Background: Individuals pursue teaching careers for numerous reasons, such as for instrumental or prosocial purposes. Aims: This study examined the personal (instrumental motivation) and social (prosocial motivation) utility of teaching as predictors of teaching quality in terms of clarity of instruction, classroom management, and cognitive…

Insufficient access to specialised career development within many rural, regional and remote (RRR) areas contributes to persistent differences in the higher education participation rates of young people from these areas. This paper reports on research conducted with 4,993 students at a university in Western Australia who self-assessed their…

This study reports the findings from a survey of 201 recent teacher education graduates from a university in the north-western United States of America regarding the factors that influenced their decision to take a teaching position in a rural or urban community following graduation. Results indicate that an in-depth rural practicum experience,…

This study examines the influence of career management competencies and perceived employability on career choice status (CCS) among undergraduates. Making informed and appropriate career choices is positively linked with well-being, work performance and academic and career success. Early career decision-making is now critical if students wish to…

While research on adolescent occupational expectations is voluminous, it either ignores students who do not report any career plans or imputes their answers. Consequently, little is known about the potential consequences that not having clear occupational expectations in adolescence might have for educational and occupational attainment in young…

Skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are promoted by the Australian government as pivotal for Australia's economic prosperity. Research on equity groups suggests that group membership is associated with several factors linked to 'leakage' from the STEM pipeline of school, university and transition to work. In this…

Professional staff total approximately 23% of staff in universities in the UK, which in 2014/15 was the equivalent of 95,870 individuals (hesa.ac.uk). With their increasing span of responsibility, it is surprising that there has been little research into the careers of these staff. This study, part of a larger careers study, highlights some key…

Early career academics (ECAs) represent the future of the academic workforce, but competition and career uncertainty is resulting in disengagement and burnout. In professions outside academia, increased engagement is associated with perceived organisational support and fair recognition and rewards, as well as opportunities to meet basic…

Two alternative versions of a model of the cognitive decision-making processes of gifted and talented adolescents associated with occupational or career indecision were tested in this study. A psychometrically rigorous survey instrument was used to collect data from 664 adolescents attending three academically selective high schools in Sydney,…

Although the gender gap in non-compulsory science attracts much attention, few studies compare factors that shape it at subsequent life stages. Here, a life-course approach is used to examine the gender gap in science career expectations at ages 16, 23 and 26 for a recent student cohort. Then, a decomposition is applied to assess what share of the…

The authors surveyed 130 first-year university students (80% female; mean age 20.5) and assessed (a) the level of career compromise they reported between their ideal and enrolled university programs, (b) their career-related strategies, (c) their perceptions of employability, and (d) their career-related distress. The authors tested a model that…

The present article reports on research conducted to identify profiles of psychological resilience using factor mixture models. We also examine gender as a predictor of resilience profile membership and career optimism, academic satisfaction, and psychological well-being as outcomes of profile membership. Based on resilience data from university…

We analyse the relationship between job search and over-education for recent Australian bachelor degree graduates using data from the 2011 Beyond Graduation Survey. Results from panel estimation suggest that jobs found through university careers offices are associated with lower probability of over-education relative to jobs found through…

Recently, students' interest in science has been conceptualized as a network model: the science interest network model (SINM) in which affective, behavioural and cognitive components interact together; building on science interest being a dynamic relational construct. In the current study, we combine the Australian Programme for International…

Between 1983 and 1993, grade 7/8 to grade 12 apparent retention rates more than doubled and secondary schools developed vocational education and training (VET) programmes as alternative pathways through secondary school. Previous research indicates that participation in VET programmes is associated with having low-educated parents and/or attending…