Abstract
This chapter addresses the micro-level of graduate employability, the level of the students and graduates. The concept of self-perceived employability is defined. Perception depends on aspects that include more than formal education: in particular, sociological research has advanced understanding of how the labour market, as a construct of individuals, is perceived subjectively by those preparing for or seeking work. Also, the perception of one’s employability is conditioned by one’s awareness of the global and the local labour markets, and of the channels to access work, which vary according to the work sector or type of company.
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Notes
- 1.
The term is accredited to Strauss and Howe (2000).
- 2.
- 3.
According to Pew Research Generation Z is from 1997 to 2012 (https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/); following Seemiller and Grace (2016), the same gathers born between 1995 and 2010.
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Also, Seemiller and Grace (2016) point out this characteristic, which might depend on the fact that this generation saw their parents struggling for jobs during the economic crisis.
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Job search theories have been popular since the 1970s, replacing the neoclassical labour supply theory, which was based on the assumption that there was no way for anyone actively looking for a job to remain jobless; therefore, the individual could be employed or inactive—unemployment was not included. Job search models are based on the assumption that “looking for a job is a dynamic sequential process and that individuals have to decide when to stop this process under conditions of uncertainty and imperfect information. Frictional unemployment is a natural outcome of this process” (Faggian 2014, p. 60).
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https://www.qtafi.de/cheers-european-graduate-survey.html. The study included surveys in Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.
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Eurostat table “Young temporary employees as percentage of the total number of employees, by country of birth [yth_empl_050], age class: 15-29”
- 12.
Involuntary part-time employment refers to those who work part-time because they could not find full-time work (Eurofound 2016).
- 13.
Eurostat table [yth_empl_080]: Involuntary part-time employment as percentage of the total part-time employment for young people by sex and age https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=yth_empl_080&lang=en
- 14.
“Atypical work refers to employment relationships that do not conform to the standard or ‘typical’ model of full-time, regular, open-ended employment with a single employer over a long time span. […] Atypical work includes part-time work, temporary work, fixed-term work, casual and seasonal work, self-employed people, independent workers and home workers. Although the number of workers in non-standard employment has grown significantly over the past two decades, these workers continue to be regarded as being in ‘atypical’ employment” (Eurofound, https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/atypical-work).
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Paviotti, G. (2020). Students and Graduates. In: ‘Regional Universities’ and Pedagogy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53680-0_6
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