This study explores the factors that contribute to students’ perceptions of their preparedness for transition from university to work, taking a multidimensional perspective on their academic experience. To that end, a questionnaire was designed and administered to students enrolled in the final year of their master’s degree programme. Students were asked to self-assess their preparedness for the transition to the world of work and also self-assess their academic experience by exploring their academic engagement and the knowledge and competencies they developed during their study. Regarding academic engagement, we find that they consider that participation in lectures and the quality in developing collective work have a positive influence on their preparedness for work, while regular attendance at lectures appears to be negatively associated with their perceptions of their preparedness. The results also show that the practical and theoretical content, together with methodological and employability competencies, have a positive impact on students’ perceptions of their preparedness for transition to work. Thus, the promotion of learning experiences fostering methodological and practical competencies, together with more collective career-related experience and employability skills, may better help prepare graduates for the transition to work.

Theoretical and empirical literature developed over recent years supports the concept of employability as a construct combining complex interactions of individual and contextual dimensions. This study aimed to identify differentiated profiles in graduates, combining personal and contextual variables related to employability. For this, 182 graduates from a public university were surveyed about their sociodemographic and educational pathways and employment status 18 months after university-to-work transition. Then, a latent class analysis was performed, which allowed the emergence of four distinct groups: well-equipped, high demand, vulnerable and non-traditional pathways. By adopting a person-centered approach, this study allowed the identification of different combinations of factors that, although recognized in current literature, seem to organize themselves differently among the heterogeneous population that presently obtain a higher education degree. This study also raises some practical implications, namely the importance of differentiated interventions, taking into consideration the specificities of each group.

Purpose: This study addresses the specific topic of transition between higher education and the world of work, taking differences naturally inherent to the individual and to the surrounding micro and macro contexts. With a holistic approach, this paper aimed to provide a deeper understanding about the university-to-work transition process in a period of turbulence and continuous changes in the labour market.Design/methodology/approach: The three research questions that guide this qualitative study are as follows: (1) What are the factors that facilitate the transition to the labour market? (2) What are the factors that constrain the transition to the labour market? (3) What are graduates' perceptions of their employability? To answer these questions, eleven graduates were interviewed about facilitators and barriers of the transition process and perceptions of employability. Data collected from the interviews were then related to categories previously defined from the literature review. Version 12.0 of the NVivo software was used to support the process of data analysis.Findings: Overall, participants' discourse refer to a multidimensional and dynamic perspective of factors related with work transition and employability. The obtained results indicate that the lack of career agency during graduation and professional experiences, together with late career exploration processes, represent possible barriers of transition, especially in study fields with targeted job offers. Likewise, experiences promoting the development of competencies through supportive practice from teachers, mentors and colleagues are referred as facilitators of transition.Practical implications: One of the most consistent outcomes of the interviews conducted concerns the importance of a stronger focus on developing practical experiences during higher education studies. This empirical study demonstrated how this type of experience can mitigate the impact of the transition from university to the labour market.Originality/value: This empirical study demonstrated how work being integrated into learning in curricula can mitigate the impact of the transition from university to the labour market. It offers important insights about possible strategies that could be adopted to promote graduates' employability from a perspective of shared responsibility.

In a time where employability issues are at the top of political agendas and employment prospects represent the most important predictor of satisfaction with higher education, the question about how higher education institutions can better prepare their graduates for the labour market becomes increasingly important. Taking the career construction theory as its main theoretical framework, this study intends to explore the role of career adaptability as a mediating variable between competencies developed during higher education studies and perceived employability. The participants were 373 students attending the last year of master’s degree programmes, who completed the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale, the Self-Perceived Employability Scale, and a survey exploring students’ perceptions about their competencies at the end of their university programme. The results indicated that career adaptability has a mediating role between self-perceived competency and self-perceived employability. Although academic competencies represent a prerequisite for employability, the findings suggest that graduating students should also be equipped with career management resources to handle their own attributes and to transition smoothly into the current labour market. These findings are particularly important because they reveal how higher education institutions can foster the employability of graduates by integrating training opportunities in career management during graduation programmes.

Purpose: In a socioeconomic context that is undergoing continuous change, career adaptability emerges as a central construct for understanding the employability of graduates. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to analyze intra-individual differences in career adaptability among graduates between the end of graduation (time 1) and integration into the labor market 18 months later (time 2); and second, to analyze the effect of career adaptability on graduates’ employment status 18 months after completing graduation. Design/methodology/approach: A sample of 183 graduates in four different study fields (Economics, Engineering, Social Sciences and Humanities and Law) completed the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale at two different points in time: when they graduated and 18 months after graduation. To assess intra-individual differences over time and the effect of career adaptability on graduates’ employment status, a repeated measures design was used. Findings: The obtained results confirmed a positive association of the four dimensions of career adaptability, with higher scores for the group of employed graduates, in the two measurement times. No statistical differences emerged within personal variables. Practical implications: This study evidences the relation of career adaptability and employability and demonstrates that it is possible to identify those students who are more vulnerable in terms of career adaptability resources before university-to-work transition and, on this basis, to outline specific interventions to promote their employability. Originality/value: By adopting a design with two repeated measures of career adaptability, this study offers new insights about the specific role of adaptability in a university-to-work transition period.