Research on work readiness indicates employers are increasingly pointing out that soft skills are as important as discipline specific knowledge and technical skills when hiring recent university graduates. However, many university students think excellent grades are the main reason they get the jobs. The disconnect between what employers expect…

The importance of generic skills for life scientists is commonly recognised by employers, graduates, and higher education institutes. As it remains unclear which generic skills are relevant for different life sciences career paths, this study aims to give an overview to inform and inspire universities and students, by analysing 179 Dutch…

Purpose: Our work adds to the debate regarding higher education graduates' skills required in the labour market in Germany and beyond. Design/methodology/approach: Using Q-methodology and the accompanying narrations, we explore German employers' and employees' views (N = 26) on characteristics required at the entry level. Findings: Our findings…

Purpose: Recent graduates are an important source of talent among hired employees as they bring up-to-date knowledge into the organisation. Yet, organisations have difficulties retaining them and recognizing factors influencing their voluntary turnover, which may differ from those influencing voluntary turnover among tenured employees. For…

Graduate employability plays a critical role during job recruitment and selection. Practical experience provides a strong foundation from which sport management graduates can signal their employability. Our Australian-based mixed-method study explored signals that managers seek from sport management graduate-entry applicants during job recruitment…

Higher education institutions are expected to improve the employability-related outcomes of their graduates. Previous assessments of graduate employability have largely focused on assessing the quality of a graduate's first career-related position after graduating, referred to as their first destination, under the assumption that graduates who…

This article explores utilizing a post-graduation success lens to help community college leaders frame the challenges of achieving equitable improvement for their students. Specifically, it posits that providing and exploring customized labor market data presented in an accessible format can help institutional leaders provide a "true…

The paper examines how individual motivations, the role of the supervisor and gender influence the early career path of doctorate holders. We investigate PhD graduates' occupational outcomes beyond academia in the framework of current literature on the oversupply of PhD holders and labor market constraints. Our analysis relies on two unique…

Persistent concerns about college graduates' foundational skills for workforce preparedness compels educators to continue exploring ways to address them. Although effective communication is widely regarded as essential for entry-level professionals, which skills matter most may vary. Employers' satisfaction with communication skills also shifts…

The shortage of qualified administrators who can utilize data analytics means that institutions are not able to harness data analytics to its fullest potential in order to remain competitive in a higher education market that continued to reward institutions that embrace entrepreneurship. Examining how new student affairs professionals in US higher…

This study contributes theoretically and empirically to our understanding of students' transition from work placement to the graduate labour market, by exploring earning differentials due to heterogeneous job transitions. We developed a theoretical framework that underpins the relationships between work placement, job transition and graduate…

Background: Work-related learning is particularly important at the start of graduates' careers. Preparing students for work-related learning is a chief aim of higher education, demonstrating its relevance when investigating the transition to work. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the role of personal factors for work-related learning during…

The agricultural industry is demanding a skilled workforce. Leadership is often identified as a desired employability skill but understanding the relationship between leader and follower during the leadership process in agricultural contexts is limited. The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand how employers contextualize the follower…

The purpose of this research is to measure the impact of data literacy on psychological empowerment in workplace for newly employed graduates. Since data play an increasingly important role in our lives, including the work environment, it incites research on whether data literacy skills, those related to collecting, processing, analyzing, and…

Several studies show that while collegiate sales programs effectively prepare students for sales careers, there are various opportunities to improve. In this research, we look at how sales education impacts the career preparedness of recent 4-year college graduates. We focus specifically on the development of self-leadership and sales-related…