The way ahead for the employability agenda in higher education

Employment Outcomes of Higher Education Graduates from during and after the 2007–2008 Financial Crisis: Evidence from a Romanian University

“…Other means for increasing students' resilience to adverse macro-level factors should be established, and these means consist in the enhancement of the students' capabilities, even since during their university years, by equipping them with the competencies needed to access and to adapt to the ever-changing labor market conditions. Such capabilities, sometimes referred to by other authors as "career competencies" [52], or "career readiness" [5], should include at least two categories: (1) work-related competencies, which can be developed through specialized internships in partnership with potential employers, and (2) personal competencies for lifelong learning, which are needed to ensure a suitable development and adaptation of the person in the long term. These competencies have the potential to boost employability and engagement, and thus increase the resilience of graduates in their confrontations with various setbacks or career shocks [53].…”

“…Researchers in the field argue that higher education institutions have a crucial role in the development of these capabilities among graduates [5] and further analyses and inquiries into how this role is fulfilled now and how it can be improved in the future are certainly of use to policymakers, employers, graduates, and universities themselves as well.…”

“…Negative macro-level circumstances may affect employment outcomes not only directly, but also indirectly, by shaping the persons' future plans and projections regarding their careers. For example, perceived employability, the individuals' level of trust in themselves to find and keep employment [5], has been linked by many authors with the individual's level of satisfaction with their employment and overall life situation [28,29], and was identified as an important personal resource in managing the university-to-work transition, especially under critical circumstances [30]. Previous studies have shown that a high level of insecurity about one's employability can be generated by exposure to previous situations of unemployment (such as those encountered by many graduates during the financial crisis) and can continue to affect the individual long after the unemployment period has ended, which has been labeled as a "scarring" effect [28,31].…”

“…The fulfillment of this promise brings with it prestige and authority for the higher education providers. Consequently, graduates' employability is commonly used as an indicator in the assessment of the quality of higher education programs in various countries [3][4][5] and the labor market outcomes of university graduates stand out as an important topic for higher education research and policy [3,5,6]. Authors in this field use two main frameworks when assessing the labor market outcomes of university graduates: (1) a quantitative one, referring to their employability, assessed via their employment rate [2,7], and (2) a qualitative one, referring to the quality of the jobs secured by the graduates, assessed via various objective characteristics, such as the salary level, the type of contract, or the horizontal matching of the job with the field of study [8,9], as well as subjective ones, such as perceived employability and perceived career success [10].…”

“…The theoretical perspectives involved in approaching the topic of graduate employability and employment outcomes need to be both contextual and relational [5].…”