Going beyond “Getting a Job”

Bridgstock, Ruth; Grant-Iramu, Michelle; Bilsland, Christine; Tofa, Matalena; Lloyd, Kate; Jackson, Denise

doi:10.1163/9789004418707_008

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…This interplay is underscored by a recent study [32], which highlights the crucial role of employability promotion in diversity management strategies to foster job inclusiveness. Moreover, employability also includes the dimensions of adaptability [33,34], career identity [35,36] and human and social capital [37][38][39]. Adaptability involves the ability to adapt to unexpected tasks and changes, including the propensity to learn, optimism, openness to change, and internal locus of control.…”

Section: Theoretical Framework: Employability and Sense Of Agencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging the Gap between Theoretical Learning and Practical Application: A Qualitative Study in the Italian Educational Context

Fantinelli,

Cortini,

Di Fiore

et al. 2024

Education Sciences

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In the contemporary educational landscape, there is a growing recognition of the transformative impact of practical experiences within traditional learning frameworks. This shift reflects a pedagogical evolution that values contextualized learning and the acquisition of practical skills together with theoretical knowledge. In the Italian educational context, School–Work Alternation (SWA) represents a proactive response to the evolving needs of the workforce and the imperative for educational institutions to prepare students for professional life. This study’s objectives include a deep exploration of students’ SWA experience, evaluating its impact on employability perceptions and the sense of agency, examining the influence of Self-Orientation, and contributing insights to the discourse on integrating practical experiences in education. Employing a mixed methodology and a bottom-up approach, 63 high school students of different Italian regions participated in an online in-depth interview and an ad hoc questionnaire designed to measure the experience of SWA in relation to variables of interest, utility, advantage, perception of support, quality of received mentoring, engagement, and satisfaction. The quantitative results indicate that personal choice significantly influences the perceived usefulness of and satisfaction with SWA, with those students guided by curiosity exhibiting higher utility and satisfaction. Qualitative analysis underscores both positive and negative aspects, with respondents viewing SWA as a useful experience bridging work, corporate, and school realms provided that students are key players in the SWA experience’s choice and that the SWA’s partners are motivated to guide them in this practical training. Moreover, results highlight SWA’s relevance in guiding academic and career paths, emphasizing its potential to offer valuable support to students. This study contributes nuanced insights into integrating practical experiences in education, offering recommendations for educators and policymakers to better prepare students for the dynamic demands of the modern job market.

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Section: Theoretical Framework: Employability and Sense Of Agencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging the Gap between Theoretical Learning and Practical Application: A Qualitative Study in the Italian Educational Context

Fantinelli,

Cortini,

Di Fiore

et al. 2024

Education Sciences

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“…Phenomenon-wise, this is shown in forms that vary across time and space, for example, the changing and complicated information about the job market, the individual differences in interpreting these signals caused by diversities in the social, cultural, and economic background, and the activities that interact with the mix of the above. Therefore, the individual's lived experiences interacting with the contextual components [36] would feel less like a clearly-routed movement to a clearly-identified destination, in which employability is about clarifying the target and persists through obstacles by gaining the needed employability attributes [37]. Rather, such a journey is perceived more as a short-sighted person fumbling in a misty wilderness, facing an emerging journey from beyond the known and anticipatable realm [15,36].…”

Section: Employability As a Process: An Emerging Journey Through The ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the individual's lived experiences interacting with the contextual components [36] would feel less like a clearly-routed movement to a clearly-identified destination, in which employability is about clarifying the target and persists through obstacles by gaining the needed employability attributes [37]. Rather, such a journey is perceived more as a short-sighted person fumbling in a misty wilderness, facing an emerging journey from beyond the known and anticipatable realm [15,36]. The destination of this journey, in this case, is increasingly self-defined by the internalised reference system of the individual.…”

Section: Employability As a Process: An Emerging Journey Through The ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, career identity is changed by the lived experience of processual employability behaviours [36] and, therefore, the final result of processual employability. During their engagement with the IWI, individuals enact their career identity by conducting processual employability behaviours, which creates the social interactions they live in [32,52].…”

Section: Career Identity: the "Alpha And Omega" Of Processual Employa...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Employability Is a Journey: Conceptualising Processual Employability as a Career Identity Emergence Process

Zhang

Brewer

2023

Education Sciences

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This paper aims to conceptualise processual employability with identity theory to reflect the amorphous and developmental nature of employability. Through literature review, we propose a model demonstrating how the career identity emergence process is linked with processual employability behaviour through four stages of identity change: Identity Enactment, Identity Validation, Identity Construction, and Identity Exploration. Each stage is driven by the tension between the individual’s current career identity and the experienced social interactions with a changing Individual–World of Work Interface, which eventually constitutes an iterative process of employability suitable for the individual career context. It thus clarifies how the pursuit of an achieved career identity drives processual employability in a fast-changing social context and provides a holistic view of employability as a journey of identity changes. This review responds to the call for integrating developmental and sustainable views into employability and also enriches identity-based employability theories.

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“…Stories of employability are commonly expressed as past-behaviour narratives that exemplify an individual's skills and attributes as fit for vocational requirements (Ng et al, 2021). These employability stories embody an individual's capabilities, professional identity and human capital indicative of work readiness and future potential (Benati and Fischer, 2021;Bridgstock et al, 2019;Jackson, 2016;Rae, 2007;Monteiro et al, 2019;Tomlinson, 2017;Winterton and Turner, 2019). The most classic occasion that demands such stories of employability is the selection interviews, where the candidate's behaviours and experiences are scrutinised.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stories of employability: improving interview narratives with image-supported past-behaviour storytelling training

Lin-Stephens

Manuguerra

Tsai

et al. 2022

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PurposeStories of employability are told in employment and educational settings, notably the selection interviews. A popular training approach guiding higher education students to construct employability stories has been the past-behaviour storytelling method. However, insufficient research exists regarding the method's effectiveness and optimisation. This study examines whether the method (1) increases the quantity and quality of interview narratives in story forms and (2) can be enhanced by image stimuli.Design/methodology/approachIn a double-blind randomised control trial with repeated measures, participants submitted four weekly interview narratives. After receiving past-behaviour serious storytelling training in Week 3, they were randomly allocated to an exposure group using images and a control group using keywords as a placebo to continue producing interview narratives. The interview narratives were assessed based on the number of stories and quality ratings of narrative conformity, relevance and conciseness. Results before and after the training, and with and without the image stimuli, were analysed.FindingsTraining increased the number of stories. Training and repeated practice also increased narrative quality ratings. However, the image-based intervention was the strongest predictor of improved quality ratings (effect size 2.47 points on the observed scale of 0–10, p < 0.01, 95% CI [1.46, 3.47]).Practical implicationsA pre-existing ability to tell employability stories cannot be assumed. Training is necessary, and intervention is required for enhancement. Multi-sensory narrative interventions may be considered.Originality/valueThis study is the first known double-blind randomised control trial with repeated measures evaluating if storytelling training and image stimuli improve interview narratives.

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Going beyond “Getting a Job”

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Bridging the Gap between Theoretical Learning and Practical Application: A Qualitative Study in the Italian Educational Context

Bridging the Gap between Theoretical Learning and Practical Application: A Qualitative Study in the Italian Educational Context

Employability Is a Journey: Conceptualising Processual Employability as a Career Identity Emergence Process

Stories of employability: improving interview narratives with image-supported past-behaviour storytelling training

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