Evaluation of the Hope of Employability in STEM and Non-STEM Students of Higher Education in Ecuador

Abstract

At the end of each semester, higher education students graduate hope to obtain a job opportunity due to the development of skills during their education. However, this is not a guarantee for obtaining a job. According to research, there are external and internal factors that make it possible to overcome the barriers to finding a job. All the same, research on the internal components that influence the process of overcoming labor barriers is scarce, so this study sought to validate the Employment Hope Scale model developed by Hong et al., (2012). As sample, university students from a prestigious University of Ecuador who were about to graduate were taken. These graduated students have different job expectations depending on the type of career, so a distinction was made between the STEM and Non-STEM careers. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis was performed to measure the components. Despite the similarity between the self-assessments, significant differences are found in one of the self-esteem items between the students of the STEM and Non-STEM careers.