
Research limitations/implications
This research has begun to address the gap in the literature for a brief yet psychometrically adequate measure of self‐perceived individual employability.
Practical implications
This author believes that the scale can be applied to other occupational groups, in organisational consultancy, and in individual career development. It can be used either as one scale or two, depending on the purpose of the investigation.
Originality/value
Concludes that this research represents a psychometrically adequate contribution in an under‐researched field, and will lead to future research with other occupational samples, and in other settings.
Everyone can recite methodological "urban legends" that were taught in graduate school, learned over the years through experience publishing, or perhaps just heard through the grapevine. In this article, the authors trace four widely cited and reported cutoff criteria to their (alleged) original sources to determine whether they really said what they are cited as having said about the cutoff criteria, and if not, what the original sources really said. The authors uncover partial truths in tracing the history of each cutoff criterion and in the end endorse a set of 12 specific guidelines for effective academic referencing provided by Harzing that, if adopted, should help prevent the further perpetuation of methodological urban legends.
The concept of a construct is central to many of the advances in the behavioral sciences during the second half of this century. Constructs serve to summarize, organize, and facilitate the interpretation of data. The concept of a construct also permits us to move directly from data analysis to theory development and testing. Factor analysis and component analysis are two very similar methods that facilitate the transition from dealing with a large number of observed variables to a smaller number of constructed or latent variables. Douglas Jackson employed factor or component analysis as an integral part of his sequential approach to the development of psychological measures (Jackson, 1970, 1971). It has become a standard part of measure development and is one of the most employed statistical procedures in the behavioral sciences.
For many years universities around the world have sought to articulate the nature of the education they offer to their students through a description of the generic qualities and skills their graduates possess. Despite the lengthy history of the rhetoric of such policy claims, universities' endeavours to describe generic attributes of graduates continue to lack a clear theoretical or conceptual base and are characterized by a plurality of view-points. Furthermore, despite extensive funding in some quarters, overall, efforts to foster the development of generic attributes appear to have met with limited success. Recent research has shed some light on this apparent variability in policy and practice. It is apparent that Australian university teachers charged with responsibility for developing students' generic graduate attributes do not share a common understanding of either the nature of these outcomes, or the teaching and learning processes that might facilitate the development of these outcomes. Instead academics hold qualitatively different conceptions of the phenomenon of graduate attributes. This paper considers how the qualitatively different conceptions of graduate attributes identi®ed in this research have been applied to the challenge of revising a university's policy statement specifying the generic attributes of its graduates. The paper outlines the key ®ndings of the research and then describes how the university's revision of its policy statement has built upon this research, adopting a research-led approach to academic development. The resultant two-tiered policy is presented and the key academic development processes associated with the disciplinary contextualization of this framework are considered. The discussion explores some of the implications of this novel approach to structuring a university's policy, in particular, the variation in the relationship between discipline knowledge and generic attributes which was a key feature of the qualitative variation in understandings identi®ed in the research.
The article addresses some concerns about how coefficient alpha is reported and used. It also shows that alpha is not a measure of homogeneity or unidimensionality. This fact and the finding that test length is related to reliability may cause significant misinterpretations of measures when alpha is used as evidence that a measure is unidimensional. For multidimensional measures, use of alpha as the basis for corrections for attenuation causes overestimates of true correlation. Satisfactory levels of alpha depend on test use and interpretation. Even relatively low (e.g., .50) levels of criterion reliability do not seriously attenuate validity coefficients. When reporting intercorrelations among measures that should be discriminable, it is important to present observed correlations, appropriate measures of reliability, and correlations corrected for unreliability.
This paper reports the development of a research instrument to examine the expectations and self-perceptions of employability of business undergraduates (bachelor degree students) in three UK universities, and examines relationships with other measures. The scale was found to have a satisfactory internal reliability coefficient for an untested measure (α = .75) and had discriminant validity from other new measures such as university commitment. ‘Internal’ and ‘external’ dimensions were identified, the latter relating to the perceptions of the strength of the university brand, the state of the external labour market, and the demand for the degree subject. Perceptions of future employability were surprisingly modest, notably for those in arguably the strongest position, suggesting that these self-perceptions may be a product of relative societal expectations, consistent with positional conflict theory.
We examine the idea that an individual’s employability subsumes a host of person-centered constructs needed to deal effectively with the career-related changes occurring in today’s economy. We argue that employability represents a form of work specific (pro)active adaptability that consists of three dimensions—career identity, personal adaptability, and social and human capital. Reciprocal relationships among these dimensions are also discussed. The impact of employability on organizational behavior is illustrated through applications to the research literatures on job loss and job search.
This paper reports the further testing of a research instrument to examine the expectations and self-perceptions of employability of business students at post-graduate level, building on previously reported research with undergraduates [Rothwell, A., Herbert, I., & Rothwell, F. (2008). Self perceived employability: Construction and initial validation of a scale for university students. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 73(1), 1–12]. On this occasion the scale was again found to have a good internal reliability coefficient (α = .84), and discriminant validity from university commitment. Forcing a four-factor solution found components relating to the university’s reputation, individual self-confidence and proactivity, external labor market factors, and finally the individuals’ engagement with study and academic performance. For this multi-cultural post-graduate sample, perceptions of employability were good, but within that they placed significant emphasis on the brand and reputation of the university. Results indicate the potential for further studies with refined scales, particularly the combined scale of employability and ambition.
Recent shifts in education and labour market policy have resulted in universities being placed under increasing pressure to produce employable graduates. However, contention exists regarding exactly what constitutes employability and which graduate attributes are required to foster employability in tertiary students. This paper argues that in the context of a rapidly changing information- and knowledge-intensive economy, employability involves far more than possession of the generic skills listed by graduate employers as attractive. Rather, for optimal economic and social outcomes, graduates must be able to proactively navigate the world of work and self-manage the career building process. A model of desirable graduate attributes that acknowledges the importance of self-management and career building skills to lifelong career management and enhanced employability is presented. Some important considerations for the implementation of effective university career management programs are then outlined.
For many years universities around the world have sought to articulate the nature of the education they offer to their students through a description of the generic qualities and skills their graduates possess. Despite the lengthy history of the rhetoric of such policy claims, universities' endeavours to describe generic attributes of graduates continue to lack a clear theoretical or conceptual base and are characterized by a plurality of view-points. Furthermore, despite extensive funding in some quarters, overall, efforts to foster the development of generic attributes appear to have met with limited success. Recent research has shed some light on this apparent variability in policy and practice. It is apparent that Australian university teachers charged with responsibility for developing students' generic graduate attributes do not share a common understanding of either the nature of these outcomes, or the teaching and learning processes that might facilitate the development of these outcomes. Instead academics hold qualitatively different conceptions of the phenomenon of graduate attributes. This paper considers how the qualitatively different conceptions of graduate attributes identified in this research have been applied to the challenge of revising a university's policy statement specifying the generic attributes of its graduates. The paper outlines the key findings of the research and then describes how the university's revision of its policy statement has built upon this research, adopting a research-led approach to academic development. The resultant two-tiered policy is presented and the key academic development processes associated with the disciplinary contextualization of this framework are considered. The discussion explores some of the implications of this novel approach to structuring a university's policy, in particular, the variation in the relationship between discipline knowledge and generic attributes which was a key feature of the qualitative variation in understandings identified in the research.
Adolescents' beliefs in their personal control affects their psychological well-being and the direction their lives take. Self-Efficacy in Changing Societies analyzes the diverse ways in which beliefs of personal efficacy operate within a network of sociocultural influences to shape life paths. The chapters, by internationally known experts, cover such concepts as infancy and personal agency, competency through the life span, the role of family, and cross-cultural factors.
In recent years, innovative schools have developed courses in what has been termed emotional literacy, emotional intelligence, or emotional competence. This volume evaluates these developments scientifically, pairing the perspectives of psychologists with those of educators who offer valuable commentary on the latest research. It is an authoritative study that describes the scientific basis for our knowledge about emotion as it relates specifically to children, the classroom environment, and emotional literacy. Key topics include: historical perspectives on emotional intelligence neurological bases for emotional development the development of social skills and childhood socialization of emotion. Experts in psychology and education have long viewed thinking and feeling as polar opposites reason on the one hand, and passion on the other. And emotion, often labeled as chaotic, haphazard, and immature, has not traditionally been seen as assisting reason. All that changed in 1990, when Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer coined the term emotional intelligence as a challenge to the belief that intelligence is not based on processing emotion-laden information. Salovey and Mayer defined emotional intelligence as the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use motivated scientists, educators, parents, and many others to consider the ways in which emotions themselves comprise an intelligent system. With this groundbreaking volume, invited contributors present cutting-edge research on emotions and emotional development in a manner useful to educators, psychologists, and anyone interested in the unfolding of emotions during childhood. In recent years, innovative schools have developed courses in “emotional literacy” that making; these classes teach children how to understand and manage their feelings and how to get along with one another. Many such programs have achieved national prominence, and preliminary scientific evaluations have shown promising results. Until recently, however, there has been little contact between educators developing these types of programs and psychologists studying the neurological underpinnings and development of human emotions. This unique book links theory and practice by juxtaposing scientific explanations of emotion with short commentaries from educators who elaborate on how these advances can be put to use in the classroom. Accessible and enlightening, Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence provides ample evidence about emotional intelligence as well as sound information on the potential efficacy of educational programs based on this idea.
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of some of the dominant empirical and conceptual themes in the area of graduate employment and employability over the past decade. The paper considers the wider context of higher education (HE) and labour market change, and the policy thinking towards graduate employability. It draws upon various studies to highlight the different labour market perceptions, experiences and outcomes of graduates in the United Kingdom and other national contexts. It further draws upon research that has explored the ways in which students and graduates construct their employability and begin to manage the transition from HE to work. The paper explores some of the conceptual notions that have informed understandings of graduate employability, and argues for a broader understanding of employability than that offered by policymakers.
A framework for hypothesis testing and power analysis in the assessment of fit of covariance structure models is presented. We emphasize the value of confidence intervals for fit indices, and we stress the relationship of confidence intervals to a framework for hypothesis testing. The approach allows for testing null hypotheses of not-good fit, reversing the role of the null hypothesis in conventional tests of model fit, so that a significant result provides strong support for good fit. The approach also allows for direct estimation of power, where effect size is defined in terms of a null and alternative value of the root-mean-square error of approximation fit index proposed by J. H. Steiger and J. M. Lind (1980). It is also feasible to determine minimum sample size required to achieve a given level of power for any test of fit in this framework. Computer programs and examples are provided for power analyses and calculation of minimum sample sizes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A list is given, for reference, of various approximate tests, based on the asymptotic approximations for likelihood ratios, but with adjusted multiplying factors.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the terms “employability”, “enterprise” and “entrepreneurship” are currently being used, often interchangeably, within higher education, and to propose how to clarify this issue with the terminology.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach taken is to discuss the three terms and some of their current conceptualisations and suggest ways to clarify the terminology. Possible methods of operationalising the three concepts within higher education are also suggested.
Findings
Employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship are high on the agendas of many higher education institutions. There is a crucial need for agreement on definitions particularly when strategies are being implemented. It is suggested that currently the terminology is often used carelessly and interchangeably, resulting in confusion for HE staff, students and employers.
Originality/value
The paper offers a clear way of defining the concepts and will be of value to anybody with an interest in employability, enterprise or entrepreneurship within higher education.
This article is concerned with measures of fit of a model. Two types of error involved in fitting a model are considered. The first is error of approximation which involves the fit of the model, with optimally chosen but unknown parameter values, to the population covariance matrix. The second is overall error which involves the fit of the model, with parameter values estimated from the sample, to the population covariance matrix. Measures of the two types of error are proposed and point and interval estimates of the measures are suggested. These measures take the number of parameters in the model into account in order to avoid penalizing parsimonious models. Practical difficulties associated with the usual tests of exact fit or a model are discussed and a test of “close fit” of a model is suggested.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a straightforward, practical model of employability that will allow the concept to be explained easily and that can be used as a framework for working with students to develop their employability.
Design/methodology/approach
The model was developed from existing research into employability issues and the experience of the authors. The various elements of employability included in the model are discussed and their inclusion justified on the basis of existing research.
Findings
The model sets out exactly what is meant by employability, in clear and simple terms, and the model suggests directions for interaction between the various elements.
Research limitations/implications
The relationships between and the interaction of the elements within the model remain theoretical. Further research to test the model is planned and will be reported on at a later date.
Practical implications
The model can be used to explain the concept of employability to those new to the subject, and particularly to students and their parents. It will be a useful tool for lecturers, personal tutors, careers advisors and any other practitioners involved in employability activities. It will also be used to develop a measurement tool for employability.
Originality/value
This paper seeks to fill the gap between in‐depth, scholarly and complex articles or books about employability and very simple descriptive articles. It will be of value to anybody with an interest in employability issues.
The concept of employability is analysed and the prevailing tendency to create employability measures based on outcomes is critiqued. The outcome approach results in employability as being construed as an institutional achievement rather than the propensity of the individual student to get employment. The operationalisation of employability as a concept is examined and the implicit 'magic bullet' notion of employability-development opportunities is revealed. An alternative, more complex model is outlined but its applicability is subverted by the 'irrational' activities of graduate recruiters, which render useless any employability indicator based on the proportion of graduates obtaining work. An alternative approach, based on an audit of employability-development within institutions, is explored and some methodological pitfalls are outlined. The conclusion suggests that any evaluation of employability needs clearly to indicate areas for internal improvement rather than simply ranking institutions.
Being capable of getting new employment may enable an employee to cope with turbulent situations or deteriorating job conditions. Individuals who have higher perceived employability are likely to appraise a situation at work more favourably, and consequently experience better health and well-being. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between perceived employability and subsequent health, while controlling for baseline health, background factors, and work environment exposures. The study is based on 53 items in the National Working Life Cohort in Sweden from two data collections (2004 and 2005), comprising 1918 individuals. Forced entry hierarchical regression analysis showed that, after controlling for demographics, psychological demands, control, and ergonomic exposures, perceived employability was positively associated with global health and mental well-being, but unrelated to physical complaints. When baseline health status was added, perceived employability was still a significant predictor of two out of three outcome variables. Individuals with higher perceived employability had a tendency to report better health and well-being a year later. It is concluded that how an employee perceives his or her possibilities in regard to acquiring new employment is relevant for well-being at a later stage. Perceived employability, which has been little studied before, is therefore a useful concept in health promotion, both at the individual and at the organizational level.
This article examines the adequacy of the “rules of thumb” conventional cutoff criteria and several new alternatives for various fit indexes used to evaluate model fit in practice. Using a 2‐index presentation strategy, which includes using the maximum likelihood (ML)‐based standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR) and supplementing it with either Tucker‐Lewis Index (TLI), Bollen's (1989) Fit Index (BL89), Relative Noncentrality Index (RNI), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Gamma Hat, McDonald's Centrality Index (Mc), or root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA), various combinations of cutoff values from selected ranges of cutoff criteria for the ML‐based SRMR and a given supplemental fit index were used to calculate rejection rates for various types of true‐population and misspecified models; that is, models with misspecified factor covariance(s) and models with misspecified factor loading(s). The results suggest that, for the ML method, a cutoff value close to .95 for TLI, BL89, CFI, RNI, and Gamma Hat; a cutoff value close to .90 for Mc; a cutoff value close to .08 for SRMR; and a cutoff value close to .06 for RMSEA are needed before we can conclude that there is a relatively good fit between the hypothesized model and the observed data. Furthermore, the 2‐index presentation strategy is required to reject reasonable proportions of various types of true‐population and misspecified models. Finally, using the proposed cutoff criteria, the ML‐based TLI, Mc, and RMSEA tend to overreject true‐population models at small sample size and thus are less preferable when sample size is small.
A framework for hypothesis testing and power analysis in the assessment of fit of covariance structure models is presented. We emphasize the value of confidence intervals for fit indices, and we stress the relationship of confidence intervals to a framework for hypothesis testing. The approach allows for testing null hypotheses of not-good fit, reversing the role of the null hypothesis in conventional tests of model fit, so that a significant result provides strong support for good fit. The approach also allows for direct estimation of power, where effect size is defined in terms of a null and alternative value of the root-mean-square error of approximation fit index proposed by J. H. Steiger and J. M. Lind (1980). It is also feasible to determine minimum sample size required to achieve a given level of power for any test of fit in this framework. Computer programs and examples are provided for power analyses and calculation of minimum sample sizes., (C) 1996 by the American Psychological Association
Claims are frequently made that practice should be based on evidence. However, the nature of what should count as ‘evidence’ depends on purpose and context. In the case of curriculum development, decisions may rest on local and provisional evidence. This article takes an area of contemporary political interest*/enhancing student employability*/and illustrates the point with two examples of the use of survey methods for pedagogical purposes.
How can universities ensure that they are preparing their students for today's competitive job market? This book tackles the highly topical subject of graduate underemployment with insight and clarity. The authors argue the case for more sophisticated research into employability with passion and vision, discussing how employability-friendly curricula can be developed, even in subjects which have less obvious vocational relevance. The rapid growth of higher education over the past fifty years has seen expectations increase, and governments seeking to widen participation. There is now an urgent need for the Government and higher education institutions to address the issue of graduate employability. The authors of this timely book encourage a pro-active stance, offering a ground-breaking model that can be easily implemented in institutions to make low-cost, high-gain improvements to students' employability. Topics covered include: * The challenge of employability * The study and careers of English graduates * The enhancement of practice * Assessing employability * The Skills Plus project. Based on a set of over 200 in-depth interviews with recent graduates, this book forms a unique account of the meanings of employability in the workplace.
This prospective study with 464 older adolescents (14 to 19 years at Time 1; 16 to 21 years at Time 2) tested the structural paths of influence through which perceived self-efficacy for affect regulation operates in concert with perceived behavioral efficacy in governing diverse spheres of psychosocial functioning. Self-efficacy to regulate positive and negative affect is accompanied by high efficacy to manage one's academic development, to resist social pressures for antisocial activities, and to engage oneself with empathy in others' emotional experiences. Perceived self-efficacy for affect regulation essentially operated mediationally through the latter behavioral forms of self-efficacy rather than directly on prosocial behavior, delinquent conduct, and depression. Perceived empathic self-efficacy functioned as a generalized contributor to psychosocial functioning. It was accompanied by prosocial behavior and low involvement in delinquency but increased vulnerability to depression in adolescent females.
There is ample evidence that emotions affect performance. Positive emotions can improve performance, while negative ones can diminish it. For example, the fears induced by the possibility of failure or of negative evaluations have physiological consequences (shaking, loss of concentration) that may impair performance in sports, on stage, or at school. There is also ample evidence that individuals have distorted recollection of past events and distorted attributions of the causes of success or failure. Recollection of good events or successes is typically easier than recollection of bad ones or failures. Successes tend to be attributed to intrinsic aptitudes or effort, while failures are attributed to bad luck. In addition, these attributions are often reversed when judging the performance of others. The objective of this paper is to incorporate the phenomenon that emotions affect performance into an otherwise standard decision theoretic model and show that in a world where performance depends on emotions, biases in information processing enhance welfare.
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Corresponding author Dr Lorraine Dacre Pool can be contacted at: ldacre-pool@uclan.ac.uk To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: reprints@emeraldinsight.com Or visit our web site for further details
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Corresponding author
Dr Lorraine Dacre Pool can be contacted at: ldacre-pool@uclan.ac.uk
To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: reprints@emeraldinsight.com
Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints