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Ready, Set, Go! School- to- Work Transition in the New Career
Abstract
In this chapter we have examined the STWT from a sustainable
careers perspective and argued that an adaptive STWT is crucial as
a building block for long- term sustainability of careers. We showed that the
STWT has become more challenging for young adults and we underlined
how individual agency and structural factors can interact to lay an early foundation
for sustainable career development. In particular, career competencies
and employability were highlighted as crucial concepts for today’s STWT.
Finally, we discussed potentially interesting research areas for future research
to further our understanding of the contemporary STWT.
... The school-to-work transition (STWT) is a major milestone in people's lives that typically has long-lasting effects on their future career success (Akkermans et al., 2019). A successful STWT is related to higher compensation, career satisfaction, self-efficacy, coping skills and self-perceived employability (Blokker et al., 2021). ...
... Over the past several decades, the STWT of university graduates has become more difficult because of the growing complexity of global labor markets and work environments (Donald, 2023). Many university graduates are underemployed, working in low-wage, precarious jobs and have little hope of transitioning to more stable and fulfilling employment (Akkermans et al., 2019). Yet, a successful STWT that Career Development International ...
... Second, while research has examined the influence of stable variables, such as personality traits, on the STWT (Akkermans et al., 2019), little is known about how malleable, changeable variables, such as parents' career support and protean career orientation (PCO) or language proficiency, may influence the STWT process. Also, it is unknown whether the resources devoted to language training positively affect the career outcomes of the 60 m Chinese university students who study English. ...
Purpose
The increasing complexity of global labor markets and work environments has made the school-to-work transition more difficult. We explore factors that influence important career outcomes for young adults in China as they transition from their university to the labor market. Specifically, we examine how protean career orientation, self-perceived employability, mother’s and father’s career support and human capital (English language proficiency) may influence career satisfaction and employment status during adulthood.
Design/methodology/approach
We collected survey data in two waves, six months apart, and obtained English proficiency ratings from university records.
Findings
Father’s and mother’s career support was significantly associated with protean career orientation and protean career orientation was significantly related to self-perceived employability. Self-perceived employability was significantly associated with career satisfaction and employment status. The career support-career satisfaction and career support-employment status relationships were fully mediated by protean career orientation and self-perceived employability. Contrary to expectations, the human capital variable of English language proficiency did not moderate the serial mediation involving either career satisfaction or employment status.
Originality/value
By integrating protean career theory, human capital theory and research on parental support, we offer an interdisciplinary contribution to the school-to-work transition literature. We also advance protean career theory by studying it as a mediating variable and by examining parental support as an antecedent of it.
... Besides school-related processes, academic agency could also influence employment-related outcomes more directly. In the vocational literature, a related form of agency, often referred to as career adaptability, is associated with positive work outcomes and career meaningfulness (Akkermans et al., 2021). Even though agency is often conceptualized differently in the educational and vocational literatures, the concept shares many characteristics in the two domains and can be broken down into mirror concepts. ...
... They also challenge normative assumptions based on "college for all" perspectives and calls for broader views of what constitutes a successful school-to-work transition that can accommodate multiple paths leading to success according to young peoples' own evaluation. In that respect, the results support the critical importance of considering the fit between characteristics of the person (such as their career expectations) and the chosen career to understand adaptability over the school-to-work transition (Akkermans et al., 2021). Considering both educational and vocational outcomes underscored the partial relevance of academic agency for rapid transitions into the job market, but also its limitations. ...
... Journal of Youth and Adolescence orientation) alongside academic agency could create a synergy that could support both academic and work outcomes (Akkermans et al., 2021). Likewise, the psychology of work theory, which models the attainment of meaningful and decent work, emphasizes the role of career adaptability (comprising self-awareness, self-management and future orientation) as well as domain-specific and general self-efficacy as crucial predictors of success across different domains of vocational development, including educational and occupational decision-making (Masdonati et al., 2022). ...
Academic agency is recognized as an important predictor of higher education attainment among the general population during the school-to-work transition. However, there is little evidence on whether (a) academic agency is associated with higher education attainment among young people facing education difficulties (i.e., lower attainers), (b) academic agency is associated with a smooth entry in a meaningful job among lower attainers, and (c) these associations vary across educational contexts. This study draws on longitudinal data from lower attainers in the province of Québec (Mage = 16.31, SD = 0.98; 48% females) and in England (Mage = 15.86, SD = 0.72; 42% females), two regions with similar education systems, yet different vocational training provision. In both samples, fewer than one in four participants reach higher education by age 20. Also, in both countries academic agency is associated with a greater likelihood of being in higher education compared to other employment and education outcomes at age 20, but not with rapid entry into meaningful employment. Thus, focussing on higher education attainment and academic-related factors such as academic agency is of limited relevance for understanding lower attainers’ success over school-to work transitions. For them, understanding this transition also requires considering rapid entry in meaningful employment, as well as non-academic forms of agency supporting such work-oriented outcomes.
... The notion of sustainability has become increasingly important in modern career studies. Indeed, current careers are more likely to put individuals on less predictable and more fragmented career paths that can negatively affect individuals' functioning in life domains and ultimately harm the sense of security, psychological well-being (PWB), and life satisfaction (Akkermans et al., 2021;De Vos et al., 2020;Nimmi et al., 2021;. Scholars of contemporary career theory have a strong interest in defining a sustainable career and considering the contributing factors. ...
... social expectations related to transition) and exceptional (e.g. COVID-related recession) employment-related factors (Akkermans et al., 2021;OECD, 2021). ...
... A large consensus exists about PE being vital to achieving sustainability throughout career paths (Akkermans et al., 2021;Van Harten et al., 2021). As the appraisal of one's employment potential drives individual thoughts, reactions and actions, PE is decisive in determining the psychological indicators of career sustainability, such as PWB and happiness. ...
This study assesses (i) how perceived job market challenges and demands impact perceived employability and (ii) how these factors differ between India and Italy, especially as these nations are going through different trajectories regarding industrialization, growth, and employment opportunities. Data collection involved a questionnaire whereby 218 graduates in India and 199 students and graduates in Italy participated in the study. Findings showed that perceived employability was positively associated with psychological well-being and happiness for both countries. However, the association between labor market demands and perceived employability was positive in India but negative in Italy. Additionally, no association was found between labor market demands and either psychological wellbeing or happiness in India, whereas a negative association occurred for both in Italy. The cross-national differences evidence the need to tailor career support strategies depending on their implemented context.
... It is not a novelty that entering the labour market represents a challenging developmental stage for young people, as is the case for new entrants from Higher Education. They go through identity and role transition and must handle tasks which could determine their later career development and success (Fouad and Bynner, 2008;Koen et al., 2012;Saks, 2018;Akkermans et al., 2021). Such a stage occurs in a graduate labour market scenario marked by discontinuity and uncertainty (Akkermans et al., 2015(Akkermans et al., , 2021 or, as in the case of Italy, low capability to value graduates (OECD, 2017;Italian Government, 2021). ...
... They go through identity and role transition and must handle tasks which could determine their later career development and success (Fouad and Bynner, 2008;Koen et al., 2012;Saks, 2018;Akkermans et al., 2021). Such a stage occurs in a graduate labour market scenario marked by discontinuity and uncertainty (Akkermans et al., 2015(Akkermans et al., , 2021 or, as in the case of Italy, low capability to value graduates (OECD, 2017;Italian Government, 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic has even worsened this situation, downplaying new entrants' career prospects and jeopardising a sustainable entrance into the world of work (Mahmud et al., 2021;Busetta et al., 2022). ...
... Analysing the CE behaviours-based process of CSM must not discount the role of the context, also referred to as the ecosystem in which career progress occurs (Akkermans et al., 2021). As part of the graduate employment ecosystem, higher education institutions are responsible for supporting new entrants' transition (López-Miguens et al., 2021). ...
Introduction
Career self-management behaviours are key to overcoming the challenges of entry into the labour market. Combining the Conservation of Resources and Career Self-management theories, this study delves into the concept of Career Engagement among Italian University students by examining its relationship with Support from teaching Staff and Movement Capital. We hypothesised a mediation model in which Support from Teaching Staff predicts Career Engagement which, in turn, fosters Movement Capital. As the pandemic led to the adoption of online learning solutions, we also explored whether and how the interaction between teachers and students during online classes moderates the said mediation relationship.
Methods and results
We collected data from 276 Italian University students through an online questionnaire. Results supported the mediation hypothesis, corroborating the mediating role of Career Engagement. We also observed that this relationship is stronger at medium and higher levels of online interaction between teachers and students.
Discussion
Findings contribute to existing evidence about the role of Career Engagement in facilitating career resources’ acquisition and extend the understanding of its contextual antecedents in Higher Education contexts. Results also align with the importance attributed to interaction in online learning environments. This work suggests ways to encourage career behaviours in Higher Education and equip prospective labour market entrants with career resources.
... The school-to-work transition is the first significant career transition for many individuals and represents a critical developmental task in adolescence and early adulthood (Dietrich et al., 2012). Thus, it is not surprising that over the past 25 years, the transition from school to work has received considerable attention in the fields of career development and vocational psychology (e.g., Akkermans, Blokker, et al., 2021;Blustein et al., 1997). This research illustrates that a successful school-to-work transition has important implications for long-term career and personal development. ...
... For example, success in this transition relates positively to later work-related outcomes, such as job satisfaction (Pinquart et al., 2003), and well-being outcomes, such as life satisfaction (Litalien et al., 2013). Today, the topic is highly relevant, especially as the transition itself has been fundamentally changing over the past years (Akkermans, Blokker, et al., 2021;de Vos et al., 2019), and moving from education into the labor market has become far from being a trivial and automatic transition (e.g., Krahn et al., 2015). For example, in the context of the rapidly changing business and labor markets accelerated by the fourth industrial revolution (Hirschi, 2018), adolescents and young adults have to increasingly cope with unpredictable career trajectories (Akkermans et al., 2015). ...
... In addition, Neuenschwander and Hofman investigate the role of supportive company strategies during VET for facilitating the adjustment of newcomers as a contextual factor. This approach is in line with recent calls to integrate factors at different levels in school-to-work transition research (e.g., individual-level, family-level, and organizational-level) to better represent the complex school-to-work transition process (Akkermans, Blokker, et al., 2021). Further, high levels of fit during VET and the subsequent transition into work can be a good starting point for a sustainable career. ...
... The school-to-work transition (STWT) can take time and often leads people to experience job insecurity before finding satisfying employment-if they ever do (Grosemans et al., 2020). This task is particularly tricky in tense socio-historical circumstances, with young workers being the most impacted by economic crises in terms of risk of unemployment and job insecurity (Akkermans et al., 2021;Schoon & Heckhausen, 2019). Moreover, the STWT process tends to emphasize social inequalities. ...
... Research shows that the quality of the STWT and the chance of accessing decent and dignified work result from the interplay of social, institutional, and psychological factors (Akkermans et al., 2021;Ling & O'Brien, 2013;Masdonati et al., 2021;Schoon & Heckhausen, 36 Securing Decent and Dignified School-to-Work Transitions 2019). An adverse family background (e.g., lack of parental support), socioeconomic constraints (e.g., low socioeconomic status), and belonging to marginalized groups (e.g., early school leavers and migrant people) are among the main social threats to a successful transition (OECD, 2017;Schoon & Heckhausen, 2019). ...
In the current socioeconomic context, the transition from school to work has become a complex task, has a long-term impact on careers, and tends to emphasize social inequalities during the labor market integration process. Succeeding in this transition implies not only finding a job when leaving school but also accessing decent and dignified work—namely, a job that is both secure and consistent with young adults’ expectations of working life. Social, institutional, and psychological factors influence the school-to-work transition (STWT) process and its outcomes. Consequently, promoting successful STWTs involves both contextual and psychosocial interventions. Contextual initiatives imply the promotion of education systems that facilitate smooth and inclusive transitions from school to work as well as labor market policies that protect young adults from job insecurity. Psychosocial interventions should foster young adults’ transitional resources and help them access organizations offering work settings that fit their expectations.
... In doing so, we synthesize research from the graduate employability literature and the STWT (cf. Akkermans et al., 2021). We found that all four employability dimensions considered in this study (i.e., human capital and professional development, social capital and networking, career identity and self-management, and environmental monitoring) increased during the internship. ...
... This result may imply that graduates, who experience their first work experience, already have enough new challenges to focus on (e.g., getting used to their first job, forming their vocational identity; cf. Akkermans et al., 2021). Therefore, taking on even more challenges does not positively impact their employability, even if combined with structural organizational support. ...
This study adopts a resource perspective to investigate the development of graduates' resource-based employability across a 1-year internship. We examined factors referring to agency (job crafting in the form of crafting challenges and crafting resources) and context (organizational social socialization tactics) as mechanisms contributing to employability development during initial work experiences (internships). Data were collected in Italy from 316 master graduates in psychology at three time points. Longitudinal structural equation modeling results showed that baseline employability was positively associated with job crafting. However, job crafting was only significantly associated with employability at the end of the internship among those reporting high crafting resources and medium-to-high organizational social socialization tactics. Hence, beyond a focus on proactivity only, organizational support and opportunities to form social networks are essential to sustain interns' employability development.
... Given the risk that diseases of despair pose for long-term health and well-being, it is critical to understand their developmental roots in early adulthood, especially among young adults with lower levels of education. Yet this group has attracted scant developmental research, as studies on early adulthood overwhelmingly focus on college-going youth (Akkermans et al., 2021;Bowen et al., 2021;Côté, 2014;Furstenberg, 2016;Landberg et al., 2019), despite the fact that a majority of youth still transition to adulthood without a college degree in many countries (Nielsen et al., 2017;OECD, 2021). The lack of research attention devoted to noncollege graduates, sometimes referred to as "the forgotten half" (Rosenbaum et al., 2015), is particularly pronounced for the substantial minority among this group (15% of youth; OECD, 2021) who do not obtain even basic secondary-level credentials (Lavoie et al., 2021). ...
“Diseases of despair,” most prominently depressive and substance-related problems, diminish the prospects of many young adults, especially those with lower levels of education. Yet many young adults in that situation avoid these problems. Close relationships are thought to be a key factor underpinning risk and resilience among this group. To examine this premise, this study explored links, beyond potential confounders assessed in adolescence, between strengths and strains in the social domain and markers of despair in the early and mid-20s in a Canadian sample overrepresenting youth without postsecondary credentials (N = 543, 52% male, 23% non-White). Having a good general ability to maintain supportive relationships was associated with fewer depressive and substance-related symptoms. Furthermore, support and less strain in relationships with parents and friends were associated with fewer depressive symptoms in the early and mid-20s, while for romantic relationships, associations with depressive symptoms became more consistent and robust in the mid-20s. Therefore, support and strains in romantic relationships gradually gained prominence as a determinant of depressive symptoms as youth advanced in adulthood. For substance-related problems, significant associations emerged for strains in friendships only, in both the early and mid-20s. These results suggest that multiple aspects of relationships pose a risk for or protect from the development of diseases of despair in early adulthood and that their relative importance changes depending on outcomes and developmental timing. Thus, facilitating meaningful social connections and reducing the prevalence and impact of relationship strains might contribute to preventing diseases of despair among youth with lower educational attainment.
... Indeed, we have done so in several of our recent articles. For example, two recent book chapters by Akkermans et al. (2021a) andDe Vos et al. (2019) used the sustainable career perspective to explain how the school-to-work transition has changed from a one-off decision to an ongoing series of learning cycles. Employability is a core factor in this dynamic perspective on the initial transition to work. ...
Purpose and approach
This article presents the case for creating stronger connections between research on graduate and worker employability. We offer a narrative review of commonalities and differences between these research streams and offer thoughts and suggestions for further integration and mutual learning.
Findings
We outline some of the main theories and concepts in the graduate and worker employability domains. Furthermore, we analyze how these show considerable overlap, though they have barely connected with each other yet. We also formulate an agenda for future research that would spur stronger connections between the fields. Finally, we turn to our fellow authors, reviewers, and editors to encourage a more open approach to each other's work that would enable more cross-fertilization of knowledge.
Implications
We hope our narrative review, critical analysis and future research suggestions will lead to more collaborations and mutual learning among employability researchers in the educational, career and psychology areas.
... Entering into the labour market and beginning a full-time job engages students in managing a series of demands: specifying their career interests, realizing critical career decisions, or preparing and anticipating their adaptation into the workforce (Ng & Feldman, 2007). Simultaneously, individuals now face a more challenging and complex arrival on the labour market, characterized by an increasing level of career transitions and job uncertainty (Akkermans, Blokker, et al., 2021). Managing these challenges not only affects the probability of finding a suitable job but may also impact individuals' psychological well-being, interpersonal relationships, career attitudes, and career outcomes (McKee-Ryan et al., 2005;Ng et al., 2005). ...
Individuals’ career development represents a continuous adaptation process toward professional development and life goals. In this context, an increasing number of studies have recognized emotional intelligence as an important resource to cope
with career-related challenges. This doctoral dissertation aims to address three objectives: questioning, extending, and integrating what we know about emotional intelligence in career development. This manuscript first proposes an original review of the limitations in the study of emotional intelligence in the career context. Second, the present findings develop a more nuanced picture of emotional intelligence, examine unexplored career-related outcomes, and present the results of a meta-analysis. This doctoral dissertation conveys significant theoretical and practical implications with regard to the concept of emotional intelligence but also in order to help individuals throughout their career development.
... The transition from schooling to employment is a pivotal and uncertain period for students' career development. The preparation of leaving university life for a full-time job involves many challenges, such as developing clear career goals, making important career decisions, and anticipating and preparing for entry into the world of work (Akkermans, et al., 2021). This period may lead to the experience of various emotions that could influence career choices and career behaviours (Parmentier et al., 2022). ...
The current study adopted a person-centered approach to explore emotional intelligence profiles among 1582 university students and investigated whether different combinations of self-focused (i.e., intrapersonal) and other-focused (i.e., interpersonal) emotion appraisal and regulation emerged between women and men. We also examined the relations of these profiles with job search self-efficacy and job search clarity. Four distinct profiles emerged for the women and men that differed in terms of level and shape. Furthermore, these profiles predicted job search self-efficacy significantly for the women and men, but they predicted only job search clarity among the men. These results provide evidence about the importance of differentiating profiles of emotional intelligence between women and men and to be particularly attentive to gender stereotypes. Second, these results open new avenues for tailor-made career counseling interventions for university students facing the school-to-work transition.
... The school-to-work transition (sometimes referred to as university-to-work or college-to-work transition) is the period during which someone leaves school and starts their first employment (Akkermans et al., 2021;Ng & Feldman, 2007). Though not often explicitly mobilized, this literature has clear commonalities with the literature on vocational and career choice. ...
The field of career studies primarily focuses on understanding people’s lifelong succession of work experiences, the structure of opportunity to work, and the relationship between careers and work and other aspects of life. Career research is conducted by scholars in a variety of disciplines, including psychology, management, and sociology. As such, it covers multiple levels of analysis and is informed by different theoretical frameworks, ranging from micro (i.e., individual) to macro (e.g., organizational, institutional, cultural). The most dominant theoretical perspectives that have been mobilized in career research are boundaryless and protean career theory, career construction theory, and social cognitive career theory. Other perspectives that have increasingly been adopted include sustainable careers, kaleidoscope careers, psychology of working theory, and theories from related disciplines, such as conservation of resources theory and social exchange theory. Key topics in the field of career studies include career self-management, career outcomes (e.g., career success, employability), career transitions and shocks, calling, and organizational career management. Research at the micro level with outcomes on the individual level has been dominant in the early 21st century, predominantly focusing on understanding individual career paths and outcomes. Thereby, however, contextual factors as either further important predictors or boundary conditions for career development are also considered as important research topics.
This study investigated the direct and indirect associations between social–emotional learning (SEL) skills, career decision self‐efficacy (CDSE), vocational outcome expectations (VOE), and career engagement (CE) within social cognitive career theory (SCCT) in a sample of Turkish university students. Junior and senior students ( N = 460) completed the Social–Emotional Learning Scale‐Young Adult Form, the Career Decision Self‐Efficacy Scale‐Short Form, the Vocational Outcome Expectations Scale, the Career Engagement Scale, and the Demographic Information Form. Data was collected during COVID‐19 lockdowns in 2021. The results of a multiple serial mediation model indicated that higher SEL skills were related to higher CDSE and VOE, and, in turn, to CE. Overall, the results show that SCCT provides a promising framework for identifying predictors of CE, self‐directed career management behavior, in young adults during the transition from school to work. These findings have implications for theory, research, and practice by identifying potential influences on CE during COVID‐19.
This chapter focuses on preparing students for the university-to-work transition, predominantly from the perspectives of graduate recruiters and recruitment agency representatives acting on behalf of organizations. First, the university-to-work transition is defined, and the benefits organizations can expect from hiring graduates are considered. Next, the Graduate Recruitment Attraction Matrix (GRAM) is introduced, encompassing twenty-five activities to enhance talent attraction efforts and prepare students for undertaking the university-to-work transition. The four quadrants that form the GRAM are subsequently explored, followed by the activities grouped into six themes: (i) careers fairs, (ii) presentations and panel events, (iii) sponsorship and ambassador roles, (iv) networking and mentoring, (v) experience opportunities, and (vi) diversity-focused events. The chapter concludes with four lived experience insights offering real-world examples of the challenges and opportunities associated with preparing students for the university-to-work transition.
The process of “transitioning” to adulthood for youth with disabilities has long been recognized to be an important but understudied public policy concern. This paper evaluates the labor market effects of Virginia's school-to-work vocational evaluation program, PERT. Using a unique panel data set containing more than a decade of labor market and service information, we provide the first-ever assessment of the long-term employment impacts of a transitioning program for youth with disabilities. Overall, the estimated effects are substantial: PERT has an estimated median quarterly rate of return of nearly 30%.
In addition to acquiring occupation-specific knowledge and skills, students need to develop a set of career self-management skills – or resources – that helps them to successfully maneuver the various career-related challenges they face and that stimulate their well-being, engagement, and performance in studying tasks. In the current study, we apply the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory in an educational setting and suggest that career adaptability and career competencies are important career resources that predict both life satisfaction and academic performance via students’ satisfaction with the choice of their major and study engagement. Undergraduate students (N = 672) from nine different colleges and universities in Lithuania participated in the study. The results revealed that career adaptability and career competencies were positively linked to students’ life satisfaction, both directly and via study engagement. In addition, these career resources were positively, yet indirectly, related to academic performance via study engagement. Overall, the results suggest that career resources contribute to study engagement, life satisfaction, and academic performance. The results of our study further support JD-R theorizing and its applicability in student samples. Further theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
This review examines competing perspectives relating to (a) the range and
prevalence of different theoretical approaches to the study of career
success and (b) the need for a theoretically differentiated understanding of
the antecedents of objective (OCS) versus subjective (SCS) career success.
Furthermore, the review complements the assumption that OCS and SCS
are only ultimate outcomes of careers, proposing instead that career
success also acts as an antecedent to other career and life outcomes.
Against the backdrop of an organizing resource management framework,
we present and critically evaluate the results of a systematic analysis of
the theoretical approaches used to empirically study the antecedents of
OCS and SCS. Furthermore, we develop a taxonomy of outcomes of career
success. Our review findings show a theoretical heterogeneity with some
dominant theoretical approaches within research of antecedents of career
success. Moreover, past research started to adopt different theoretical
approaches when predicting OCS (e.g., approaches focusing on personal
resources, such as human capital or [competitive] performance) versus
SCS (e.g., approaches focusing on personal key resources, such as stable
traits). Several types of career success outcomes were identified:
withdrawal, career attitudes, health and well-being, reactions from the
(work) environment, and self-concept. Based on these findings, we provide
recommendations for how future research can make sense of the
theoretical heterogeneity in career success research, how research on
antecedents and outcomes can better account for the OCS/SCS distinction,
and how future research can more rigorously integrate research on
antecedents and outcomes of career success.
Orientation: This article addresses the interplay between individual agency and contextual
factors in contemporary career development processes. In light of the prominence of the
former in the contemporary scholarly debate, we present a case for a more comprehensive approach by heeding the latter as well.
Research purpose: The main aim of this article was to provide a definition and conceptualisation of career shocks, as well as an agenda for future research on this topic.
Motivation for the study: Most of the contemporary careers literature has overemphasised the role of individual agency in career development. While certainly important, we argue that we also need to address the role of context – in this case, career shocks – in order to gain a fuller appreciation of career development processes.
Main conclusions and implications: We provide a definition of career shocks based on the
existing literature related to chance events and turnover. In addition, we provide an overview of attributes of career shocks, potentially valuable theoretical perspectives and key issues for future research.
Contribution: This article brings together several existing streams of literature related to
career shocks and provides an integrative definition and conceptualisation. We hope that this will ignite future research on an important but often overlooked topic.
Core self-evaluations (CSE) have predictive value for important work outcomes such as job satisfaction and job performance. However, little is known about the mechanisms that may explain these relationships. The purpose of the present study is to contribute to CSE theory by proposing and subsequently providing a first test of theoretically relevant mediating paths through which CSE may be related to work engagement. Based on approach/avoidance motivation and Job Demands-Resources theory, we examined a perception (via job characteristics), action (via job crafting), and development path (via career competencies). Two independent samples were obtained from employees working in Germany and The Netherlands (N = 303 and N = 404, respectively). When taking all mediators into account, results showed that the perception path represented by autonomy and social support played a minor role in the relationship between CSE and work engagement. Specifically, autonomy did not function as a mediator in both samples while social support played a marginally significant role in the CSE±work engagement relationship in sample 1 and received full support
in sample 2. The action path exemplified by job crafting mediated the relationship between CSE and work engagement in both samples. Finally, the development path operationalized with career competencies mediated the relationship between CSE and work engagement in sample 1. The study presents evidence for an action and development path over and above the often tested perception path to explain how CSE is related to work engagement. This
is one of the first studies to propose and show that CSE not only influences perceptions but also triggers employee actions and developmental strategies that relate to work engagement.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to bring together job design and career theory in the
examination of how proactive employees optimize their well-being (i.e. job satisfaction and perceived
health) through job crafting and career competencies. This study offers an integrated account of the
pathway from proactive personality to well-being.
Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected by a cross-sectional self-report survey study
among 574 employees working in various organizations.
Findings – The results of structural equation modeling analyses supported the proposed double
mediation model: job crafting and career competencies both mediated the positive relationship between
proactive personality and well-being. The findings suggest that proactive employees can enhance their
well-being both through proactive job redesign and the development of career-related skills and abilities.
Research limitations/implications – This study precludes causal explanations. Future research
should further investigate the role of employee proactivity related to contemporary work topics,
including temporary contracts and self-employment.
Practical implications – Managers and HR practitioners can optimize employee well-being by focusing
on HR policies related to job redesign, as well as investing in training and development of career competencies.
Originality/value – This paper integrates two research domains by exploring how proactive
employees take a proactive stance toward their job as well as their career, and investigates how this
proactive approach contributes to their well-being. In addition, the authors demonstrated a link
between the development of career competencies and employee health.
Recent changes in labor market and working conditions have rendered youth's education-to-work transitions and career prospects more uncertain. This study investigated how youth, while still in education or training, deal with perceived growing occupational uncertainties in terms of goal engagement (i.e., investing active effort in goal pursuit; surmounting obstacles) and goal disengagement (i.e., distancing from unattainable goals; protecting the self against failure experiences). Analyses with two closely matched samples of youth aged 16–25 years from Germany (N = 529) and Poland (N = 530) revealed high levels of goal engagement and a clear preference of engagement over disengagement. Whereas levels of engagement were comparable across countries, disengagement was considerably higher in Polish youth. Regarding the sources of individual differences in engagement and disengagement, sociodemographic factors had very limited effects in both countries. Compared to sociodemographic factors, the level of perceived growing occupational uncertainties, and especially youth's primary and secondary appraisals thereof, were more strongly and consistently associated with engagement and disengagement, especially in Germany, pointing to the prominence of perceptions and appraisals in shaping youth's responses to growing occupational uncertainties. We offer cultural and economic explanations for these findings and discuss implications for interventions aimed at fostering youth's engagement in preparing for their future careers under today's uncertain conditions.
Career success is a main focus of career scholars as well as organizational stakeholders. Historically, career success has been conceptualized and measured in an objective manner, mainly as salary, rank, or number of promotions. However, the changing nature of work has also necessitated a change in the way many employees view success, adding a more subjective component. Although there has been theoretical discussion and calls to develop a comprehensive measure of subjective career success, no contemporary comprehensive quantitative measure exists. The goal of this study was to create and validate a measure of subjective career success, titled the Subjective Career Success Inventory (SCSI). The SCSI includes 24 items that address subjective career success via eight dimensions. The scale was developed and validated through four phases of data collection, beginning with interviews and focus groups, followed by item sorting tasks, then item refinement through confirmatory factor analysis, and finally convergent and discriminant validity quantitative analysis. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Drawing on queuing theory, this study explores the relationship between education and labour market entry from the perspective of employers. On the basis of vignette study, we simulated a hiring process with a sample of recruiters and human resource managers. We analysed the role of education in the screening of applicants' resumes for job openings in the Information, Communication, and Technology sector in the Italian labour market. Findings reveal that employers attach importance to fine-grained indicators of school performance, such as grades and study duration to formulate their hiring decisions, in line with queuing theory. However, internships are disregarded as signals. Results are explained in light of the institutional arrangements that characterize the Italian school-to-work transition system: a standardized education system, poorly specific vocational tracks, weakly developed linkages between schools and firms, a remarkably high dropout rate before study completion.
A major work-related transition that individuals go through in the beginning of their
career is the school-to-work transition (STWT) . During this transition young individuals
face many challenges and changes in a relatively brief period of time, such
as developing a professional identity (McKee-Ryan et al. 2005 ), fi nding suitable
employment (e.g., Scherer 2004 ), and going through the organizational socialization
process (Koivisto et al. 2007 ). The STWT is more relevant now than ever
because of increasing demands for fl exibility and career self-management (e.g.,
Akkermans et al. 2013c ), and because the worldwide economic crisis of the past
years has struck young employees hardest of all (European Commission 2012 ).
Therefore, this chapter focuses specifi cally on this transition. First, we will discuss
recent trends with regard to employment statistics of young workers in Europe.
Second, we will focus on known antecedents and consequences of an adaptive
STWT. Next, we will discuss the new career perspective, and examine two emerging
topics; career adaptability and career competencies . Finally, we will present two
cases in which the CareerSKILLS method in The Netherlands, and the School-to-
Work Group Method in Finland will be detailed.
This article proposes a perspective on careers that recognizes the interdependencies between work and home over the life course and is particularly suitable to contemporary careers. We first discuss the meaning of a work–home (WH) perspective and elaborate on the economic, organizational, and workforce changes that have affected contemporary careers. We then illustrate the implications of adopting a WH perspective for four streams of scholarship relevant to contemporary careers (career self-management, career success, global careers, and sustainable careers), suggest directions for future research in each area, and discuss the practical implications of adopting a WH perspective. We conclude that contemporary careers can be better understood by considering how employees’ home lives influence and are influenced by career processes and that the adoption of a WH perspective requires understanding the role of gender norms in prescribing and sanctioning women’s and men’s participation in the work and home domains in a given culture.
The aim of our study was to investigate the effectiveness of the CareerSKILLS program, a career development intervention based on career competencies and the JOBS methodology, which aims to stimulate career self-management and well-being of young employees. In a quasi-randomized control trial, the effects of the program were tested in a homogeneous sample of young employees with intermediate vocational education (Nintervention = 112, Nnon-intervention = 61) and in a heterogeneous sample of employees from a special reintegration program (Nintervention = 71, Nnon-intervention = 41). Our results support the effectiveness of the intervention: participants of the CareerSKILLS program, versus a control group, showed increases in six career competencies (reflection of motivation, reflection on qualities, networking, self-profiling, work exploration, and career control), self-efficacy, resilience against setbacks, career-related behaviors, perceived employability, and work engagement. These results provide empirical support for the effectiveness of the CareerSKILLS program. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to define employability within the psychological literature with a focus upon perceived employability.
Design/methodology/approach
– To achieve the aim, the paper defines five objectives as follows. First, the paper discusses how employability is interpreted in the psychological literature. Second, the paper defines perceived employability within this literature. Third, the paper goes one step further by comparing the perceived employability approach to other approaches in the psychological field, namely, approaches based on competences and dispositions. The paper concludes with an integration of the three approaches into a process model to demonstrate their interrelationships, which the authors see as the fourth objective. With approach, the paper refers to a specific view on employability, including both definitions and measures, which share significant common ground. Finally, the paper highlights some implications.
Findings
– The paper concludes that each approach comes with specific advantages and disadvantages. Researchers and practitioners should use an approach according to the general research question one aims to address.
Originality value
– The authors believe to contribute to the employability literature in the following ways. First, the paper raises awareness that not all psychological notions of employability are equal, though they are often treated as such in the literature. Second, the paper highlights how perceived employability is tied to competences and dispositions. That is, though all notions are clearly different, they are also related.
This article analyses the effect of vocational education on school-To-work transitions for the 2006 cohort of Dutch graduates of upper-secondary education (ISCED Level 3). Using sequence analysis, it uncovers ideal-Typical school-To-work transition trajectories representing the first 7 years in the labour market. It then analyses the effect of vocational education on trajectories and wages. Specific attention is paid to the moderating influence of vocational sector and type of programme: classroom-Taught or workplace-based. The results indicate that, compared to entrants with general education, vocationally educated entrants are less likely to have problematic labour market entry trajectories. Vocational field has a moderating effect on the prevalence of particular trajectories. Those with a vocational education enjoy higher wages on labour market entry but are soon overtaken by their counterparts with a general education. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions.
Over the next decade, close to half a million people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) will reach adulthood. Research suggests that the career and life outcomes for young adults with ASD are poor as compared with those of the general population. Nevertheless, there is relatively little research on the work experiences of young adults with ASD that focuses on their career aspirations, preparation for work, career experiences, and the barriers associated with their transition into the world of work. Given the large numbers of young adults with ASD who are exiting secondary school and vocational training programs, it is imperative to understand the issues associated with their transition into the world of work. The purpose of this study, which utilizes a survey questionnaire and focus group, is to assess the transition needs and experiences of young adults with ASD as they prepare to enter the workplace. The results indicate that young adults with ASD face significant transition barriers when navigating the world of work and have certain transition needs. Policy implications for the transition needs identified are presented.
Despite the established view that investing in developing one's career competencies would lead to career success and employability, little is known about the role of career shocks (i.e., positive and negative unexpected career-related events) in this relationship. To examine the role of career shocks in the relationship between career competencies, career success and employability, we analyzed data from 704 Dutch young professionals (21–35 years). Results showed that young professionals who have developed high levels of career competencies reported higher levels of perceived employability. The relationship between career competencies and perceived employability was partially mediated by subjective career success (i.e., career satisfaction). Negative career shocks undermined the mediated relationship between career competencies and perceived employability, via early career success, whereas positive career shocks strengthened this relationship. This study contributes to the literature on employability by demonstrating that career shocks play an important role in young professionals’ early career development in tandem with career competencies and career success.
In this paper, we provoke the strong focus on personal agency in employability research. We counter three dominant assumptions in the literature, namely, (a) that employability is an individual asset, (b) that employability is owned by the individual, and (c) that employability leads to positive outcomes. A key observation is that the three dominant theories that are being used in employability studies, namely, human capital theory, conservation of resources theory, and social exchange theory, also question these core agency assumptions that form the basis of those studies. Based on these theories, we identify three blind spots in employability research: Employability is (a) contextual, (b) relational, and (3) polarising. Taken together, we make the case that the agency perspective overlooks a potential dark side of employability: The winner takes it all, the loser has to fall. We outline a future research agenda on this potential dark side of employability.
Psychological contracts, an individual’s system of beliefs regarding exchange arrangements, are key components in the construction and development of individual careers and the career systems of organizations and societies. In explicating careers and their management, multiple stakeholders are increasingly relevant to worker psychological contracts as individuals shoulder greater responsibility for their own careers and seek resources and ties with diverse career agents. The roles played by stakeholders who serve as career agents vary as a function of the larger career ecosystem in which the individual is embedded. We offer an ecosystem’s perspective as a bridge for understanding the intersection between psychological contracts, careers and the multiple stakeholders of each.
This paper aims to move the research field on sustainable careers forward by building conceptual clarity about what a sustainable career means and delineating what distinguishes sustainable from non-sustainable careers, thereby providing key indicators of a sustainable career. Moreover, we approach sustainable careers from a systemic and dynamic perspective and address influential factors associated with stakeholders situated in multiple contexts and evolving over time. We elaborate on core theoretical frameworks useful for enhancing our understanding of what makes careers sustainable and present three key dimensions that can help to analyze and study sustainable careers: person, context, and time. Finally, we propose a research agenda that we hope will spur scholars to examine the topic in more detail in future empirical work.
This article sheds new light on a key topic in youth research over recent decades; how young people often rely on individualistic frames of interpretation in understanding their own lives. Based on biographical interviews with two cohorts of skilled men in Norway, the article demonstrates relations between historically specific institutional contexts and the ways in which people understand their school-to-work transitions. Whereas the older cohort accounted for their transitions as embedded processes, the younger cohort, who entered the same occupations three decades later, viewed their transitions as determined by self-searching in institutionalized choice situations. The wider implication of this is that the vocabulary fostered by contemporary transition contexts may invite researchers to overemphasize discrete moments ruptured from process, and thus obscure the dynamic relations between history and biography (Mills, 1959). A life course perspective, with its emphasis on transitions as contextualized processes, represents a viable theoretical alternative.
Owing to the recent recession, the German apprenticeship model is once again praised for smoothing out school-to-work transitions. In line with the social policy shift of favouring education as a key means to combat youth unemployment, European Union (EU) recommendations and German national policies encourage young Southern and Eastern EU citizens to apply for apprenticeship training abroad. Yet, young people wanting to go abroad are not only mobile young people but also immigrants. Given the prevalence of ethnic disparities in the German apprenticeship system, the question arises whether employers would be willing to hire these newcomers. Using a factorial survey experiment, we investigate how employers rate applications from Spanish newcomers compared to those from young immigrant descendants of Spanish origin. The results indicate that newcomers are substantially less preferred than immigrant descendants born in Germany. Employers’ expectations about newcomers’ language skills and employers’ interest in training for their own skilled labour force are key barriers to policies promoting apprenticeships abroad.
Young people’s transition from education into the labour market are diverse: sometimes direct from school to work or inactivity, sometimes characterised by stop-starts and combinations of different activities. This paper explores the association between transition pathways of Australian youth and their outcomes, in terms of earnings, perceptions of employment opportunities and debt. It builds on analysis by Fry and Boulton [2013. Prevalence of Transition Pathways in Australia. Canberra: Productivity Commission Staff Working Paper] who identified five pathways most typically taken by 15–24 year old Australians over a 10 year period, including quasi linear transitions from education to work with and without study, combinations of work and study, multiple churning between labour market statuses, and transitions into prolonged periods of inactivity. The present study adds four more years of panel data that have since become available, and compares the labour market outcomes of the different pathways at age 29–38. Earnings and employment perception converged over time, but debt did not. Socio-demographics were most strongly associated with outcomes, but earnings were also greater for churners and for young people in extended education increasingly combined with work. Transitions that combined learning and work seemingly strategically or ‘flexibly’ appeared most rewarding in the medium term, although neither compensated for socio-economic difference.
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We explore how college reputation affects the "big sort," the process by which students choose colleges and find their first jobs. We incorporate a simple definition of college reputation-graduates' mean admission scores-into a competitive labor market model. This generates a clear prediction: If employers use reputation to set wages, then the introduction of a new measure of individual skill will decrease the return to reputation. Administrative data and a natural experiment from the country of Colombia confirm this. Finally, we show that college reputation is positively correlated with graduates' earnings growth, suggesting that reputation matters beyond signaling individual skill.
This study examines the role of structural and agentic resources in shaping school-to-work transitions in England. We ask to what extent are young people able to steer the course of their lives despite the constraining forces of social structure, and how satisfied are they with their lives following the completion of compulsory schooling. Drawing on data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England we use sequence analysis of monthly activity data to identify differences in the timing and sequencing of education and employment transitions. We identified six distinct pathways, differentiating between an academic track, three pathways involving further education and training, as well as a work-focused transition and a group of young people who were over a long period not in education or training (NEET). The findings suggest that not all young people are inclined to follow an academic track and instead select into pathways involving vocational training or further education, enabling them to experience competence and life satisfaction. For others (about one in 10), however, the lack of socioeconomic and psycho-social resources is too overwhelming and they encounter long-term experience of NEET or are not able to transform their educational credentials into employment opportunities. The findings highlight that in addition to considering structural constraints it is important to conceptualise the role of the agent for a better understanding of variations in youth transitions.
This paper examines how young people’s early transitions into the labour market have changed between cohorts born in 1958, 1970, 1980, and 1990. We use sequence analysis to characterise transition patterns and identify three distinct pathways in all cohorts. An ‘Entering the Labour Market’ group has declined significantly in size (from 91% in the earliest cohort, to 37% in the most recent), an ‘Accumulating Human Capital’ group has grown in its place (from 4% to 51%), but also a ‘Potential Cause for Concern’ group has grown alongside this, reaching 12% in the most recent cohort. These trends appear to reflect behavioural rather than compositional changes. Females and those who are from a non-white ethnic background have gone from being more likely to be in the ‘Potential Cause for Concern’ group, to being less likely. Coming from a low socio-economic status background has remained a strong predictor of having a transition of this type across all four cohorts. These early transitions are important, not least since we show they are highly predictive of longer-term outcomes.
This book offers insights into facilitating sustainable careers through the study of a wide interdisciplinary range of policy investigations and assessment of ongoing practices in the field. By assessing and comparing the transferability of policies and good practices between firms in ten countries and regions of the European Union this book considers the development of sustainable careers across the lifespan at the levels of individuals, organizations and systems. This book is the culmination of a research project from the international European Social Fund network on ‘Career and Age, Generation, Experience(AGE)’. It discusses and offers observations on key concerns at the European level: How to make people work longer, remain employable, develop sustainable competencies ? How to adapt the work environment and human resource management policies at employer’s level ? And finally, how can public authorities take measures and incentives to support sustainable careers for individuals?
We study the process by which employers evaluate and interpret information related to the educational background of job applicants
in simulated hiring contexts. We focus on England and the Netherlands, countries with very different education systems and
labor-market institutions. Using a vignette study, a quasi-experimental technique, we asked employers to rate a series of
résumés of hypothetical job applicants that randomly varied on a number of characteristics, including level of education,
field of study, grades, study delays, and internships. Our findings suggest that the informational value of these characteristics
varies across the two countries: English employers primarily sort applicants based on relative signals of merit such as grades,
in line with queuing theory; Dutch employers instead base their ratings on fields of study and occupation-specific degrees,
as predicted by human capital and closure theories. The findings from the vignette study are in line with results obtained
from a survey administered to the same employers, corroborating the research validity. This study brings the employers perspective
into a field that has mainly tested theoretical arguments about employers hiring behavior using employee data. From a theoretical
point of view, our approach nuances three well-known theories on the relationship between education and job assignment (human
capital, queuing, and closure theories), by specifying the scope conditions under which they are more likely to hold. We show
that the reason why education matters to employers and the way employers evaluate educational credentials during the hiring
process are conditional on institutions.
We study school-to-work-transition (STWT) patterns and early occupational attainment for five West German birth cohorts. Although these cohorts experienced very different macro conditions, their STWTs were facilitated by Germany's strong vocational education and training (VET) system. The main research question is whether linearity of STWTs differed across and within cohorts. Linearity concerns the normatively expected order of different activity statuses during this life phase. High linearity is ideal-typically defined as entering VET or tertiary education programs after leaving general education, followed by rather direct entry into employment. Non-linear patterns diverge from this ordering or may also include other status activities, like unemployment and inactivity. We use data of the Adult Starting Cohort of the German National Education Panel Study (NEPS) and employ sequence analysis and regression methods. Our analyses reveal that the proportion of young people experiencing the ideal-typical transition patterns increased over the cohorts. Yet, the degree of non-linearity (in terms of number of status activities and status shifts, and some non-employment experience) of these ideal-typical STWT patterns also increased over the cohorts. Moreover, we find strong differences between men and women in early occupational attainment. Higher-educated women in particular had higher risks of long-term disadvantage, whereas men were able to compensate for disadvantages by achieving higher educational attainment and establishing themselves more quickly in the labor market.
After the economic crisis of the 1980s, concerns arose about whether the high youth unemployment at that time would produce a ‘lost generation’ of young people in the Netherlands. The same concerns have recently arisen about the potential effects of the current high rate of youth unemployment. The issue is just how justified such concerns are. In order to answer this question, we investigated the permanence of initial labour market disadvantages for cohorts of young people in the Netherlands. Repeated cross-sections of the Dutch Labour Force Survey (1993-2011) were used and a synthetic cohort analysis was applied in order to ‘follow’ cohorts of young people throughout their early years on the labour market. Negative effects of high initial unemployment on later chances of work and attained level of occupation were detected. However, these negative effects started to dissipate after a few years on the labour market. These findings show the average negative effects of high initial unemployment on labour market entry to not be permanent: young people in the Netherlands experience negative effects of initially high unemployment on labour market entry, but these effects do not produce a lost generation.
Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 found that the average worker, approximately 5 years after leaving school for the first time, starts a job that will last 3 years; however, there was considerable variation by education.
In this study we investigated the moderating role of autonomy on the relationships between the Big Five personality dimensions and supervisor ratings of job performance. On the basis of data from 146 managers, results indicated that two dimensions of personality, Conscientiousness (r =.25) and Extraversion (r =.14), were significantly related to job performance. Consistent with our expectations, the validity of Conscientiousness and Extraversion was greater for managers in jobs high in autonomy compared with those in jobs low in autonomy. The validity of Agreeableness was also higher in high-autonomy jobs compared with low-autonomy ones, but the correlation was negative. These findings suggest that degree of autonomy in the job moderates the validity of at least some personality predictors. Implications for future research are noted.
This study examines the challenges that recent college graduates face in a hard-hit US region during the Great Recession. In their poignant and sometimes heartbreaking perceptions of their ‘biggest challenges,’ graduates vividly illustrate the negative implications of degree completion during the recession. Based on an analysis of both closed and open-ended survey data of Michigan's 2012 graduates, we find that women and first generation college graduates fare the worst in terms of their employment status, debt and income levels, and subjective assessments of job opportunities and financial stress. In contrast, men, especially those whose parents have at least a bachelor's degree, were more likely than their counterparts to report that their ‘biggest challenge’ since graduation was linked with making the transition into adult roles. Taken together, these findings suggest widespread difficulty after graduating from college during the Great Recession, and the ways in which these difficulties are linked with gender and class inequalities.
This article aims to improve our understanding about why and how individuals’ signals of cognitive and noncognitive skills
influence labour market outcomes. We study how employers use skills signals when hiring labour market entrants. These demand-side
microprocesses are investigated at the apprenticeship market in Germany, which functions as the main entry labour market below
tertiary-level education. Qualitative studies and personnel psychology research suggest multistage hiring processes. We concentrate
on the first stage at which employers narrow the applicant pools based on written application documents. Their information
is limited to applicants’ school reports—including their grades (as signals of cognitive skills) and teachers’ evaluations
of their behaviours (as signals of noncognitive skills). We conducted two linked field experiments, applying the correspondence
test method. Analysing the unbiased employers’ responses to randomly varied fictitious applicant profiles enables us to discover
whether, and if so how, applicants’ skills signals are used as ‘screens’ at the first selection stage. The experiments reveal
that both skills signals are important selection criteria, but employers prefer noncognitive skills signals. Moreover, the
findings confirm that firms use thresholds (cut-off values) for selection criteria instead of linear rankings.
This study connects different notions of employability with the ultimate aim to arrive at integration of a research field that has been criticized for being fragmented and fuzzy. We define employability as “an individual’s chance of a job in the internal and/or external labour market”. Employability research assesses employability differently, looking at the realization of this chance (i.e., job transitions), personal strengths that increase this chance (i.e., movement capital) and appraisals of this chance (i.e., perceived employability). We hypothesize and establish in a two-wave sample of 643 Belgian (Dutch-speaking) employees that these different notions of employability form a dynamic chain, so that job transitions promote movement capital, which then affects perceived employability and ultimately feeds back to job transitions. Furthermore, we found that the internal versus the external labour market are important foci in employability research since internal and external job transitions were found to relate differently to the other notions of employability.
This study, among 330 pairs of employees and their supervisors, tested whether self- versus supervisor ratings of five employability dimensions (occupational expertise, corporate sense, personal flexibility, anticipation and optimization, and balance) are associated with different learning characteristics in the workplace, and whether age moderates these relationships. Results of structural equation modelling showed that the learning value of the job positively related to both self- and supervisor ratings of corporate sense, personal flexibility, and anticipation and optimization. Applicability in the job of recently followed training and development programmes was associated with all dimensions of self-rated employability and with supervisor ratings of anticipation and optimization. Regarding the hypothesized age moderation effects, contrary to our expectations, it was found that both learning value and applicability of training and development related more strongly to self-rated anticipation and optimization for younger workers. In addition, age appeared to moderate the otherwise non-significant relationship between learning value and self-rated occupational expertise. Implications for Human Resource Development (HRD) practices are discussed. As learning characteristics are differentially related to the unique employability dimensions, tailor-made development programmes are key. Moreover, it is advocated that having a job with a high learning value is an important factor in the light of the employee’s sustainable employability
In this article, we study differences within the group of low-achieving school leavers, asking who among these disadvantaged youth is successful in entering vocational training in Germany, and why. We pay particular attention to the displacement mechanism by investigating under which conditions non-cognitive skills and personality traits are important for finding apprenticeships. Second, we specify how the mechanism of statistical discrimination works with regard to low-achieving youth. We use a unique set of German longitudinal data on school leavers who attended a lower secondary school (Hauptschule). Our main findings are non-cognitive skills, if observable before hiring, have a stronger impact on the training opportunities of less-educated youth than their grades in mathematics and German. Furthermore, extended internships completed while in school-and thus, employers' first-hand experiences with less-educated young persons-increase these youth's training opportunities.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and role of career boundaries for enabling/constraining career self-management (CSM) for occupational boundary-crossing in the UK graduate labour market (GLM).
Design/methodology/approach
– The data are provided by career history interviews with 36 UK graduates. The analysis contrasts transitions for those who started careers in low-, intermediate-, and high-skilled segments of the labour market.
Findings
– Availability of development and progression opportunities were the most prominent career boundary experienced. Ease of boundary-crossing differed by career stage and educational background. Boundaries enabled CSM by acting as psychological/external push factors, but push factors only aided progression to high-skilled segments for a third of graduates who started careers in underemployment. For the rest, an adaptation of expectations to labour market realities was observed.
Research limitations/implications
– Although career history interviews limit generalisability, they contextualise boundaries and deepen understanding of career actors’ subjective experiences and responses.
Practical implications
– The study highlights the role of labour market and demand-side constraints for career transitions as well as proactive career behaviours. This has implications for career counsellors, employers, and individuals.
Originality/value
– This paper provides a distinctive “boundary-focused” analysis of emerging career boundaries in the GLM. The findings point to the intricate interplay between structure and agency for career development.
This article examines the concept of career exploration in adult populations. In contrast to the prevailing positive view of career exploration, the authors present a more complex and balanced perspective of this process, addressing some of the barriers to career exploration and the applicability of this concept to different populations. They examine differences between voluntary exploration and forced or chance exploration, discuss how relationships may be barriers to exploration, consider various outcomes of career explorations, and call for a more holistic view of the individual in career counseling.
This study explores how patterns of institutional differentiation in higher education systems are linked to educational inequalities at the transition from higher education to work. We measure institutional differentiation within countries along two dimensions: degree level that mainly structures educational inequalities in occupational status attainment, and occupational specificity that mainly structures educational inequalities in labour market entry dynamics. We argue that convergence processes have lead to similar patterns of institutional differentiation in higher education across the five post-socialist Central- and Eastern European countries studied here. Educational inequalities at the transition from higher education to work should, therefore, also follow similar patterns across countries. Our empirical results show that degree level is a central determinant of occupational status in respondents' first job, with university master graduates reaching the highest occupational positions, followed by university bachelor and vocational college graduates. In terms of labour market entry dynamics, the slowest transitions into first employment are observed among graduates from least occupation-specific programmes, but overall the relationship between occupational specificity and labour market entry dynamics is more complex. Altogether, we find considerable similarities across countries in patterns of institutional differentiation and educational inequalities at the transition from higher education to work.
This study investigates perceived external employability (PEE) as a personal resource in relation to job
insecurity and exhaustion. We advance the idea that PEE may reduce feelings of job insecurity and, through
felt job insecurity, also exhaustion. That is, we probe the paths from PEE to job insecurity and from job
insecurity to exhaustion. We furthermore account for possible reversed causality, so that exhaustion => felt
job insecurity and felt job insecurity => PEE. This aligns with insights from the Conservation of Resources
Theory, which is built on the assumption of resource caravans passageways and associated gain and loss
spirals. We based the results on a sample of 1314 workers from two Finnish universities. Respondents
participated twice in the study with a time lag of one year. We found that PEE related negatively to felt
job insecurity and vice versa. Similarly, there was a reciprocal positive relationship between felt job insecurity
and exhaustion. We conclude that PEE may prevent feelings of insecurity and, through reduced job insecurity,
also exhaustion.
While previous research has examined the school-to-work transition of noncollege-bound youth, most have considered how a limited set of variables relate to job attainment at a single point in time. This exploratory study extended beyond the identification of constructs associated with obtaining a job to investigate how several factors, collected longitudinally in adolescence, related to employment stability and job quality with a diverse, nationally representative sample of non-college-bound youth. Logistic regression and structural equation modeling were used to determine the predictors of an adaptive school-to-work transition over time. Depression, substance use, adolescent educational attainment, and employment in adolescence were associated positively with obtaining employment. Adolescent educational attainment and employment in adolescence were associated positively with stability of employment. Depression, adolescent educational attainment, employment in adolescence, and income were positively associated with job quality. Substance use and parental education level were negatively associated with job quality.