Channelling employability perceptions through lifelong learning: an empirical investigation

Abstract

PurposeGraduates' attitudes towards learning, although subject to change, is a crucial indicator of their understanding and involvement in lifelong learning activities. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether lifelong learning enhances human capital worth to predict perceived employability. An enquiry into the attitudinal differences on lifelong learning among male and female students was also looked into.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical examination using Warp-PLS was conducted on the propositions among 286 engineering graduate students in Kerala, India, from January 2020 to March 2020.FindingsThe Warp-PLS examination reveals a positive association between lifelong learning and perceived employability and warrants the mediating role of lifelong learning in the association between human capital and perceived employability. A gendered variation on attitudinal differences towards lifelong learning is also looked into, and no difference between males and females is found.Originality/valueThe impact of lifelong learning on employability has been conceptually discussed before. This paper is the first attempt to empirically prove the same with a proper theoretical explanation.

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A Qualitative Assessment of Community Learning Initiatives for Environmental Awareness and Behaviour Change: Applying UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Framework

“…Ref. [ 45 ] also argued that human capital is the total accumulation of an individual’s social, academic, psychological, market and internal value capital. As discussed, university students, under the guidance of teachers and leaders, voluntarily confront ESD issues in the space of mutual learning in the ‘public living room’ and participate in the process of proposing guidelines for action and solving problems.…”

Effects of career development learning on students’ perceived employability: a longitudinal study

“…The notion of human capital — as developed by Schultz ( 1961 ) and elaborated by Becker ( 1964 ) — can be considered to refer to the sum total of resources that an individual accumulates in various ways to secure future monetary and nonmonetary returns (Nimmi et al, 2021 ). This notion assumes that people invest in themselves to enhance their value, hence developing their employment prospects (Cai, 2013 ) and improving their position in the labour market (Shivoro et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Among various such approaches, a focus on capital -such as human capital (Schultz, 1961) has been widely adopted to understand the resources that are necessary to promote graduates' career readiness (Wallis, 2021). Human capital theory implies that education is a form of individual investment aimed at obtaining explicit returns regarding the individual's career path, with the purpose of ensuring that individuals, by investing in their education, develop their human capital to increase their competitiveness in the labour market (Cai, 2013;Nimmi et al, 2021). The literature on human capital in the context of employment has often considered the consequences of this factor, such as employability (Caballero et al, 2021;Donald et al, 2019) and career success (Frederiksen & Kato, 2018), but has appeared to give only limited attention to the means by which human capital is developed (Islam & Amin, 2022).…”