Keywords

1 Introduction

Presently, many organizations are going through a lot of changes brought using Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and automation [32] to streamline businesses and improve productivity. With automation and AI implementations, today’s workforce is experiencing significant disruptive shifts, with new roles being created, and other jobs and tasks being eliminated. The changes are impacting more employees at the non-supervisory and junior levels of the workforce.

In fact, organizations are now embarking on upskilling/reskilling initiatives for their employees and focusing more on those unique human cognitive capabilities that machines simply cannot master. Emotional intelligence (E.I.) skills are the one area that neither A.I. nor automation can easily reproduce. In fact, A.I. and automation will lead to a considerable increase in E.I., especially in sectors of the economy in the UAE such as service, banking, retail, and manufacturing. These organizations are now more than ever very keen on identifying links between personality traits and professional success.

Moreover, environmental factors, the COVID-19 pandemic, brought attention to the importance of mental health and Emotional Intelligence in maintaining a productive workforce. Organizations have been identifying solutions to challenges posed by COVID-19 and transforming themselves to reduce the gap in the required skills. In higher education, for example, universities adopted innovative approaches in instructional delivery, and teaching and learning to answer the needs for online course delivery while providing opportunities to improve mental health resilience and adaptability.

The capacity to receive emotions, simulate emotion-related feelings, understand the information of those emotions, and manage them is one definition of what has been termed Emotional Intelligence [22]. This form of intelligence has been the subject of many studies related to the workplace and particularly leadership qualities. It seems reasonable then to investigate the influence E.I. has on the performance effectiveness of especially fresh graduates and young professionals, and whether this contributes to their professional success. There is certainly enough evidence to investigate further the link between human skills, adaptation, and professional success.

In an ongoing HCT-funded research project [10], the researchers have developed a series of localized bilingual surveys used to assess the E.I. skills of students and faculty at the HCT Dubai Colleges. The skills in E.I. are important to know how to interpret our emotions to communicate with all stakeholders. In fact, having E.I. skills is especially important not only in education, but equally important in pursuing careers and seeking success and achievements. In fact, these skills can help them deal with challenges faced in changing working environments and needs in knowledge and skills. In Bouslama et al. [4], the researchers are presently involved in an interdisciplinary HCT-funded research project where they are investigating the influence of E.I. on the well-being and the preparedness of young professionals in organizations. The research project which is an extension of a previous work [6] aims at finding out whether this contributes to the retention and professional success of these young professionals during the changes in the work environment and the fourth industrial revolution.

At the Higher Colleges of Technology in the UAE, one of the main pillars of HCT 4.0 is “No Emirati left behind” where HCT has the commitment to help secure jobs for the graduates and to make a positive contribution to the UAE society. However, as the UAE workforce transformation is accelerating, many roles in the job market are being redefined also with A.I. and automation, and this is expected to impact future job opportunities for these graduates as well as the workplace environments. As such, there is an urgent need to identify skills in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era, jobs to be retained in the current and future workforce, and to create plans to close any skills gap.

This paper presents an innovative Emotional Intelligence-based human skills framework to inform, raise awareness, as well as assess the knowledge and skills of job seekers, and help them create a sustainable professional profile, especially in post COVID-19 era. The proposed framework, entitled the “Career Profile of the Future Framework-CPFF,” has four dimensions: Knowledge, Skills, Attitude and mindset, and Human attributes. This framework is expected to be an asset in assessing the knowledge and skills of university graduates and young professionals, and help in finding answers to questions such as “Do I have the appropriate knowledge, skills, mindset, and human attributes to get a job?,” “How can I stay relevant, given that automation and A.I. can do the tasks related to my job?;” and “What reskilling and upskilling in existing and new employment sectors do I need?.”

2 Work Readiness of Fresh Graduates and Young Professionals

2.1 Perceived Work Readiness of Fresh Graduates

Work readiness is defined as the abilities and functional skills needed to be successful. In a report on work readiness standards and benchmarks, work readiness was defined in terms of foundational cognitive skills and non-cognitive skills [1]. The non-cognitive skills include personal characteristics and behavioral skills crucial to one’s success including work ethics, collaboration skills, professionalism, and adaptability. The traditional focus of tertiary educational programs is on cognitive skills. However, to graduate students who are work-ready, these programs need to equally focus on non-cognitive skills.

2.2 Soft Skills and Attributes Lacking Among Fresh Graduates

The Society for Human Resource Management found in a 2019 report that 51% of responses indicated that education has done little to help address the skills shortage that the industry needs. The top soft skills according to members are problem-solving, collaboration, and teamwork [31]. Employers seem to indicate graduates lack listening, critical thinking, communication, and interpersonal skills. The focus of tertiary education should be the development of skills that machines cannot perform.

3 Skills Shortages and Skills Mismatch Among Fresh Graduates

In McGuinness et al. [23], the authors provided a clear overview of the concepts in skills mismatch, a term which is very broad and can relate to many forms of labor market friction, and discussed the measurement and the relationships of the various forms of mismatch. This includes the vertical mismatch related to education level (over-education vs. under-education), skill gaps, skills shortages, horizontal mismatch relating to the area of study, and finally skill uselessness.

In fact, it is important to differentiate between the assessments of individual concepts of mismatch vs. those relating to an organization. As for an individual, the assessments are usually related to how close the education level or skill set maps to the ones required in the current job [7]. However, when the concepts of mismatch are looked at from an organization’s perspective in terms of vacancies, it means how close the education and skill set of the job seeker meets its requirements which includes an assessment of over-education, over-skilling, a horizontal mismatch, or skill obsolescence due to changes in the work environment.

As per McGuinness et al. [23], the last mismatch related to human capital has not received enough attention in the research community and needs more focus. This is due to the negative impact on productivity and the need for a large investment in training and professional development. In addition to education and skills, it is especially important to focus on two more additional dimensions which are the attitude and mindset as well as the human attributes of an individual which are elements of the proposed framework.

4 Upskilling and Reskilling of Young Professionals

4.1 Skills Gap

The need to reskill your professionals comes as we realize our graduates are well prepared to succeed as students but not in the changing workplace. The skills and competencies in the workplace are constantly changing, and it would be futile to keep updating the curriculum to meet the industry’s changing needs. In a recent forum at Expo Dubai 2020 hosted by the Higher Colleges of Technology entitled ‘2nd Annual InnCuVation forum’, academics and industry partners met to discuss this very issue of the skills gap and meet industry needs. Industry experts agreed that a focus on soft skills is needed, and they also emphasized the importance of developing graduates that can quickly adapt to the changing learning environment. The two critical skills that industry experts emphasized were flexibility and adaptability to change rather than a focus on pure knowledge acquisition.

4.2 Training and Professional Development

Current training and professional development for educators focus on technology implementation to teaching and curriculum development. A recent search of the offered professional development in our tertiary institutions (Feb. 2022) showed that the 128 offered training educators are in the areas of educational technology tools such as Kahoot, Nearpod, Book widgets, Microsoft Teams, Camtasia, etc., or how to design the online class. The focus was on learning instruction for the online class and the implementation of tools for the Blackboard learning management system. Training for the development of skills or competencies was lacking. There is a strong need for such training for educators to understand the changing nature of the work environment and refocus the training on how to develop critical skills in skills to graduate with a mindset of flexibility and adaptability.

4.3 Ability to Unlearn and Relearn

Education programs were preparing students with the ability to learn. However, they fail in teaching them to unlearn and relearn which critical competencies to succeed in an uncertain future. Warrell [30] explained what this unlearning and relearning mindset means by stating that in today’s accelerated changing work environment learners and educators alike need to embrace the discomfort that comes with letting go of the old and going through the pain of constantly learning the new relevant competencies. Warrell [30] provides several approaches to developing the skills of unlearning and relearning. The first approach is to challenge one’s assumptions and mental models that may be holding one back. The second approach is to be curious. As adults, we tend to stop or put brakes on our curiosity, and we stop asking questions. Warrell [30] emphasized that our learning is capped to the extent of the questions we ask. The third approach is to always be humble, learn with humility, and be open to learning which is the growth mindset that educators need to focus on in their programs. The fourth approach is to practice ‘De Vuja’ and consult your ‘future self’ by looking at an issue from a future perspective. The last approach is to be able to truly embrace the discomfort of change. Warrell [30] prompts us to ask the question as educators and lifelong learners: What do you need to unlearn and relearn?

4.4 Challenges in Career Path and Holistic Development

There are many challenges that a graduate would face in their career development. Some of these challenges include the skills that need to be relearned or unlearned, other challenges could come from embracing uncertainty and continuously fast-changing work environments. Career mapping, therefore, becomes a complex and ever-changing activity. In an international conference hosted by the Federal Authority of Human Resources in the UAE (FAHR), Billeh [3] listed three steps for career mapping: self-assessment, individualized career map, and exploring other opportunities. The exploration of opportunities is a critical skill to prepare graduates because the traditional challenges that Zidle [33] listed of career paths including promotion challenges, diplomacy, and onboarding are not today’s challenges that one would face. The more difficult challenges stem from the need to have a growth mindset and several paths for one’s career.

4.5 Need for a Framework

Today’s competencies have changed, and educational institutions need to modify their programs to prepare for the holistic development of graduates rather than a pure focus on knowledge acquisition. However, frameworks that address multiple career paths in one’s work life cycle do not exist. Traditional career mapping would map skills with the work needs. However, these skills would become irrelevant once the work environment changes. The proposed framework is to address the gap for tertiary institutions to prepare graduates that are future-ready rather than ready to meet certain industry needs.

5 Creating the Career Profile of the Future Framework-CPFF

By the time of graduation, students from higher education institutions usually should have acquired knowledge, abilities, and skills which constitute the main ingredients for success in a person’s career. Employers are keen on hiring the best candidates who can perform the job responsibilities, be ready to assume roles from day one, and add value to the organization.

The objective of the proposed Career Profile for Future Framework (CPFF) is to inform job seekers, such as fresh university graduates, about the type of knowledge, skill set, attitude and mindset, and human attributes that they should be aware of to be better prepared for job search and interviews. Self-awareness and assessment of one’s knowledge, abilities, and skills should allow the person to pursue a successful career journey to maturity and excellence. The following sections detail the four dimensions of the proposed CPFF.

5.1 The Knowledge Dimension

Many distinct types of knowledge figure prominently in careers skills development and form part of our CPFF.

  • General Knowledge: A dictionary definition of general knowledge [16] is information on a wide variety of topics that a person collects gradually over a period of time. The sources of this information come from activities like reading and watching television and consist of general information rather than detailed information on subjects that a person has previously studied. The amount of general knowledge that a person has is important for career skills development as it is said to open different paths to learning and it is helpful in identity creation from a young age. As far back as 1904, Spearman found that “general intellectual ability was the most established predictor of occupational and educational measurement” (Spearman, 1904 as cited in Chammorro-Premuzic et al. [8, p. 1]). Research has also shown a link between general knowledge and many other skills and abilities, among them IQ, abstract reasoning, and personality [8].

  • Field-Specific knowledge and Subject-Matter Knowledge: Field-specific knowledge and subject matter expertise are other types of knowledge that individuals develop throughout their lives and as they progress in their chosen career path. Sometimes people with advanced knowledge in a specific field are called subject matter experts. When individuals can combine their field-specific knowledge and subject-matter expertise with their background or general knowledge and use this combined information to understand better, this is called schema theory in the literature [27]. This background knowledge acts as a type of scaffolding, which allows an individual to build on existing information they already possess which of course results in a better understanding and a better memory of the contents, concepts, and materials. In more simple terms, Piaget and Cook [27, p. 7] called schema “the basic building block of intelligent behavior—a way of organizing knowledge”.

  • Linguistic Knowledge: Knowledge of multiple languages can be an advantage to prospective job seekers thanks to our increasingly global economy. They are seen by many as being an asset when applying for jobs, looking impressive on a CV, and in many global contexts are a necessity in certain fields. In a very engaging article in Forbes magazine, Hulett [19], President of Language at Rosetta Stone Inc., states that “being able to speak a language that’s in demand may even result in a promotion or a higher salary, especially in a competitive industry like the technology sector” (p. 1). According to Global Scotters (n.d.) [17], other advantages that result from increased linguistic knowledge and having proficiency in more than one language include: knowing a second language helps you know more about your native language; knowledge of a second language makes you a better decision maker, problem solver and increases your creativity levels; and increased linguistic knowledge and second language skills, helps you build better relationships as language learning also facilitates a better understanding of someone’s culture and their perspectives.

  • Knowledge about the teaching and Learning Process: Another type of knowledge that is critical for those going into education and most particularly the teaching profession is knowledge about how teachers teach and how learners navigate the learning process. Although the combination of general and field-specific knowledge and subject matter expertise is important when imparting knowledge, it is not likely to be effective if the educator lacks appropriate mechanisms to facilitate the teaching and learning process for their students.

  • Knowledge about the Society in which we Live and Teach: According to Snoek’s (2013) [28], contributing elements of professionalism, for an individual to have high professionalism levels, it is important for them to have knowledge about the society in which they work and function as professionals as well as knowledge about how to navigate the policies of the country and/or employment context.

5.2 The Skills Dimension

Many diverse types of skills are critical in career skills development and form part of our CPFF.

  • Time Management Skills: With time management skills, a person can manage time effectively so that they allocate the right time to a project activity, knowing that time is always limited. This involves the balancing of various demands such as those encountered at work, in personal life, and in other commitments. Effective time management includes skills in effective planning, setting goals, objectives, and deadlines, prioritizing tasks, and other activities [15]. It is especially important for graduates and young professionals to know how to distinguish between Urgent and Important tasks, from those which are not urgent but Important, or Urgent but Not Important, or finally those which are Neither Urgent nor Important. Stephen R. Covey in his book on ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ presented a matrix of importance vs. urgency used in deciding where to invest time and effort. He emphasized in his approach to effectiveness in planning and achieving goals the balance between obtaining desirable results and care for how to produce those results [12].

  • Teamwork: This is the second important attribute in the Skills dimension. It refers to a person being able to collaborate in a team to achieve a common goal or complete a task in an effective and efficient way. The concept of a team is different from a group of people working together as the former relates to interdependent members working in harmony to achieve a common goal [13]. Of course, for a team to work in harmony there are certain characteristics that a team must have. This includes skills such as communication (addressed in Dimension 4 of the CPFF), challenging work and commitment, and finally accountability (Work Ethic-Dimensions 2 and 3 of the CPFF).

  • Career-specific Skills: A person acquires and develops over the years panoply soft and hard skills including soft skills such as time management, teamwork, adaptability, creativity (Dimension 4 of the CPFF), and hard skills such as computing and digital literacy (Dimension 2 of the CPFF), data analysis, math, and statistics, etc. Career-specific skills are those abilities that allow the fresh graduate applying for a job to perform the job responsibilities in the best way and to complete the job requirements. Many career-specific skills are acquired in life and while attending education; however, many other skills are obtained through job experience, professional development, and training. Many of the soft skills are transferable in any type of job. On the contrary, hard, or technical skills are related to a specific job or task.

  • Digital Literacy: As per the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (en.unesco.org), digital skills are critical for jobs and social inclusion [29]. The report defines digital skills as a range of abilities to use digital devices, communication applications, and networks to access and manage information [29]. These skills enable a person not only to create and share digital content but also to communicate (Attribute in Dimension 4) and collaborate (Dimension 2 related to Teamwork) and solve problems (Attribute in Dimension 4 related to critical thinking). Digital skills are enablers in developing someone’s career, helping solve problems, and creating self-fulfillment in the workplace and personal life. A fresh graduate is usually able to demonstrate entry-level digital skills, however, these skills grow to become advanced as the individual engages in more learning, unlearning, and relearning (Attribute in Dimension 3 on Attitude and Mindset) as disruptive changes in work environments, such as the use of Artificial Intelligence and Automation, are modifying the required skills set needed for the twenty-first century digital economy.

  • Work Ethic (Actual Physical Follow Through of Doing the Work): For fresh graduates and young professionals to self-develop and thrive in interrelated businesses and societies, they need to use their skills and abilities while believing in work as a moral good. It is important to understand the set of values centered on the importance of doing work and how a person handles his or her responsibilities while seriously doing the work. It is especially important to believe in how an excellent work ethic motivates people and makes them ready to be professional in the workplace.

  • Philanthropic/Volunteer Outreach: Another skill that is especially important to allow someone to thrive in his/her career is philanthropic and volunteering work. A successful professional should want to help others while promoting everyone’s welfare. He or she is expected to contribute to the charity of worthy causes. Not only money but equally important is the donation of a person’s time, efforts, and talents to help others such as people in need of help. In Nikzad-Terhune and Taylor [25], the authors conducted a research study on community engagement and philanthropic learning. They discussed how the philanthropic learning have gained traction in university settings as a method to help prepare students for both workplace competency and citizenship. They examined the impact of experiential student philanthropy as part of a graduate course as a learning method that offers students an opportunity to examine community and social issues in organizations.

5.3 The Attitude and Mindset Dimension

The attitude and mindset dimension includes several important skills that a future-ready student needs to develop. The first important skill relates to the ability to learn new things, unlearn what is no longer of use, and relearn from a unique perspective. The second important skill development in this area is passion. In the World Economic Forum (2019), Menon [24] described the 4th industrial revolution jobs as mostly automated but experts advised to focus on one’s passion to continue to be relevant.

In an interview on the Saudi vision of 2030, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman [2] emphasized the importance of passion at work stating that merit and efficiency are basic competencies at work but being passionate is motivation to act. The third area in this dimension is work ethic and professionalism. This is defined in terms of mental attitudes and values stemming from well-founded standards of what is right and wrong and a set of acceptable standards in societies. These standards could differ from one society to another, however, there are some standard values that need to be developed and accepted universally. The top eight work ethic values that need to be developed according to the Indeed career guide include the following: reliability, dedication, discipline, productivity, cooperation, integrity, responsibility, and professionalism [20].

5.4 The Human Attributes Dimension

Many distinct types of human attributes are necessary for a successful career path and form part of our CPFF.

  • Emotional Intelligence (E.I.): For a person to have a successful career path, he/she needs to have human attributes such as emotional intelligence. He/she needs to acquire and develop over the years panoply emotional intelligence skills including self-awareness, self-management, relationship awareness, relationship management, mood, and adaptability. These abilities allow the young professional to succeed in a job search and perform the job responsibilities in the best way. In Dimension 3 on Attitude and Mindset, a person is expected to be able to learn, unlearn and relearn. However, when considering the learning process, it is well known that it rarely occurs in isolation, and so our ability to accurately perceive how others feel or react may also be an indicator, or at least a contributor, to success. The capacity to receive emotions, simulate emotion-related feelings, understand the information of those emotions, and manage them have been the subject of a wide range of studies in what has been termed Emotional Intelligence (E.I.) [22]. This form of intelligence has been found to be the subject of a wide range of studies related to the workplace, especially in leadership roles, teaching, and learning [9,10,11], where a lot of success in performance was attributable to E.I. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is defined by Goleman [18] as the ability to realize your own emotions and those of others, the ability to get self-motivated, and the ability to manage one’s own emotions and relationships with others. Bouslama et al. [5] developed a localized six-quadrant model of Emotional Intelligence which features Self-awareness, Self-management, social awareness, Relationship awareness, Adaptability, and General Mood (see Fig. 1).

    Fig. 1
    A framework of C P F F with 4 career profiles is as follows. 1. Knowledge in linguistics, field-specific and subject matter, and teaching process. 2. Attitude and mindset in learning, passion, and ethics. 3. Skills in time management and teamwork. 4. Human attributes with leadership and innovation.

    The career profile of the future framework-CPFF (Bouslama-Hiasat-Coombe). Registration number: NjsTzM5kJ7hHxZeK. Certificate: https://www.copyrighted.com/work/NjsTzM5kJ7hHxZeK

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  • Leadership: Northouse [26] defines leadership as “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal”. In fact, having such a human attribute as a leader can inspire his team members to work in harmony toward achieving a common goal. The leader needs to have skills such as problem-solving, active listening, conflict negotiation, excellent communication, and other abilities and skills. University graduates start developing leadership skills while getting involved in course projects and extracurricular activities such as volunteering outreach (Dimension 2).

  • Personal Attributes: As per Indeed.com, the American worldwide employment website for job listings and the Job search engine, personal attributes are particularly important human traits that define the personality and the approach to work or a situation of a person [21]. The job market nowadays is highly competitive and there are many challgences facing the fresh graduates and young professionals. Having the right personal attributes can help a lot in securing jobs. In fact, employers are keen to hire job candidates who can exhibit personal attributes such as being optimistic, motivated, and adaptable. Also, it is especially important to demonstrate human attributes such as taking initiative and being willing to learn, unlearn and relearn (Dimension 3). Moreover, a desirable personal attribute that your professionals need to develop is resilience. As the work environments keep being disrupted with AI and automation as well as downsizing, the ability to overcome such challenging changes at work while remaining in control of his/her emotions is certainly a desirable personal attribute.

  • Empathy: Another human attribute that plays a key role in having a successful career is empathy. Though humans all have an inherent feeling of empathy, the capacity to really understand and or feel what the other person is going through differs from one person to the other. There are several types of empathy including cognitive, emotional, and somatic empathy. It is well known that practicing and demonstrating empathy in the workplace has many benefits. It creates a productive working environment while establishing good human relationships and interactions and can lead to more engagement and effective communication. Moreover, in design thinking when solving problems and creating proper solutions, the design process begins with Empathizing to move to defining and creating ideas and prototyping. Here, the ability to observe, interact, and immerse in understanding and determining needs is an especially important human attribute [14] as presented in the ‘The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators' by Dyer J., et. al.

  • Communications: To succeed in work environments and in teams, the ability to communicate properly and effectively is especially important. Effective communication can lead to better team collaboration and ensures everyone is well-informed and updated while increasing the level of confidence of the team members. University graduates and young professionals have usually developmental communications skills. They are required to work hard on this human attribute to progress in their careers. It is important to have good communication skills when they are in certain situations such as in meetings, brainstorming, providing feedback, negotiating, giving directives, crediting excellent work and achievement, or managing performances.

  • Critical Thinking: Another human attribute that plays a significant role in career success is the ability to think and carefully question a subject, analyze it, and draw conclusions from the analysis. The thinking process should not be biased and prone to feelings. This is the ability of someone to think critically. Today’s businesses are hiring graduates who have critical thinking as a human attribute. The expectation at work necessitates agility in looking at situations and problems as they arise, being able to analyze them, find solutions, and take appropriate decisions.

  • Innovation: Innovation is the key to continuity and prosperity in businesses. Having the ability to innovate is a highly desirable human attribute sought by employers. The power to generate innovative ideas and create values and wealth can make a significant difference when seeking jobs and pursuing careers.

  • Creativity: Creativity is the ability to produce innovative ideas that are useful to create new end products and services. Having a creative mind can transform and innovate the way businesses are done.

  • Physical Skills: Another human attribute that can make a difference when seeking jobs is physical skills. It is about how accurately and consistently a person uses his/her in performing and completing tasks. These skills include body endurance to repetitive and demanding work, strength, stamina, power, coordination, agility, and other physical skills.

  • Professionalism: Finally, Dimension 4 on human attributes includes professionalism. This is about a person being reliable, having ambitious goals, and caring about all aspects of work. Professionalism requires that a person be responsible, well-organized, and accountable.

The CPFF framework with all its four dimensions and sub-dimensions is shown in Fig. 1.

6 Implementation of the CPFF

To prepare for its use and implementation by the various service departments at Dubai Men’s Campus and HCT system-wide, the research team sponsored two capstone projects of graduating students in the Computer Information Science (CIS) department where two teams of students gathered the functional and non-functional requirements, performed the analysis of the requirements and designed a solution, and then implemented the solution in the form of a mobile app for Android devices (see Fig. 2). The main objective of the mobile app was to raise awareness about the CPFF framework. Users of this app can self-assess their knowledge and skills on the four dimensions of the CPFF and receive assessment results and recommendations to work on their areas that need further development. The user of the app receives a certification of completion upon taking the interventions and completing a post assessment. Figure 2 depicts screenshots of the some of the developed GUIs for the app, and a sample of questions on how to assess the knowledge dimension.

Fig. 2
2 mobile screens. 1. A cover page of the C P F F app. 2. It has the following menus under the select category. Knowledge, skills, attitude and mindset, and human attributes with check results tab below. Below is a table with 4 sample questions for assessing the knowledge dimension.

Developed CPFF mobile app and sample self-assessment questions

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7 Conclusion

In conclusion, this paper presented an innovative framework that is based on four main dimensions. All these dimensions are important for individuals and organizations to address the urgent issues of hiring, skill gaps and mismatches, reskilling and upskilling, and career path planning and development, especially in post COVID-19 era. The CPFF is expected to play a key role in support of individuals seeking jobs and looking for a successful and sustainable professional career and profile. Moreover, this framework is expected to help support service departments at educational institutions such as Career and Counseling in providing informed support to students and alumni in finding answers to their questions, and properly guiding them in how to be ready for the job market and work environment disruptions.