Abstract
The transition from university to the labour market is a crucial period for graduates. It is typically characterized by a high degree of uncertainty. Self-efficacy may be a determinant in the process, but the research so far has only considered students or graduates shortly after graduation, strongly compromising its conclusions on the findings. This study aims at exploring the variables which explain the different levels of self-efficacy of graduates in transition to the labour market. A total of 694 graduates who completed their degrees at two Portuguese Higher Education Institutions in the last five years were subjected to a questionnaire. Regression and multivariate analyses based on decision trees (Recursive Partitioning for Classification) showed that (1) older graduates have higher self-efficacy in adapting to work; (2) male graduates have higher self-efficacy in emotional regulation when looking for a job; and (3) graduates with higher grades demonstrated more self-efficacy in job-seeking behaviours. The results also revealed that the graduates’ scientific area, the parents’ level of education and undergoing internships during higher education are also related to self-efficacy. Overall, the study contributed to a better understanding of the construction process of self-efficacy beliefs and its importance in the job-seeking process and in the adaptation to work.
Highlights
In the last 20 years, the number of students enrolled in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) has doubled worldwide
This study has allowed us to assess the role of a set of key variables in the transition to employment, showing that graduates have higher self-efficacy in their ability to adapt to work, compared to the emotional regulation in job-seeking and in the demonstration of job-seeking behaviours
These results are corroborated by recent studies carried out in the last decade with the scale of Self-Efficacy in the Transition to Employment—Self-Efficacy in Transition to Employment (SETE) (e.g., Barros 2018; Gamboa et al 2018; Vieira and Theotonio 2018)
Summary
In the last 20 years, the number of students enrolled in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) has doubled worldwide. The expansion of Higher Education (HE) has increased the number and diversity of institutions, courses and students who attend it (Castro and Almeida 2016) This is reflected in the presence of highly heterogeneous groups of students in terms of previous academic backgrounds, motivations and levels of autonomy (Almeida et al 2012) and, in the increase of students from disadvantaged socioeconomic groups, first-generation students (MarinhoAraujo and Almeida 2016), mature students (Almeida et al 2016) and students with disabilities (Pires 2016). In Portugal, statistics indicate that female graduates, when compared to male graduates, take longer to find a job
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
