A Framework for Assessing Higher Education Courses Employability

Abstract

The 4th Industrial Revolution is causing profound and accelerated changes to work, bringing new opportunities and challenges as practically all occupations are impacted by new technologies. The transformations in the labor market were accelerated even more due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the scenario in which old occupations cease to exist and new occupations are being created, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) need to be prepared to educate professionals capable of getting and keeping qualified jobs. To do so, HEIs need tools to evaluate their undergraduate courses in the face of the changing demands of the labor market. In this study, we propose a novel approach to employability from the perspective of HEIs, creating a framework – called Higher Education Courses Employability (HECE) – to help HEI decision-makers to make decisions based on employability data to mitigate the reported gap between the theory taught in HEIs and the labor market demands. The HECE framework was evaluated as useful and relevant by HEI decision-makers and Employability experts from Brazil, a continental country with deep social differences between and within its regions, and where the unemployment and underemployment rates demonstrate the mismatch between the labor market demands and the undergraduate course’s curricula. The applicability of HECE in different Brazillian regions provides evidence that the framework can be applied in most contexts. This study provides a set of tools to facilitate the implementation of the framework by HEIs. The innovative nature of the approach of this research was reported by the evaluators.