Perceived Employability of Nonlocal Chinese University Students in Hong Kong

Abstract

Perceived employability has been found to be related to the career development and well-being of both working adults and university students. In a first initiative to examine perceived employability among nonlocal Chinese university students, we collected data from a sample of 246 graduating students who had come from Mainland China to study in Hong Kong. After controlling for demographic variables and migration intentions, we found that perceived employability was explained by career exploration, relational support, acculturative hassles, and the assimilation strategy of acculturation. Career exploration was also found to mediate the relationship between the assimilation strategy of acculturation and perceived employability. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory building and career guidance practices regarding the perceived employability and career guidance of nonlocal and international Chinese students.

The route to employability: a longitudinal study on a sample of Italian job seekers

“…These findings stress the differences in the predictors of employability for individuals in employment and those unemployed. Whilst in the case of young students the relational support has a positive impact on the perceived employability (Cheung et al, 2018;Gunawan et al, 2020), these findings show that family support becomes less fruitful for the unemployed. This also shows that the mechanisms through which potential predicting factors behave might be different in the case of unemployed individuals compared to the employed population.…”

“…Several studies suggested that organizational support has a positive impact on employability (De Vos et al, 2011;Nauta et al, 2009) consistently with the proximal environmental resources category of career success predictors proposed by Spurk et al (2019). Whilst social support from significant others such as teachers and peers was proved to impact perceived employability (Cheung et al, 2018), the family support for employability remains an underexplored area of study. In this paper, we examined family support for employability operationalised as the individuals' perception of the support provided by the family as a resource to deal with the challenges faced in their professional life.…”

“…The economic situation is significantly impacting employability as individuals exposed to a more stimulating work environment reported higher employability, as well as individuals living and working in metropolitan areas. Other literature models highlight the importance of situational factors (Hogan et al, 2013;McQuaid & Lindsay, 2005) as antecedents for perceived employability (Cheung et al, 2018). Employability culture can be defined as the support offered by organizations to stimulate the orientation towards employees' employability, by developing flexible skills, the ability to adapt to changes, and the willingness to perform different tasks and roles (Nauta et al, 2009).…”

“…Until now, there has been little empirical research addressing this model, and further evidence is being called for (Lo Presti et al, 2019). Moreover, despite being acknowledged as critical for individuals seeking employment (Berntson et al, 2006), employability has been mainly investigated in the context of employees (Kirves et al, 2013;Van der Heijden et al, 2009) and students (Cheung et al, 2018;Gunawan et al, 2020;Herbert et al, 2020). Employability is rarely researched in relation to more disadvantaged groups, such as the unemployed (Arendt et al, 2020;Cheng et al, 2020).…”

The Only Constant Is Change? Movement Capital and Perceived Employability

“…The perception of being employable, coined perceived employability , has particular resonance for individuals: It is increasingly advanced as the new employment security mechanism (Dries et al, 2014) through increased career control (De Cuyper et al, 2008). Although the construct of perceived employability and its outcomes have been well established in recent years, much less is known about its antecedents (for an exception, see Cheung et al, 2016). In all, the question of how perceived employability can be enhanced therefore remains largely unanswered, while the importance for individuals in the volatile labor market remains.…”