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Article
Publication date: 9 May 2016

Phan Vo Minh Thang and Winai Wongsurawat

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key determinants of employability of information technology (IT) graduates in Vietnam and examines their impact on self-perceived…

1156

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key determinants of employability of information technology (IT) graduates in Vietnam and examines their impact on self-perceived employability and the duration of the job search.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on data collected from the responses to an online survey from more than 500 IT graduates from different higher education institutions in Vietnam. Employability, its outcome and its key determinants were integrated into one model. Exploratory factor, confirmatory factor and path analyses were conducted to test the model by means of structural equation modeling.

Findings

The self-perceived employability of IT graduates in Vietnam was determined by graduates’ English language skills, soft skills, adaptability skills, the quality of the institution’s IT program and job seeking efforts. Results also indicated that work experience, professional competencies and employability made the job search duration shorter, but job seeking efforts made job search duration longer.

Research limitations/implications

Only determinants from individual and institutional aspects were considered, and the sample was also limited to one profession in one country.

Practical implications

Results can inform students and educators about the improvable areas of employability enhancement.

Originality/value

This study fills a gap in the employability research by providing a quantitative explanation about relationships among the employability, the job search duration and their key predictors from different aspects.

Details

Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, vol. 6 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-3896

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 March 2017

Rupali Singh, Ginni Chawla, Sonal Agarwal and Avani Desai

The purpose of the paper is to explore the antecedents of employability from the employer’s perspective to provide sustainable employment and to develop a measurement scale.

1119

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to explore the antecedents of employability from the employer’s perspective to provide sustainable employment and to develop a measurement scale.

Design/methodology/approach

In the study, the survey-based approach has been adopted. The authors developed an instrument following extensive literature review and further pre-tested the instrument with experts drawn from the academics. The data collection was monitored following Dillman’s (2007) total design test method. Finally, 114 usable responses were collected. The data were further tested for normal assumptions. Orthogonal and parsimonious constructs were derived following exploratory factor analysis, and the construct validity was checked using confirmatory factor analysis.

Findings

The following antecedents of employability were obtained: innovative skills and innovative abilities along with the knowledge, innovative abilities, personality factors, career-building traits, emotional intelligence and efficacy beliefs.

Research limitations/implications

The authors observed that the present study like other survey-based research has its own limitations. Currently, cross-sectional data were used, which inherit some serious limitations like endogeneity and common method bias. However, utmost care was taken to minimize the effects of endogeneity and common method bias using some suggested measures in the existing literature.

Social implications

The findings and conclusions are expected to aid students, academicians and practitioners in developing an understanding of employability. Moreover, these antecedents can be developed in graduates along with their higher education as per the requirements of the industry.

Originality/value

This paper is an attempt to develop a scale for measurement of employability in the education sector.

Article
Publication date: 14 September 2023

Syed Muhammad Irfan, Faisal Qadeer, Muddassar Sarfraz and Mohammed Khurrum Bhutta

This paper explores critical job resources (CRJRs) as predictors of job crafting and sustainable employability. Using job demands-resources (JD-R) theory as a theoretical lens…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper explores critical job resources (CRJRs) as predictors of job crafting and sustainable employability. Using job demands-resources (JD-R) theory as a theoretical lens, the authors examine how job crafting mediates CRJR and sustainable employability and whether work uncertainty as a boundary condition further strengthened these associations using moderated mediation approach.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used a cross-sectional time-lagged research design by collecting data from 483 knowledge workers in Pakistan's healthcare and universities, both public and private. The authors used structural equation modeling using AMOS 25.0 software to examine the proposed relationships’ mediation, moderation and moderated-mediation processes, such as Hayes (2018) process models 1,7,14 and 58. In addition, the authors tested a structural model with self-developed estimands instead of using process macros available in SPSS by computing variables.

Findings

The results of this study confirmed that CRJR predicts job crafting and employees' sustainable employability. Furthermore, comprehensive testing suggested that mediation of job crafting between CRJR and sustainable employability further strengthened in the presence of a boundary condition of work uncertainty.

Originality/value

The study uncovers CRJR (job, organizational, social and relational) as a predictor of job crafting. The authors suggest that job design integrating CRJR helps organizations and managers promote job crafting and make employees responsible for their sustainable employability. The proposed CRJR has not been used as a predictor of job crafting, and no such study tested CRJR as a predictor of sustainable employability. The authors made comprehensive testing to examine the boundary condition of work uncertainty while examining the CRJR and sustainable employability relations via job crafting.

Details

Career Development International, vol. 28 no. 6/7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1362-0436

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 June 2007

Eduardo Tomé

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the determinants of employability in Portugal.

1344

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the determinants of employability in Portugal.

Design/methodology/approach

Calculations were made using official data for 1991, 1994 and 1997 on education, skills and tenure, and on 1990, 1991, 1996 and 1997 regarding training.

Findings

High skills, high levels of education and high levels of tenure seem to generate employability in Portugal. However, it was also found in Portugal that low skills, low education and low levels of tenure also generate employability, indicating that Portugal has a very dual labour market. Furthermore, in what concerns training, the public sector and the private sector seem to be complementary: when the investments are publicly financed they generate more employability, while privately funded investments tend to be a way of substituting untrained workers with trained ones.

Research limitations/implications

The concept of employability used is linked to the growth of employment by sub‐sector of activity. This is a considerable limitation, but it was not possible to obtain better data, given that the study uses published data. A more detailed analysis is under way, using unpublished company‐based data, provided by the public authorities.

Practical implications

First, the Portuguese authorities should try to help the establishment in the country of companies that might extract returns from the skilled, educated and experienced workers that exist. Those actions would improve the employability of the HR possessors. Second, the Portuguese authorities should continue to support the investments in education and in training. That support would generate a form of Welfare State in which the public presence is considerable, far away from the liberal guidelines and ideas that tend to marginalize the public actions in the social domain.

Originality/value

The paper tries to apply the concept of employability to a country, and this is seldom the case in HRD studies, due mainly to lack of data.

Details

Journal of European Industrial Training, vol. 31 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0590

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 May 2021

Nimmi P.M. and Zakkariya K.A.

This paper aims to examine how the indicators of perceived employability in the current career context impact employees well-being on the backdrop of conservation of resources…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine how the indicators of perceived employability in the current career context impact employees well-being on the backdrop of conservation of resources theory. The study also examines whether the underlying mechanisms towards employee well-being vary as a function of gender.

Design methodology approach

Research data are gathered from a sample of 421 software engineers in private information technology companies in India. Structural equation modelling (SEM) using IBM-AMOS was conducted to examine the impact of protean attitude and employability culture on employee well-being and the mediating mechanism.

Findings

Empirical analysis using SEM unravelled that perceived employability played a vital role as a mediator of employability culture, protean attitude – well-being relationships, confirming the underlying mechanisms of this association.

Originality value

The study specifically examined the modern age indicators of employability perception amongst Indian software engineers and their impact on employee well-being.

Details

Journal of Asia Business Studies, vol. 15 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1558-7894

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 June 2019

Luminita Nicolescu and Ciprian Nicolescu

This paper aims to present a model of the employability confidence of graduates using employability skills. The purpose of the study is twofold: to identify to what extent…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present a model of the employability confidence of graduates using employability skills. The purpose of the study is twofold: to identify to what extent self-perceived employability skills (input employability) influence the employability confidence of students/graduates (output employability) and to identify if there are determinant relationships between categories of employability skills.

Design/methodology/approach

The researchers for this study built and tested an employability confidence model which included seven constructs. Six focussed on employability skills “professional skills, transferable individual skills, transferable social skills, personal qualities, job seeking skills and corporate work-related skills”, while the last one focussed on employability confidence, seen as the students’/graduates’ self-reliance for getting and maintaining a job. The model was refined using structural equation modelling (with SmartPLS 3 SEM software) and was tested by empirically, analysing a sample of participants studying business.

Findings

The results illustrated that four categories of skills (personal qualities, professional skills, job seeking skills and transferable social skills) have a positive and significant influence on students’/graduates’ employability confidence, while individual transferable skills and corporate-related skills do not have a significant influence on employability confidence.

Research limitations/implications

The study contributed to the exiting literature by proposing a new model and measurement instrument that links input employability (individual employability skills) with output employability (employability confidence). The model emphasizes the complete range of individual employability skills, the types of skills that are in the control of the individual. It also contributed by collecting data from a less studied country and region, Romania, that can be considered relevant for Central and Eastern Europe due to similar economic, political, cultural and historical characteristics.

Practical implications

From a practical point of view, the results can be of interest to individuals, to universities and the teaching staff, to organizations and their human resource specialists, and to public administrators, as they all can act to support the development of individual employability skills, thereby helping to increase the employability confidence of individuals.

Originality/value

The study contributed to the exiting literature not only by proposing a new conceptual model to analyse employability confidence but also by collecting data from a less studied region, Romania, that can be considered relevant for Central and Eastern Europe due to similar economic, political, cultural and historical characteristics.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 48 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 December 2019

Oluyomi Susan Pitan and Colette Muller

To a prospective employee, self-perception is a vital component of employability; to better understand employability, an exploration of this essential component and its…

1042

Abstract

Purpose

To a prospective employee, self-perception is a vital component of employability; to better understand employability, an exploration of this essential component and its determinants is required. Besides investigating students’ perceptions of their likelihood of success in the graduate labour market, the purpose of this paper is to examine the main influence of gender and field of study and the interaction effects of these two independent variables on students’ self-perceived employability (SPE).

Design/methodology/approach

Data for the study were collected from a sample of 402 final-year students, at two universities in South Africa using an adapted questionnaire. The 402 students comprised of 203 from University A and 199 from University B. In total, 166 were males and 236 females while 104 were from Management Studies, 102 from Education, 72 from Law and 124 from Science and Agriculture. The three stated hypotheses for the study were analysed using factorial ANOVA (2×4) and the Bonferroni post hoc multiple comparison test.

Findings

The main effects of gender and field of study on SPE are both significant, but the interactions between them are not. Male students were found to demonstrate a higher level of SPE. For field of study, Education students demonstrated the highest level of SPE.

Originality/value

The study shows that students, particularly those in their final year, may perceive themselves to be more employable, due to increased awareness of their improved human capital. In addition, both gender and field of study are important attributes affecting students’ SPE. The variations in SPE are indicative of students’ understanding and awareness of labour market realities, offering several implications for universities and all stakeholders of graduate employability.

Details

Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-3896

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 November 2020

John Aliu and Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of university and construction industry collaborations (UIC) activities in developing the employability of built environment…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of university and construction industry collaborations (UIC) activities in developing the employability of built environment graduates.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopted a quantitative approach wherein data was obtained from professionals across academia, construction industry and government establishment within the South African built environment. A total of 204 questionnaires were administered to these professionals to provide information regarding the subject matter under question. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was adopted to examine possible relationships among identified factors that were obtained from a review of extant literature. SEM was performed using analysis of moment structures (AMOS Graphics, version 26) in testing the model and a best-fit was achieved after various model selections and validation tests were conducted.

Findings

The final model revealed that graduate employability can be improved through UIC as effective university-industry linkages provide students with mentoring opportunities and exposure to relevant training which improves their job market prospects and ultimately increases their professional relevance in the long run.

Practical implications

To continuously enhance the employability of students before graduation, universities are required to foster collaborations with the industry as such linkages are critical to the development of the future custodians of the construction industry.

Originality/value

There have been several generalized statements as to which of the UIC activities contribute to graduate employability. Therefore, through the use of SEM using AMOS, it was possible to state precisely the UIC constructs that are statistically significant and contribute to graduate employability.

Details

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology , vol. 19 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1726-0531

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 February 2024

Jorien Louise Pruijssers

In a rapidly changing career landscape where lifelong job security is no longer guaranteed, this study investigates how audit firms play an important role in shaping their…

Abstract

Purpose

In a rapidly changing career landscape where lifelong job security is no longer guaranteed, this study investigates how audit firms play an important role in shaping their employees’ career perceptions and the subsequent effects on auditor behavior. Specifically, it explores the link between audit firms’ career development initiatives and auditors’ perceptions of external employability – an important determinant of auditor behavior. Using the framework of social exchange theory, the study investigates how perceived external employability affects both relational and operational behaviors of auditors.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs structural equation modeling on survey data from 359 auditors.

Findings

The results indicate that when audit firms actively support career development, it positively contributes to auditors’ perceived external employability. A higher perceived external employability, in turn, leads to positive behavioral outcomes among auditors, including stronger relational behaviors (such as professional commitment) and operational behaviors (including heightened professional skepticism and reduced behaviors that could compromise audit quality).

Originality/value

This study uncovers a paradox where perceived external employability, typically viewed as a risk, emerges as a potent driver of desirable auditor behavior. In today’s dynamic career landscape, emphasizing individual-centered and flexible careers, these results highlight the benefits of perceived external employability. Rather than undermining audit services, increased perceived external employability driven by firm investments in auditors’ careers acts as a catalyst for desirable auditor behavior. Organizational support in terms of career development practices creates an environment where auditors are more committed, professionally skeptical and uphold the quality of audit services.

Details

Journal of Accounting Literature, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-4607

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 28 June 2011

Sandra Hill

This study explores the role of social capital in the development of employability skills and attributes of first-generation undergraduate students in a business school.The…

Abstract

This study explores the role of social capital in the development of employability skills and attributes of first-generation undergraduate students in a business school.

The research, based on the reflections of graduates, examines the impact of social capital on participation in higher education and investigates the conditions within the learning environment, which enhance or inhibit the development of bridging and linking social capital, as students connect with networks within the institution and with the wider business community.

The findings suggest that the ability to recognise and activate bridging and linking social capital is an important determinant of employability. The analysis illustrates that when students have opportunities to connect with and work within a variety of networks, they build a range of employability skills and capabilities, particularly the interpersonal and social skills valued by employers.

Students, who are confident and have the necessary skills to participate in a variety of networks within the immediate environment and with the wider business community, are not only able to access a greater range of resources but are more able to recognise the potential benefits that these activities have to offer. The reflections of the participants also illustrate that the skills and competencies that enable them to network effectively need to be developed deliberately. By supporting students in recognising the relationship between bridging and linking social capital and employability, and giving them the opportunity to reflect upon the achievement of interpersonal skills and affective capabilities, their understanding and acknowledgement of employability is enhanced.

Details

Institutional Transformation to Engage a Diverse Student Body
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-904-3

Keywords

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