Learning Workers: Young New Zealanders and Early Career Development

Abstract

Young adults' early career development is an increasingly important field of inquiry. With the complexity of modern transitions from school and the lifelong learning demands of emerging knowledge societies, governments are concerned to improve learning pathways into, and through, tertiary education and work. Young adults are exploring new learning and work possibilities and understanding these create a challenge for governments trying to validate their experiences and enhance their employability. This paper draws on integrated qualitative and statistical cluster analyses of young New Zealanders' narratives about navigating learning and work. It draws out theoretical and policy implications, suggesting that work life learning in and outside the workplace is a key feature of young adults' lives, though it is experienced differently by different groups. These experiences need to be taken into account in government policy as the value of providing a range of different learning settings, and of learning as necessarily lifelong, features increasingly in those policies-albeit in a fairly narrowly defined way. Youth Transitions to Work in New ZealandGovernments around the world are concerned with young people's transition from schooling, particularly their successful integration into the workforce and early career development. Their concerns are framed by the "increasingly indeterminate" start and end points of transition (Raffe 2001), the multi-directional as well as linear movement involved, and the different markers for, and forms of, adulthood (Arnett 2006). These transitions are also framed by a growing acknowledgement that people Vocations and Learning (2010) 3:157-178

Learning Goal Orientation and the Development of Perceived Employability of Young Workers

“…They perceive and then pursue more learning opportunities, which may make them feel and become more employable. In other words, we assume that workers with a higher work-related learning goal orientation have a higher PE and will develop it at a faster pace (Vaughan, 2010). This aligns with the agentic and protean career idea that presents PE as a resource that can be accumulated (e.g., Hobfoll et al., 2018; Van Hootegem et al, 2019; Vanhercke et al, 2015).…”

“…First, the protean career is value-driven : Individuals strive to achieve subjective career success (Heslin, 2005; Segers et al., 2008). The development of PE is a signal of subjective career success, particularly for younger workers (Arnold & Cohen, 2008; Vaughan, 2010). Perceiving increasingly more job opportunities signals one’s worth in the labor market and is entirely part of crafting a sustainable career (De Cuyper et al, 2008).…”