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Students' perceived employability (SPE) can be seen as one of the indicators of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) quality. However, less is known about the determining factors of SPE in vocational education. As the founder of modern vocational education in China, Yanpei Huang has written a large volume on ensuring students' employability and the quality culture of TVET. Nowadays, as the feature and nature of TVET, university-industry collaboration (UIC) has been promoted worldwide. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the influence of quality culture from Yanpei Huang's perspective (YHQC) on the SPE and the UIC role in the relationship between YHQC and SPE in a TVET university in China. Data were collected by questionnaire from 341 students from one vocational education university in China. The questionnaire included measures of quality culture, perceived employability, and UIC. The Structural Equation Modelling by AMOS 25 was used to test the proposed hypothesis. The results indicate that YHQC acts as a significant factor in enhancing SPE, and UIC is found to act as a partial mediator in this relationship. This study has contributed to the literature and practices by presenting a comprehensive quality culture from Yanpei Huang's perspective, confirming the above relationship, and providing practical suggestions for stakeholders to develop a quality culture in TVET institutes, promote UIC, and enhance SPE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Psychological problems related to employment are among the most common psychological problems faced by rural college students. Employment stress is an important factor affecting the development of psychological health in employees; thus, reducing employment stress can improve the psychological state of employment. Objective: This study aimed to understand the potential profiles of employment stress among rural college students to determine the relationship between different profiles and employment psychology. Methods: This study was conducted in a higher education institution in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China between June and December 2023, and 249 rural college students participated. The Employment Stress Scale and Employment Psychology Scale were used to collect the data. Data were analyzed using latent profile analysis, independent sample t-tests, and binary logistic regression analysis. Results: The results showed that rural university students were categorized into low-level (49.80%) and high-level (50.21%) employment stress groups. There was a statistically significant difference between the employment psychology of rural college students in the low- and high-level groups (p < 0.001). Juniors/seniors were more likely to be classified in the high-level group (OR= 0.477, p = 0.011). Conclusion: Intervention programs should be developed and implemented to address the characteristics of employment stress among rural college students with different profiles to promote the healthy development of their attitudes toward employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the importance of emotional resilience in personal and professional success. It presents 11 papers that provide evidence-based insights on learning methodologies and teaching practices that promote emotional resilience. The articles discuss various resources that contribute to emotional resilience, including personal and organizational resources. The research emphasizes the significance of emotional resilience in enhancing wellbeing and employee performance. It also highlights the importance of decent work, team cohesion, and peer support in fostering resilience and reducing burnout. The text suggests that future research should focus on effective intervention strategies and expanding research across different fields and cultural contexts. [Extracted from the article]

Background: The goal of decent work (DW) is a win-win situation for both employees and employers. It promotes an individual's employability and enhances the competitiveness of the organization. Design: Based on the conservation of resources theory (COR), this paper conducted survey on knowledge workers and analyzed the data by hierarchical linear model (HLM). Research purposes: This paper aims to examine how decent work perception (DWP) influences employee innovation behavior through the mediating effect of job engagement and burnout and the moderating effect of authoritarian leadership. Findings: Based on the results of statistical analyses conducted on 489 valid knowledge workers, it was demonstrated that DWP positively influence employee innovative behavior. Job engagement has a full mediating effect on the relationship between DWP and employee innovative behavior. The study did not support the mediating effect of job burnout, however. There is a positive moderating effect of authoritarian leadership on the relationship between DWP and job engagement and a negative moderating effect on the relationship between DWP and job burnout. Implications: In addition to contributing to theoretical studies on DW and work behavior, this paper also contributes to practice on employee motivation and leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are blamed for being insouciant about the business world and not efficiently steeling students with employment abilities. As a reply to this exigency from business owners, HEIs have started to show commitment to graduate employability through developing and adopting new educational material, such Serious Games (SGs), to help students acquire these soft skills. This paper explores the students’ perceptions of the significance of SGs on soft skills and therefore boosting graduate employability. We carried out a quantitative and qualitative study with 322 students from business colleges in the aim to focus on the impact of user experience in SGs on critical thinking and teamwork. The results highlight the strong influence of SGs to acquire these soft skills.

Introduction: Both the Dutch and Chinese labor markets experience severe shortages of skilled personnel and high turnover rates, being distressing socio-economic factors. At the same time, large cross-cultural studies indicate that these national contexts are highly different from a socio-cultural perspective. When considering issues on employee development and retainment, the public debate opens for negative attributes as dark leadership, wondering if employees accept to be hurt. This study contributes to the employability research and, moreover, it contributes to the call for the ability to contextualize theories and to the convergence/divergence debate. We applied Western theories to investigate possible contextual differences in the relationships between learning climate facilitation and turnover intention, and to investigate whether this relationship is mediated by employability, and whether dark leadership is a possible moderator. Methods: To test our hypotheses, we collected data from 368 Dutch and 319 Chinese respondents who participate in an executive master's program, which was analyzed using PLS-Structural Equation Modeling. Results: Employees in the Netherlands and China were found to interpret our study variables differently. Separate analyses revealed that, in both contexts, learning climate facilitation was both directly and indirectly, via the balance dimension of employability, negatively related to turnover intention. In addition, in the Dutch sample, dark leadership appeared to weaken the relationship between learning climate facilitation and the corporate sense dimension of employability, but the latter did not seem to be a mediator in the relationship with turnover intention. In the Chinese sample, no moderation effects were found. Discussion: Our results show that both learning climate facilitation and dark leadership are important factors in the development and retainment of personnel and that particularly focusing on 'balancing group and individual goals' is important to retain personnel, regardless of national context. The latter may indicate the need for convergence of HR practices. At the same time, however, the different interpretations of the study's variables may indicate divergence in the meaning of HR concepts. In the discussion section, we elaborate on the study's implications for HR-researchers and -practitioners in national and global business contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Employability is a crucial factor in managing to emerge and changing job demands. This study validates an expanded version of the Employability Appraisal Scale: EAS-60, as an instrument to identify and improve competencies for employability. Method: The EAS-60 was tested in a cross-sectional study in a Spanish population. An exploratory study was carried out using a sample of 188 workers, and the scale's structure was analyzed and confirmed in two Confirmatory Factor Analyses using a sample of 527 workers. Finally, reliability and validity were evaluated. Results: Exploratory and confirmatory analyses provide evidence supporting the multi-dimensional structure. The scale presents good psychometric properties and criteria for interpreting the scores. Discussion: The EAS-60 is a reliable and valid instrument. It allows Human Resource Managers to offer career plans at work that include specific actions of job socialization, training, improvement of specific skills, etc. Furthermore, employees can increase their employability and develop their professional careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aimed to gain insight into (1) the dynamics of job characteristics (demands and resources) of nurses and (2) how job characteristics relate to nurses' ability and willingness to continue working (understood as employability). Job characteristics are profession-specific and vary over time, but studies often overlook these dynamics. Moreover, job characteristics relate to nurses' employability, which is under pressure due to a rapidly changing work environment. It is necessary to gain insight into the dynamic job characteristics of nurses to develop targeted workplace interventions that help nurses remain employable. Methods: This study adopted a mixed methods diary approach, with a strong emphasis on qualitative analysis. 46 Nurses from two hospitals in a large Dutch city completed a structured diary at six points over 3 weeks, resulting in 225 diary entries in total. The nurses used a custom-made application on their mobile devices to describe in their own words what they experienced as demanding and resourceful throughout the shifts and how they experienced their employability. Prior to the diaries, nurses completed an intake survey. Results: A within-person analysis highlighted the day-to-day dynamics in the nursing profession. The job characteristics a nurse mentioned in the first diary entry often were completely different from the job characteristics the same nurse mentioned in the other diary entries. This analysis also showed variety within nurses' employability, demonstrating that perceptions of employability vary over time. A between-person analysis highlighted links between job characteristics and nurses' employability: social interactions strengthen a nurse's employability, a strict task approach threatens it, and aspects such as a strong drive to care, professional development, and autonomy (clustered as aspects that enable to "act professionally") create opportunities to enhance employability. Conclusion: Insights from this study show that job characteristics typical to the nursing profession can be linked to nurses' perceptions of employability. Also, it stems from this research that not only job characteristics but also employability are dynamic in the short run. Understanding and enhancing employability in a nursing context requires capturing these dynamics, for instance by collecting data at several points in time or by using mixed-method studies to understand employability scores within their context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To cope with demands of working while studying, students must structure the boundaries between these roles (e.g., integrate or segment them) to suit their preferences and circumstances. However, students differ on how well they do this, and we do not yet understand the factors that contribute to managing work and study well. We sought to determine if different student groups existed and if the groups reported different work, study, and wellbeing outcomes. Using latent profile analysis and assessing work-study boundary congruence and flexibility (N = 808; 76% female; MAge 19.6 years), we identified four groups of (a) “balanced” (65.4%; with moderate boundary congruence and flexibility); (b) “high work congruence and flexibility” (17.5%; working arrangements supportive of study role); (c) “low work congruence and flexibility” (9.7%; unsupportive workplace arrangements); and (d) “low study congruence” (7.3%; study arrangements unsupportive of work role). These groups reported different work/study demands, role conflict, study burnout, and perceived employability, with “balanced” and “high work congruence and flexibility” groups scoring more positively and “low work congruence and flexibility” and “low study congruence” groups scoring more negatively. Results supported that different student groups existed, and these will need different supports to manage their multiple role responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The recent concept of sustainable employability (SE), which refers to being able and enabled to achieve valuable work goals, has lately attracted substantial attention in many developed countries. Although limited cross-sectional studies found that SE in the form of capability set was positively associated with work outcomes, why and through which mechanism SE is related to crucial work outcomes remains still unexplored. Therefore, the present three-wave study aimed to (1) investigate the SE-work outcomes linkage over time, and (2) uncover the psychological pathway between SE and two work outcomes (i.e., task performance and job satisfaction) by proposing work engagement as a mediator. Methods: To test the mediation process, we approached CentERdata to collect data among a representative sample of 287 Dutch workers. We used a three-wave design with approximately a 2-month time lag. Results: The results of bootstrap-based path modeling indicated that SE was a significant predictor of task performance but not job satisfaction over time. Work engagement mediated the relationships between SE and (a) task performance and (b) job satisfaction. Discussion: These findings suggest that organizations may foster workers' task performance and job satisfaction by configuring a work context that fosters SE-allowing workers to be able and be enabled to achieve important work goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study is based on dispositional (career motivation) and social-cognitive (generalized self-efficacy) theories of personality, further on the expectancyvalue theory of achievement motivation and future time perspective theory (task value, time, and study environment). The study aimed to explain the mechanism of the prediction relationship between motivation and students’ performance. It was assumed that skills of planning and organizing (operationalized as generalized self-efficacy and learning strategies) mediate the prediction of motivation (career motivation and task value) on students’ success (operationalized as academic achievement and employability). In two studies (N = 313, N = 219), the hypotheses of the mediation models were supported by structural equation modeling. Generally, the skills of organizing/planning fully mediated the students’ performance, measured as academic achievement and employability (number of employers). The results show the importance of combining dispositional motivation characteristics with dynamic planning skills on the way to students’ success. Traditional psychological predictors of performance, like general mental ability and conscientiousness, were not controlled. Higher education institutions could support motivated students on their way to success by teaching them how to plan and organize specific steps on their way to success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Policymakers, researchers, and practitioners have recently begun treating employability-an individual's ability to possess and continuously adjust and acquire up-to-date competencies, flexibility, adaptability, and openness to change-as crucial to enabling employees to respond to ubiquitous and rapid changes in organizations (e.g., changing tasks and work-related processes). Research into ways to enhance employability, particularly through supervisor leadership, which, for example, facilitates training and competence development, has thus grown in popularity. A review on leadership as an antecedent of employability is both evident and timely. This review thus addresses the question of whether a supervisor's leadership influences employees' employability, and in which contexts and through which mechanisms it does so. Methods: As preliminary study we conducted a bibliometric analysis (which corroborated employability's recent rise in popularity) and as main study we conducted a systematic literature review. For this, the authors independently searched for articles, which met the inclusion criteria and subsequently were included for full text analysis. The authors also independently used the forward and backward snowballing technique for identifying additional articles which met the inclusion criteria and subsequently were included for full text analysis. The procedure resulted in 17 articles in total. Results: Most of the articles identified positive relationships among several conceptualizations of supervisor leadership and employee employability, such as transformational leadership and leader-member exchange, and to a lesser extent, servant leadership and perceived supervisor support. This review suggests that such relationships occur across different work contexts, such as educational, SMEs, healthcare, and several other industries, and these contexts also vary geographically. Discussion: The relationships among supervisor leadership and employee employability are largely explained using a social exchange perspective, which means that the positive influence of leadership on employability is itself influenced by a two-way social exchange relationship between supervisor and employees. The quality of the dyadic relationship between leader and followers thus determines the extent to which leaders offer valuable resources such as training and feedback, which subsequently enhances employees' employability. This review demonstrates that investing in supervisors' leadership is a valuable HRM strategy that fosters employability, and it identifies practical implications that inform policy and practice and sets an agenda for future employability research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The objective of our study was to investigate how organizational learning climate (measured as developmental opportunities and team support for learning), career commitment, and age are related to employees' self-perceived employability, vitality and work ability (e.g., their sustainable employability). Our study adopted a P-E fit perspective building upon the notion that sustainable employability is a function of both the person (P) and the environment (E) and tests a three-way interaction between organizational learning climate, career commitment, and age. Design: In total, 211 members of the support staff of a Dutch university completed a survey. Hierarchical stepwise regression analysis was used to analyze the data. Findings: Only one of the two dimensions of organizational learning climate that we measured, namely the developmental opportunities, appeared to be associated with all indicators of sustainable employability. Career commitment only had a direct positive relationship with vitality. Age was negatively related to self-perceived employability and to work ability, but not to vitality. The relationship between developmental opportunities and vitality was negatively influenced by career commitment (a negative two-way interaction effect), while a positive three-way interaction effect was found between career commitment, age, and development opportunities, and with self-perceived employability as the outcome. Theoretical and practical implications: Our findings confirmed the relevance of adopting a P-E fit perspective on sustainable employability, and of considering the possible role of age in this. It requires more detailed analyses in future research to unravel the role of age in the shared responsibility for sustainable employability. In practice, the results of our study imply that organizations should provide all employees with a working context that facilitates learning, however, with a special focus on older employees, for whom it is a particular challenge to protect their sustainable employability, possibly due to age-related stereotyping. Originality: Our study adopted a P-E fit perspective on sustainable employability and examined the association between organizational learning climate and all three components of sustainable employability: self-perceived employability, vitality and work ability. Moreover, it investigated whether and how the employee's career commitment and age influence this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IntroductionBoth the Dutch and Chinese labor markets experience severe shortages of skilled personnel and high turnover rates, being distressing socio-economic factors. At the same time, large cross-cultural studies indicate that these national contexts are highly different from a socio-cultural perspective. When considering issues on employee development and retainment, the public debate opens for negative attributes as dark leadership, wondering if employees accept to be hurt. This study contributes to the employability research and, moreover, it contributes to the call for the ability to contextualize theories and to the convergence/divergence debate. We applied Western theories to investigate possible contextual differences in the relationships between learning climate facilitation and turnover intention, and to investigate whether this relationship is mediated by employability, and whether dark leadership is a possible moderator.MethodsTo test our hypotheses, we collected data from 368 Dutch and 319 Chinese respondents who participate in an executive master’s program, which was analyzed using PLS-Structural Equation Modeling.ResultsEmployees in the Netherlands and China were found to interpret our study variables differently. Separate analyses revealed that, in both contexts, learning climate facilitation was both directly and indirectly, via the balance dimension of employability, negatively related to turnover intention. In addition, in the Dutch sample, dark leadership appeared to weaken the relationship between learning climate facilitation and the corporate sense dimension of employability, but the latter did not seem to be a mediator in the relationship with turnover intention. In the Chinese sample, no moderation effects were found.DiscussionOur results show that both learning climate facilitation and dark leadership are important factors in the development and retainment of personnel and that particularly focusing on ‘balancing group and individual goals’ is important to retain personnel, regardless of national context. The latter may indicate the need for convergence of HR practices. At the same time, however, the different interpretations of the study’s variables may indicate divergence in the meaning of HR concepts. In the discussion section, we elaborate on the study’s implications for HR-researchers and -practitioners in national and global business contexts.

IntroductionEmployability is a crucial factor in managing to emerge and changing job demands. This study validates an expanded version of the Employability Appraisal Scale: EAS-60, as an instrument to identify and improve competencies for employability.MethodThe EAS-60 was tested in a cross-sectional study in a Spanish population. An exploratory study was carried out using a sample of 188 workers, and the scale’s structure was analyzed and confirmed in two Confirmatory Factor Analyses using a sample of 527 workers. Finally, reliability and validity were evaluated.ResultsExploratory and confirmatory analyses provide evidence supporting the multi-dimensional structure. The scale presents good psychometric properties and criteria for interpreting the scores.DiscussionThe EAS-60 is a reliable and valid instrument. It allows Human Resource Managers to offer career plans at work that include specific actions of job socialization, training, improvement of specific skills, etc. Furthermore, employees can increase their employability and develop their professional careers.

ObjectivesThis study aimed to gain insight into (1) the dynamics of job characteristics (demands and resources) of nurses and (2) how job characteristics relate to nurses’ ability and willingness to continue working (understood as employability). Job characteristics are profession-specific and vary over time, but studies often overlook these dynamics. Moreover, job characteristics relate to nurses’ employability, which is under pressure due to a rapidly changing work environment. It is necessary to gain insight into the dynamic job characteristics of nurses to develop targeted workplace interventions that help nurses remain employable.MethodsThis study adopted a mixed methods diary approach, with a strong emphasis on qualitative analysis. 46 Nurses from two hospitals in a large Dutch city completed a structured diary at six points over 3 weeks, resulting in 225 diary entries in total. The nurses used a custom-made application on their mobile devices to describe in their own words what they experienced as demanding and resourceful throughout the shifts and how they experienced their employability. Prior to the diaries, nurses completed an intake survey.ResultsA within-person analysis highlighted the day-to-day dynamics in the nursing profession. The job characteristics a nurse mentioned in the first diary entry often were completely different from the job characteristics the same nurse mentioned in the other diary entries. This analysis also showed variety within nurses’ employability, demonstrating that perceptions of employability vary over time. A between-person analysis highlighted links between job characteristics and nurses’ employability: social interactions strengthen a nurse’s employability, a strict task approach threatens it, and aspects such as a strong drive to care, professional development, and autonomy (clustered as aspects that enable to “act professionally”) create opportunities to enhance employability.ConclusionInsights from this study show that job characteristics typical to the nursing profession can be linked to nurses’ perceptions of employability. Also, it stems from this research that not only job characteristics but also employability are dynamic in the short run. Understanding and enhancing employability in a nursing context requires capturing these dynamics, for instance by collecting data at several points in time or by using mixed-method studies to understand employability scores within their context.

The study is based on dispositional (career motivation) and social-cognitive (generalized self-efficacy) theories of personality, further on the expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation and future time perspective theory (task value, time, and study environment). The study aimed to explain the mechanism of the prediction relationship between motivation and students’ performance. It was assumed that skills of planning and organizing (operationalized as generalized self-efficacy and learning strategies) mediate the prediction of motivation (career motivation and task value) on students’ success (operationalized as academic achievement and employability). In two studies (N = 313, N = 219), the hypotheses of the mediation models were supported by structural equation modeling. Generally, the skills of organizing/planning fully mediated the students’ performance, measured as academic achievement and employability (number of employers). The results show the importance of combining dispositional motivation characteristics with dynamic planning skills on the way to students’ success. Traditional psychological predictors of performance, like general mental ability and conscientiousness, were not controlled. Higher education institutions could support motivated students on their way to success by teaching them how to plan and organize specific steps on their way to success.

IntroductionPolicymakers, researchers, and practitioners have recently begun treating employability-an individual's ability to possess and continuously adjust and acquire up-to-date competencies, flexibility, adaptability, and openness to change-as crucial to enabling employees to respond to ubiquitous and rapid changes in organizations (e.g., changing tasks and work-related processes). Research into ways to enhance employability, particularly through supervisor leadership, which, for example, facilitates training and competence development, has thus grown in popularity. A review on leadership as an antecedent of employability is both evident and timely. This review thus addresses the question of whether a supervisor's leadership influences employees' employability, and in which contexts and through which mechanisms it does so.MethodsAs preliminary study we conducted a bibliometric analysis (which corroborated employability's recent rise in popularity) and as main study we conducted a systematic literature review. For this, the authors independently searched for articles, which met the inclusion criteria and subsequently were included for full text analysis. The authors also independently used the forward and backward snowballing technique for identifying additional articles which met the inclusion criteria and subsequently were included for full text analysis. The procedure resulted in 17 articles in total.ResultsMost of the articles identified positive relationships among several conceptualizations of supervisor leadership and employee employability, such as transformational leadership and leader-member exchange, and to a lesser extent, servant leadership and perceived supervisor support. This review suggests that such relationships occur across different work contexts, such as educational, SMEs, healthcare, and several other industries, and these contexts also vary geographically.DiscussionThe relationships among supervisor leadership and employee employability are largely explained using a social exchange perspective, which means that the positive influence of leadership on employability is itself influenced by a two-way social exchange relationship between supervisor and employees. The quality of the dyadic relationship between leader and followers thus determines the extent to which leaders offer valuable resources such as training and feedback, which subsequently enhances employees' employability. This review demonstrates that investing in supervisors' leadership is a valuable HRM strategy that fosters employability, and it identifies practical implications that inform policy and practice and sets an agenda for future employability research.

With the development of higher education, there are a large number of college graduates turn into the labor market, and college students’ employability has become a popular topic. In order to explore the factors that affect employability’s improvement and what factors employability includes, this article summarizes the previous research on employability, uses university graduates of Shaanxi Province as research examples, and investigates the employability factors of college graduates. With the help of SPSS software, data analysis is conducted on the 220 valid questionnaires. The study uses reliability and validity analysis to verify the quality of the questionnaire, takes the exploratory factor analysis to test the employability factors of college students, and employs multiple linear regression analysis to test the factors that influence employability’s improvement. The results of the research show that individual traits, social experience, and workplace training have a significant impact on college students’ employability; knowledge understanding and learning ability, self-management ability, emotional intelligence, generic skills, professional ability, and career planning capability are the important factors of the employability which college students should master. Our research results update the influencing factors of employability, so that contemporary college students have a new understanding of employability, and help them to improve their employability more pertinently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study aims to elucidate the employers' perspectives on the key generic employability skills which would enable them to seek graduate jobs and will ensure their professional wellbeing once they enter the job market after acquiring a University degree. Methods: In order to pursue this objective, an exploratory qualitative inquiry was deployed which involved two panel-based discussions. The respondents of each panel discussion were invited through the platforms of the Bahawalpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), and the Chamber of Commerce Rahim Yar Khan. These respondents represented Pharmaceuticals, Agrichemical manufacturers (fertilizers, pesticides), Livestock, Cotton, textiles, and apparel industry which are the main industries in Southern Punjab, Pakistan. Results and discussion: For the purpose of analysis, a thematic analysis was done in the context of grounded theory. Resultantly, the findings of the study reveal an employers' perspective on 10 key generic employability skills as must-have for a Pakistani Millennial graduate including various soft and hard skills, such as-Emotional Intelligence, Flexibility and Adaptability, Multitasking, Computer Literacy and Digital Skills, Information Literacy and Data Analytics, Oral and Written Communication in English and Urdu, Critical Thinking, Positive Politics, Work Ethics and Professionalism, and Commercial awareness. Hence, the study produces implications for the employability stakeholders, including government and academia for a much needed shift from a mere subject-based curriculum to a skill-oriented curriculum and training in the Universities, particularly in the region of Southern Punjab, and all across Pakistan as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research constructed a relationship model between human capital, social capital, and the employability of college students. With two moderating variables introduced, the perception reduction of employment opportunities under the COVID-19 epidemic and future career clarity, this research studied the direct impact of human capital and social capital on the employability of college students and boundary conditions. Research data from 810 employed Chinese college graduates shows that both human capital and social capital have a positive and significant impact on the employability; the perception reduction of employment opportunities under the COVID-19 epidemic negatively regulates the relationship between human capital and the employability of college students; the future career clarity positively regulates the relationship between human capital and the employability of college students; the perception reduction of employment opportunities under COVID-19 epidemic and the future career clarity jointly regulate the relationship between human capital, social capital and the employability of college students. These conclusions enrich the relevant theoretical and practical research on the employability of college students under the COVID-19 epidemic.

Employability is core to our understanding of career sustainability, and at an individual level, identifying the personal resources that support employability in the achievement of career success is warranted. This study builds on the conservation of resources theory, examining the role of employability as a mediator in the relationship between psychological capital and objective career success. To test our hypotheses, we utilised a context-specific practitioner sample of 135 individuals with UK-accredited occupational psychology qualifications. Employability was conceptualised using the competence-based model, underpinned by occupational expertise. Psychological capital and employability were measured using self-report questionnaires, whilst career success was determined via gross annual salary and practitioner status, ensuring objective measures of this outcome variable. Structural equation modelling identified that the relationship between psychological capital and objective career success was fully mediated by employability. These novel findings have important theoretical and practical implications for the role of psychological capital as a personal resource in achieving career success via its influence on employability.

In the Internet era, there is a mismatch between the skill demands of the IT industry in China and the employment prospects of computer science graduates. The COVID-19 pandemic has particularly highlighted co-existing challenges for industry recruitment and student employment. Many education institutions see IT skills training as a way to solve this conflict. The present paper employs a mixed methods approach to explore factors regarding computer science students' employability. The study used a questionnaire informed by an indepth literature review, full scale development theory and the theory of competency-based education. Reliability analysis and factor analysis methods were used to assess component reliability and structural validity. A total of 323 valid questionnaires were collected and subjected to mean and variance analyses to explore significant differences, including in terms of gender, in student employability. The results show that: (1) employability is divided into nine factors; (2) IT skills training can improve employability; (3) the employability level of computer science students who participate in IT skills training is high; (4) there are significant gender differences in professional ethics, scientific spirit and job-seeking skills, but no significant gender differences in humanistic qualities, computer cognition and operation skills, software design and development skills, system use and innovation skills, sustainable development capacity and teamwork skills. The identification of student employability factors can help education institutions to improve their training and can be used as a standard for students' self-evaluation and selfimprovement. The paper also provides suggestions for education institutions about how to set up IT skills training programmes to enhance students' future employment prospects in the IT industry.

Introduction: As the world is consistently driven by the infusion of newgeneration information technology and the knowledge economy, college students are placed under mounting pressure in developing occupation-related competencies. Their employability has been receiving growing concerns from stakeholders such as higher education institutions, governments, employers, parents, and even student groups themselves as it plays a decisive role in occupational success, social stability, and economic prosperity. Under the theoretical guidance of social cognitive theory, this study set out to investigate the cognitive and psychological mechanisms through which innovation capability, social adaptability, and self-efficacy influence the employability of college students. It also attempts to analyze the mediating role of selfefficacy in the relations between innovation capability, social adaptability, and employability which has been rarely studied in academia. Methods: A quantitative approach was employed in this study. Data was collected from 726 undergraduates from 9 higher education institutions in the mainland of China by questionnaire survey method. The research model showed a good fit (X2/df=4.46, RMSEA=0.069, SRMR=0.049, GFI=0.934, CFI=0.965, NFI=0.955, TLI=0.955). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to this study for data analysis. Results: The findings showed that innovation capability, social adaptability, and selfefficacy significantly and positively correlates with undergraduates' employability. University students with stronger innovation capability, social adaptability, and selfefficacy tend to be more employable in the job market. Model 4 of SPSS PROCESS Macro revealed that self-efficacy played a mediating role in the correlation between innovation capability, social adaptability, and employability. Discussion: Undergraduates with higher levels of innovation capability and social adaptability are more confident in their abilities to take specific actions and achieve expected goals, which in turn intensifies their employability. The study suggests the possibility of improving undergraduates' employability through positive interference of innovation capability, social adaptability, and self-efficacy in the era of information technology and knowledge-based economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore the role of digital education in the development of skills and employability for engineering students through researching the role of big data analytics courses. The empirical study proposes the hypothesis that both soft and hard skills have positive effects on human capital, individual attributes, and the career development dimensions of engineering students. This is achieved through constructing a framework of three dimensions of engineering students' employability and two competency development dimensions of big data analytics courses. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 155 college engineering students and a structural equation model (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. The results found that courses on big data analytics have a positive impact on engineering students' abilities in both hard skills (p <0.01) and soft skills (p <0.001) dimensions, while soft skills have a more significant impact on engineering students' employability. The study has practical and theoretical implications that further enriches the knowledge base on engineering education and broadens our understanding of the role of digitalization in enhancing the skills and employability of engineering students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employability of college students has been attached great importance by higher education institutions, employers, and governments because college graduates are the strategic human resource for the sustainable growth of universities, organizations, and countries across the world. It is also receiving growing attention from academic community. This study aimed to examine the psychological mechanism that impacts college students' employability. It adopted an empirical approach by collecting data from 646 final-year students from 9 universities in the mainland of China. SPSS 25.0 was used for description, correlation, and regression analysis. AMOS 24.0 was utilized for path analysis. Model 6 Bootstrap method of PROCESS Version 3.5 was adopted for mediation analysis. The results showed that achievement motivation positively predicted self-efficacy, academic performance, and employability among undergraduates. Participants' self-efficacy did not significantly impact their employability or play a mediating role in the relationship between achievement motivation and employability, while academic performance was a significant mediator of this association. Self-efficacy and academic performance served as chain mediators in the prediction of achievement motivation on college students' employability. After controlling gender and family residence, achievement motivation still had significant and positive impact on employability of college students. This research made several noteworthy contributions to the existing studies on college students' employability and provided insight for practitioners in strengthening their employability through these psychological constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education plays the role of cultivating talents in national development and meets the talent sources needed by the development of the state, industries and enterprises. Besides, for students, higher education can provide stimuli to improve the development of family and personal career. Especially for socioeconomically disadvantaged Students, higher education means the main factor for turning over the Socio- Economic Status. Universities endow students with abundant employment skills, so as to make them more confident in contending with the challenges in the job market. However, innate pessimism or negative attitudes and cognition may exist in socioeconomically disadvantaged Students, thereby providing effective learning context to improve their learning engagement. This study explores the influence on students’ career decision status from deep approach to learning, problem-based learning, self efficacy and employability. A total of 627 valid questionnaires are collected in this study. PLS-SEM was adopted to verify the structural relationship in data analysis via Smart PLS. The results indicate that deep approach to learning and problem-based learning have significant impacts on students’ self-efficacy and employability; self-efficacy has significant impacts on employability and career decision status; employability has significant impact on career decision status; and that self-efficacy and employability play significant mediating roles in the research framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that most employers prefer employing graduates with student leadership experience in colleges and most of the student leaders have sustainable development in their careers in China. Compared with students without leadership experience, student leaders are easier to get promotion and development opportunities in the workplace. To discuss this question, researchers chose employers, student leaders, and teachers as research participants in an effort to answer the question of why employers prefer graduates with experience being student leaders. This study focuses on what key competencies student leaders possess and how their competencies can match the capability requirement of employers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 outstanding student leaders, 4 class teachers, 2 student affairs administrators, and 8 human resource managers from two vocational colleges in Beijing. We find that student leaders have strong social competence, emotional competence, action competence, responsibility, and resilience which employers value and these competencies are essential to career development in the workplace. These competencies are considered to be helpful to support student leaders to adapt to the real work environment quickly and achieve career success.

This document is an editorial published in Frontiers in Psychology titled "Employment sustainability and teaching/learning techniques in higher education institutions." The editorial explores the intersection of education and employability in higher education institutions (HEIs) and aims to find sustainable solutions to bridge the skills gap and prepare graduates for the modern workforce. It emphasizes the importance of intercultural and interdisciplinary approaches in preparing graduates for a multicultural and rapidly changing job market. The editorial presents several articles that delve into various aspects of employment sustainability and teaching/learning techniques in HEIs, including re-entry experiences of professionals, reshaping the curriculum for industry-focused training, demographic migration of teachers, and the relationship between emotional intelligence and employability. The overall conclusion is that HEIs need to adapt and innovate in line with industry demands, embracing multicultural perspectives and developing both technical skills and emotional intelligence in graduates. The research topic serves as a guide for HEIs, policymakers, and industry stakeholders to nurture a skilled and culturally aware workforce. [Extracted from the article]

This study examined the potential impacts of entrepreneurial leadership on followers’ psychological wellbeing and proactive work behavior through sustainable employability and work uncertainty in a sample of 218 employees employed in SMEs of Pakistan. Hierarchical regression results demonstrated that entrepreneurial leadership was positively connected with sustainable employability and negatively linked with work uncertainty. Sequentially, sustainable employability was positively correlated with proactive work behavior and employees’ psychological wellbeing, and work uncertainty was negatively associated with proactive work behavior and employees’ psychological wellbeing during the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, bootstrapping confirmed the mediation effects of work uncertainty and sustainable employability on proactive work behavior and the psychological wellbeing of employees. Sustainable employability did not mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and psychological wellbeing. Mediators, sustainable employability, and work uncertainty positively linked employees’ psychological wellbeing and proactive work behavior. The results highlighted the significant roles of sustainable employability and work uncertainty and interpreted why entrepreneurial leadership may affect employees’ positive behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The job placement of persons with disability is often threatened by prejudices and stereotypes; even when they are employed, they have less qualified and less paid jobs. The aim of this study was to investigate the self-perceived employability in a sample of workers with disability, hypothesizing to find a good level of self-determination and positive meaning of work. Materials and Methods: Ten semi-structured interviews have been conducted, applying a mix-method to the data analysis through qualitative interpretation and quantitative content analysis. Results confirmed what recent literature shows about the need for job inclusiveness for persons with disability and also underlined a profound sense of satisfaction related to the job, strong identity, and empowerment derived from the job involvement. Conclusion: Practical implications are related to the job design procedure inspired by diversity management, in order to pay attention to every single diversity and ensure equity and inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundThe job placement of persons with disability is often threatened by prejudices and stereotypes; even when they are employed, they have less qualified and less paid jobs. The aim of this study was to investigate the self-perceived employability in a sample of workers with disability, hypothesizing to find a good level of self-determination and positive meaning of work.Materials and MethodsTen semi-structured interviews have been conducted, applying a mix-method to the data analysis through qualitative interpretation and quantitative content analysis. Results confirmed what recent literature shows about the need for job inclusiveness for persons with disability and also underlined a profound sense of satisfaction related to the job, strong identity, and empowerment derived from the job involvement.ConclusionPractical implications are related to the job design procedure inspired by diversity management, in order to pay attention to every single diversity and ensure equity and inclusion.

This study aimed to identify the capabilities of secondary school teachers – valued aspects of work that are enabled and can be realized – and investigate the effects of these capabilities on three functionings: flourishing at work, organizational citizenship behavior, and intention to leave. A convenience sample of secondary school teachers (N = 144) in the Gauteng province in South Africa participated in the study. The teachers responded to the Capability Set for Work Questionnaire, Flourishing-at-Work Scale – Short Form, Organizational Citizenship Behavior Questionnaire, and Intention to Leave Scale. The results showed that three capabilities were most likely to form part of the capability set of teachers: using knowledge and skills, building and maintaining meaningful relationships at work, and contributing to something valuable. Capabilities least likely to form part of the capability set included having a good income, involvement in important decisions, and developing knowledge and skills. The capability set was a strong predictor of emotional, psychological, and social well-being, and a moderate predictor of organizational citizenship behavior and intention to leave. A capability set for work, rather than single work capabilities, seemed to be critical for the sustainable employability of secondary school teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employability is an important indicator of the competency of the employees. Employability model is a useful analytical framework for studying the ever-changing relationship between higher education and the job market. At present, the demand for business English graduates is increasing, however, there is a skill gap between their educational readiness and the recruitment requirements. In order to solve this problem, this study adopted mixed methods research and carried out the research design according to the exploratory sequence design to construct an employability model for business English graduates. A 46-item scale was developed to measure the employability of business English graduates' employability. After assessment, it was found that the employability of business English graduates was multi-dimensional, with three dimensions—professional knowledge, generic competencies, and career management and 10 sub-dimensions—English language skills, foreign trade competencies, computer and internet application skills, social skills, learning and development, personal traits, thinking ability, work ethics, career identity and planning, and service awareness. This study verified that the employability of business English graduates reached the standard of talent training and met the requirements of employers. There were employability differences in gender, places of origin and educational institutions. From this study, it could be inferred that cultivation of business English majors should be multi-dimensional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the popularization of higher education and the promotion of college enrollment expansion, the number of college graduates increases sharply. At the same time, the continuous transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure put forward higher requirements on the employability of college students, which leads to the imbalance between supply and demand in the labor market. The key to dealing with employment difficulties lie in the improvement of college students' employability. Therefore, we make a regression analysis of 263 valid samples from universities in Anhui Province and extract the factors that influence the improvement of college students' employability in the process of talent cultivation in university. The result shows that there is a positive correlation between course setting, course teaching, club activities, and college students' employability, among which the course teaching and club activities are the most critical factors which may influence college students' employability. In addition, from the viewpoint of individual college students, the overall grades of college students and the time of participating in the internship are also closely related to their employability, i.e., college students with good overall grades and long internship time should also have stronger employability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employability is an important indicator of the competency of the employees. Employability model is a useful analytical framework for studying the ever-changing relationship between higher education and the job market. At present, the demand for business English graduates is increasing, however, there is a skill gap between their educational readiness and the recruitment requirements. In order to solve this problem, this study adopted mixed methods research and carried out the research design according to the exploratory sequence design to construct an employability model for business English graduates. A 46-item scale was developed to measure the employability of business English graduates’ employability. After assessment, it was found that the employability of business English graduates was multi-dimensional, with three dimensions—professional knowledge, generic competencies, and career management and 10 sub-dimensions—English language skills, foreign trade competencies, computer and internet application skills, social skills, learning and development, personal traits, thinking ability, work ethics, career identity and planning, and service awareness. This study verified that the employability of business English graduates reached the standard of talent training and met the requirements of employers. There were employability differences in gender, places of origin and educational institutions. From this study, it could be inferred that cultivation of business English majors should be multi-dimensional.

Although previous research shows that general self-efficacy is related to employability, the mechanism of them is unclear. Thus, this study aims to explore the relationship between general self-efficacy and employability, examines the mediating role of achievement motivation and career aspirations among financially underprivileged college students in China. The analysis of 651 participants (59% female, 41% male) from six provinces indicates that general self-efficacy positively predicts employability through the mediating chain of achievement motivation and career aspirations. Based on these findings, the researchers propose feasible suggestions for related issues of financially underprivileged college students and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employability is a vital aspect for human development in career fields. In order to explore the factors affecting the employability of finance and trade graduates in higher vocational colleges, the researchers focused on human development in educational settings and conducted a piece of quantitative research within nine higher vocational colleges. The study uses descriptive statistical analysis to demonstrate the sample structure, using t -test, rank sum test, and chi-square test to assess the variables. It also adopts exploratory factor analysis to identify the classification of both educational practice and employability. Then, a multivariable linear regression model was adopted to examine the relationships between three main factors as well as the employability and career development of finance and trade graduates. The findings imply that the soft skills and basic skills of finance and trade college graduates have immensely improved through educational practice; graduates with high motivation for learning could enhance their soft skills and more internships or club engagement brings stronger professional skills. Based on these results, higher vocational colleges, enterprises, policymakers, teachers, and finance and trade graduates will benefit from the findings related to the reform of educational practice for strengthening graduate employability and human development. The originality of this paper is the conceptual evolution of finance and trade college graduate employability, as well as the empirical analysis on educational practice, student engagement, and family background affecting their human development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has led to the closure of schools and universities, which forced students to reorganize their daily and academic lives. The pandemic has thus impacted the well-being of students in various ways. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the perceived employability, self-efficacy, ambition, organizational commitment, and career planning of students, as well as mental well-being, student engagement, and academic burnout during the pandemic. A total of 269 Italian university students participated in an online questionnaire. Our results highlight that students experienced high levels of uncertainty about their employability and career planning. In contrast, however, they reported healthy levels of mental well-being and student engagement, high career ambitions, and strong self-efficacy, despite the impact of COVID-19. We suggested that intervention and supportive programs should be offered to students over the long term in order to minimize the negative impact of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Status incongruence resulting from a supervisor who is younger than their subordinate potentially leads to age stereotyping of employees. This article investigates the relationship between age difference and supervisory ratings of five competence-based measures of subordinate employability (Occupational Expertise, Anticipation/Optimisation, Personal Flexibility, Corporate Sense, and Balance). In addition, we consider the buffering role of a supportive learning context which allows older workers access to learning resources. Learning context is represented by duration of the supervisory relationship, perceived organizational learning climate and participation in, and application of, training and development. Using 295 dyads of employees and their direct supervisors in a Dutch building company, findings show that age dissimilarity reflecting status incongruence was related to lower supervisory ratings of Occupational Expertise (job-related competence) and Corporate Sense (social/organizational competence) regardless of learning context. Longer duration relationships exacerbated, rather than buffered, the age difference effect on some types of supervisory ratings. The implications of these findings for age stereotyping with regard to employability are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing demand by society that university students demonstrate competitive skills to enable them to achieve greater success when entering the workplace. Creativity and life satisfaction correlate positively with academic performance, productivity, and excellence in the working environment. The presence of creativity and emotional intelligence in the curriculum and teaching methods in Spanish universities, however, is surprisingly lacking. Studies that examine gender differences in these variables provide conflicting results. The purpose of our research is to analyse the changes produced in both creativity and life satisfaction in university students by a positive emotional and creative intervention and explore individual differences by gender. The methodology used was a quasi-experimental pre- test/post- test design with experimental/control groups. Three hundred university students (23% men and 77% women) from the Community of Madrid (Spain) completed three exercises that evaluated creativity and life satisfaction. The results show significantly higher results in creativity and life satisfaction in women, who continued to achieve high results after the intervention. Finally, we discuss the need for emotional and creative education in universities and focus on the employability and the guarantee of equal opportunities through the development of these competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employability is a vital aspect for human development in career fields. In order to explore the factors affecting the employability of finance and trade graduates in higher vocational colleges, the researchers focused on human development in educational settings and conducted a piece of quantitative research within nine higher vocational colleges. The study uses descriptive statistical analysis to demonstrate the sample structure, using t-test, rank sum test, and chi-square test to assess the variables. It also adopts exploratory factor analysis to identify the classification of both educational practice and employability. Then, a multivariable linear regression model was adopted to examine the relationships between three main factors as well as the employability and career development of finance and trade graduates. The findings imply that the soft skills and basic skills of finance and trade college graduates have immensely improved through educational practice; graduates with high motivation for learning could enhance their soft skills and more internships or club engagement brings stronger professional skills. Based on these results, higher vocational colleges, enterprises, policymakers, teachers, and finance and trade graduates will benefit from the findings related to the reform of educational practice for strengthening graduate employability and human development. The originality of this paper is the conceptual evolution of finance and trade college graduate employability, as well as the empirical analysis on educational practice, student engagement, and family background affecting their human development.

Although previous research shows that general self-efficacy is related to employability, the mechanism of them is unclear. Thus, this study aims to explore the relationship between general self-efficacy and employability, examines the mediating role of achievement motivation and career aspirations among financially underprivileged college students in China. The analysis of 651 participants (59% female, 41% male) from six provinces indicates that general self-efficacy positively predicts employability through the mediating chain of achievement motivation and career aspirations. Based on these findings, the researchers propose feasible suggestions for related issues of financially underprivileged college students and future research.

There is an increasing demand by society that university students demonstrate competitive skills to enable them to achieve greater success when entering the workplace. Creativity and life satisfaction correlate positively with academic performance, productivity, and excellence in the working environment. The presence of creativity and emotional intelligence in the curriculum and teaching methods in Spanish universities, however, is surprisingly lacking. Studies that examine gender differences in these variables provide conflicting results. The purpose of our research is to analyse the changes produced in both creativity and life satisfaction in university students by a positive emotional and creative intervention and explore individual differences by gender. The methodology used was a quasi-experimental pre- test/post- test design with experimental/control groups. Three hundred university students (23% men and 77% women) from the Community of Madrid (Spain) completed three exercises that evaluated creativity and life satisfaction. The results show significantly higher results in creativity and life satisfaction in women, who continued to achieve high results after the intervention. Finally, we discuss the need for emotional and creative education in universities and focus on the employability and the guarantee of equal opportunities through the development of these competencies.

Status incongruence resulting from a supervisor who is younger than their subordinate potentially leads to age stereotyping of employees. This article investigates the relationship between age difference and supervisory ratings of five competence-based measures of subordinate employability (Occupational Expertise, Anticipation/Optimisation, Personal Flexibility, Corporate Sense, and Balance). In addition, we consider the buffering role of a supportive learning context which allows older workers access to learning resources. Learning context is represented by duration of the supervisory relationship, perceived organizational learning climate and participation in, and application of, training and development. Using 295 dyads of employees and their direct supervisors in a Dutch building company, findings show that age dissimilarity reflecting status incongruence was related to lower supervisory ratings of Occupational Expertise (job-related competence) and Corporate Sense (social/organizational competence) regardless of learning context. Longer duration relationships exacerbated, rather than buffered, the age difference effect on some types of supervisory ratings. The implications of these findings for age stereotyping with regard to employability are considered.

We describe how idiosyncratic deals (I-deals), in this case I-deals focused on workers' employability enhancement, can serve as a powerful strategic HR tool for simultaneously meeting both the strategic goals of employers and the career goals of employees. Building on a sustainable career perspective, I-deals are interpreted as highly valuable, as they can help individual employees to more easily adapt to the fast-changing environments that nowadays characterize society and the labor market. After theoretical outlines on the concepts of I-deals and employability, we argue that I-deals can form the basis for integrative employment relationships aimed at employability enhancement. This article concludes with concrete recommendations for practice, indicating that in order to enable the sound use of I-deals as a strategic HR tool, organizations should discuss I-deals and employability openly through constructive dialogue. Moreover, examples for achieving this through specific practices, such as working with employability coaches and world cafés on employability, are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that most employers prefer employing graduates with student leadership experience in colleges and most of the student leaders have sustainable development in their careers in China. Compared with students without leadership experience, student leaders are easier to get promotion and development opportunities in the workplace. To discuss this question, researchers chose employers, student leaders, and teachers as research participants in an effort to answer the question of why employers prefer graduates with experience being student leaders. This study focuses on what key competencies student leaders possess and how their competencies can match the capability requirement of employers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 outstanding student leaders, 4 class teachers, 2 student affairs administrators, and 8 human resource managers from two vocational colleges in Beijing.We find that student leaders have strong social competence, emotional competence, action competence, responsibility, and resilience which employers value and these competencies are essential to career development in the workplace. These competencies are considered to be helpful to support student leaders to adapt to the real work environment quickly and achieve career success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]