Recent College Graduates Research Articles

Student Networking Presentations: Cultivating Communication and Critical Thinking Skills in the Asynchronous Virtual Classroom

More work is now completed in a remote setting than ever before. As the skills demanded by employers evolve to meet changing workplace demands, communication remains a noted deficiency for recent college graduates. To bridge this skill gap, we present a format translation of a qualitative interview exercise that has been reimagined for use in the asynchronous online classroom. As a supplement to the several peer-to-peer networking activities already available in the management education literature, the current project provides a structured environment for online students to engage in a real-world networking interview with a business professional of their choosing. Through the activity, students hone their networking, communication, and critical thinking skills as they utilize a variety of Microsoft Teams tools to practice interviewing and presenting in a virtual, asynchronous setting.

WHAT SKILLS DO EMPLOYERS WANT FROM RECENT COLLEGE GRADUATES?

Currently, it is not enough for university graduates to acquire only occupation-specific academic knowledge to find a job. Graduates are also expected to possess an additional set of skills called employability skills. In this study, job vacancies were analyzed to determine the skills employers want from new graduates. In this study, 178 job posts for new graduates on an online job search platform (Kariyer. net) were analyzed using content analysis. According to the findings of the study, fewer hard skills and more soft skills were demanded by recent university graduates. The most demanded skills for both associate degree and bachelor's degree graduates were skills in social and communication groups. When examined in detail, the highest-demanded soft skills include "strong communication skills,” "predisposition to teamwork,” "planning and organization skills,” "effective written and oral communication skills.” In addition, "mastery of MS Office applications, knowledge of foreign languages and "knowledge of computer programs related to the field" are among the technical skills that graduates require. This research is expected to guide new graduates in terms of which skills they should develop and educational institutions in terms of updating their curricula in line with the demand for skills.

Self-Assessment of Skills Gap by University Graduates, or What Is Not Taught in Higher Education

The purpose of the paper is to analyse the perceptions of recent university graduates about skills gap; to identify the factors that determine the evaluation of the skill as insufficient. The empirical basis of the study is the microdata of the All-Russian survey of graduates who received secondary professional and higher education, conducted by Rosstat in April-September 2021. In order to solve the tasks, a subsample was formed, including employed respondents with higher education (9684 people). Methods of data analysis are descriptive, cluster and regression analysis. It has been established that at the beginning of careers graduates almost equally experience a lack of hard and soft skills. Among the leaders in scarcity there were both hard (professional (technical) skills and the ability to use professional documentation) and soft skills (stress resistance, the ability to take responsibility and multitasking). It is shown that the lack of professional (hard) skills and knowledge is more likely to be reported by graduates working in “technological” sectors (industry, construction, transport), as well as educated in mass areas of training (engineering and technology, economics and management, pedagogy). Working in a specialty increases the likelihood of assessing the majority of hard skills as scarce. The perception of many soft skills (communication, the ability to teamwork, take responsibility, self-management) as insufficient decreases with age. A universal factor that is significant for assessing hard and soft skills as scarce is recognition of knowledge and skills as important for the satisfactory performance of job duties. The obtained results can be used to improve the subject content of training programs in universities, in the development of areas of work with young professionals in companies.

More than Half Underemployed: Developing Talent for Meaningful Work

This article examines the problem of underemployment among recent college graduates and proposes strategies for organizations and institutions of higher education to work individually and collaboratively to address this issue. According to recent data, over 55% of 2020 graduates were underemployed within six months due to factors like economic disruption from the pandemic, skills mismatches, unrealistic graduate expectations, and rising education costs. Long-term impacts of underemployment include lower lifetime earnings and wasted talent. The article suggests organizational approaches like internships, clear communication of needs, bridging roles, and mentorship to develop talent and connect graduates to careers. For institutions, recommendations include experiential learning, career education, industry advisory boards, and robust career services. Finally, the article proposes collaborative models such as curriculum partnerships with employers, employer-embedded teaching, shared talent databases, and joint roundtables to fully tackle graduate underemployment through multi-stakeholder cooperation.

Factors influencing entrepreneurial intention of university students: An empirical analysis from Islamic University, Bangladesh

Entrepreneurship is becoming more and more acknowledged as a key driver of creativity, economic growth, and job creation. This research is intended to verify the factors influencing Bangladeshi university student’s entrepreneurial inclinations based on empirical evaluations. This paper also examined the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and the factors desire for fulfillment, Locus of control, Family business background and entrepreneurial knowledge. Totally 26 attributes have been taken into consideration for designing questionnaire for the study. A questionnaire survey method is used with 200 respondents. For analyzing data have directly using SPSS (version-21). This study applied multiple regression analysis. This survey result demonstrated that desire for fulfillment and family business background have a significant influence on university student’s entrepreneurial intention. Students are inspired and encouraged to create their own businesses as a career by family businesses. Personal characteristics drive students to take professional risks because they feel driven to succeed. The remaining two factors, locus of control and entrepreneurial knowledge, have no significant influence on university student’s to be entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. The study's conclusions are anticipated to help policymakers create an efficient business plan that will foster the entrepreneurship of recent university graduates in a cutthroat industry and help them better understand their intentions as entrepreneurs in the context of Bangladesh.

Factors Related to a Stronger Work Role Identity in the School-to-Work Transition

Work role identity is the degree to which an individual has a self-concept as someone who works and engages in work behaviours consistent with this identity. A strong work role identity may be important for a successful school-to-work transition. To explore predictors and outcomes of work role identity in recent university graduates, survey data were collected from 488 Canadian and American employees who had graduated within the previous 12 years. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that a shorter post-university unemployment period after graduating, stronger job satisfaction, and higher proactivity were associated with a stronger work role identity and work role identity was significantly related to better job performance. Given that proactivity is a skill that can be developed, universities could consider ways to help students develop proactivity, which would strengthen their work role identity and support students when integrating into the labour force as full-time workers.

The dynamics of the early career gender wage gap among university graduates: The case of Russia

AbstractThis study provides new evidence of the gender wage gap among recent university graduates at different stages of their early career. Using a unique administrative dataset from Russia, we estimate the gender wage gap at means and across wage distribution for a cohort of 2018 university graduates during the first 4 years after graduation. We explore the contribution of educational and job factors to the explanation of the gap. Although a substantial gap of 14% is already present at labour market entry, it is two times smaller compared to the gap for the overall working population. Eighty five percent of the entry wage gap can be explained with differences in fields of study, work experience, and job characteristics. More than 4 years after graduation, the gender wage gap experiences a dramatic increase, reaching 26%. Only 28% of the resulting gap can be explained by the observed characteristics, including industrial and occupational segregation. The size of the gap varies drastically in different parts of the wage distribution, suggesting the existence of a strong glass ceiling effect from the very beginning of graduate careers. The rapidly expanding early career gender wage gap with a growing unexplained component suggests that education policies may have limited ability to promote gender equality in the labour market.

Level of knowledge of basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation in recent graduates of a Peruvian public university

La reanimación cardiopulmonar (RCP) busca mantener un flujo sanguíneo adecuado para oxigenar órganos vitales durante el paro cardiorrespiratorio. Objetivo: determinar el nivel de conocimientos sobre RCP en médicos recientemente egresados de una universidad pública peruana. Metodología: estudio observacional transversal, realizado entre mayo y julio de 2023, aplicando un cuestionario virtual de 30 preguntas validado por expertos basadas en las guías AHA 2020. Se solicitó consentimiento informado y se realizó análisis estadístico utilizando SPSS 27. Resultados: 130 participantes con edad promedio de 26 años (DE 2,39), 54,6 % de sexo masculino. El nivel de conocimientos fue medio en 70 participantes (53,85 %), alto en 38 (29,23 %) y bajo en 22 (16,92 %); identificando menor nivel en el reconocimiento del paro cardiorrespiratorio y no se encontró relación con edad ni sexo. Conclusión: El nivel de conocimientos sobre RCP básica es insuficiente en médicos egresados de una universidad pública peruana, con un menor nivel en el reconocimiento del paro cardiorrespiratorio.

Factors affecting career motivation of recent graduates: Career adaptability as a mediator

AbstractCareer adaptability is a key resource for adapting to and transitioning into careers. However, gaps are found in the research on career adaptability. This study examined whether proactive personality, future‐proofing, psychological capital, and technology readiness predict career adaptability and whether career adaptability mediates the relationship between these predictors and career motivation. The data from 455 Malaysian recent university graduates found career adaptability to mediate the relationship between all predictors and career motivation. They positively affected career adaptability, which in turn, increased career motivation. While, in the presence of predictors of individual characteristics, technology readiness was not significant in predicting career adaptability, it predicted career motivation. The study recommends enhancing career adaptability and personal traits through interventions and training, stressing the importance of integrating technology into higher education to promote career motivation and readiness for adapting to the future work environment.

Investigating the relationships among the forced shift to remote learning, employability and work readiness of recent college graduates

Investigating the relationships among the forced shift to remote learning, employability and work readiness of recent college graduates

Housing Vulnerability, Shared Housing, Informality, and Crowding: The Housing Strategies of China’s Recent College Graduates

ABSTRACT Mirroring developments elsewhere, for recent college graduates in China the transition to employment is increasingly protracted and, for some, precarious. Case studies of individual strategies and cities indicate a diversification of housing pathways, where economic precarity is rendering at least some vulnerable. Based on original survey data collected in 2019, I investigate the housing choices of Chinese college graduate job market entrants and ask who is vulnerable and whether adverse outcomes are mere market entry strategies or lasting. I find that recent graduates generally find housing in central locations, close to their work. However, to achieve favourable locational outcomes on low budgets, many resort to sharing. High-density room sharing of three or more people is illegal but prominent and dominates in first-tier cities. The findings highlight how urbanization interacts with housing vulnerability and contribute to theorizing on the housing crisis, the Global North-South binary, and the very nature of home sharing.

Early career workers granted creative autonomy: agency shifts intern debate towards industry expectations

ABSTRACT This research contributes to debates on intern labour, particularly preparing young workers for careers in the culture industries and exploitative experiences that may hinder their success. The purpose of this study is to enrich our understanding of the skillsets required by young practitioners and how creative autonomy can be a fruitful conceptual tool to shift the internship debate from meaningful or (self-)exploitative, paid and unpaid, professional experiences. Through semi-structured in-depth interviews with current students and recent college graduates, the analysis shows participants earn creative autonomy by understanding the implicit and explicit expectations of the role and responsibilities of culture industry positions. Interviewees who understand these institutional practices and their role within corporate governance structures shed the status of interns and provide value by contributing meaningful work at the internship site. However, young workers who lack awareness of these industry dynamics of working conditions are typically neglected by site supervisors and assigned exploitative tasks. The findings describe how these individuals would benefit from structured internship programmes with site supervisors who help develop their skillset and learn industry norms through shadowing and observation to pursue more ideal career paths or professionally rewarding experiential learning experiences.

Be the Change You Want to See: Problem-Based Learning to Promote Diversity, Justice, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Sustainability in the Classroom and Workplace

This study presents a problem-based learning (i.e., PBL) assignment to engage students around the areas of diversity, justice, equity, inclusion, belonging (i.e., DEI), and sustainability in the classroom and workplace. The assignment is developed based on the learning objectives of an upper division business course following an outlined three-step process. A pretest-posttest research design with a control group demonstrates that the experiential assignment is effective in enhancing students’ problem-solving skills which, according to employers, recent college graduates need to improve upon. The PBL approach also increases students’ interest in DEI and sustainability so that they want to make a difference in society. While students’ confidence in their preparedness to become a manager decreases over the course of a semester, this loss in confidence is mitigated by students’ active participation in the PBL assignment.

Rev.:] The Making of the Eastern Vikings: Rus’ and Varangians in the Middle Ages / Ed. by Sverrir Jakobsson, Thorir Jonsson Hraundal, and Daria Segal. Turnhout: Brepols, 2023. (Medieval Identities: Socio-Cultural Spaces, vol. 12). 236 p.

The volume is edited by Prof. Sverrir Jakobsson, Dr Thorir Jónsson Hraundal and a PhD can-didate Daria Segal from the University of Reykjavík. The list of the participants is quite di-verse (from renowned scholars to recent university graduates) and, as a result, the quality of the papers is immensely varied. The intended aim of the collection is to contribute to what the editors believe is a “much-needed paradigm shift in the study of the eastern Vikings, with a renewed focus on their multiple and hybrid identities”. The editors argue that histo-riography on the “eastern Vikings”, as they label them, is vast but invariably focused on ac-tual historical events, while their goal is to concentrate on the narrators of the medieval ac-counts of the Rus’ and the Varangians, the literary contexts, and the aetiology of these nar-ratives, thus situating the debate on the Rus’ and the Varangians in a new context. The book consists of an introduction, eleven chapters, a list of references, and a terminology index where the term Rus’ is missing, either by oversight or because of the challenges of defining it unambiguously. Of the eleven chapters, eight are source studies, while three are written in a slightly different vein and are primarily orientated towards historiography. The papers, as they appear in the book, are devoted to: 1) a gender reading of tenth-century Islamic geo-graphical sources about the Rus’ (T. M. Upham); 2) the Varangians in medieval Arabic sources of the ninth to eleventh centuries (Thorir Jónsson Hraundal); 3) the initial stage (ninth cen-tury) of relations between Byzantium and the Rus’ (M. White); 4) the Western images of Scandinavians and the Rus’ in the period between 800 and 1250 (R. Fenster); 5) criticism of John Lind’s concept of “Varangian Christianity” as practised by Scandinavians along the way “from the Varangians to the Greeks” (I. Garipzanov); 6) the Varangians in the chronicle writ-ing of medieval Rus’ (D. Segal); 7) the treasures of Haraldr Sigurðarson, the king of Norway from 1046 to 1066, acquired by him in Rus’ and Byzantium (F. Androshchuk); 8) the Norwe-gian missionary king of the late tenth century Óláfr Tryggvason and the role in the baptism of Rus’ ascribed to him by sagas (K. J. Richter); 9) saga narratives on the visits of the Scandi-navians to Constantinople which predate the sources by several centuries (Sverrir Jakob-sson); 10) a re-evaluation of the 1954 work of Sigfús Blöndal on the Varangian guard in Con-stantinople and its 1978 English translation and reworking (R. Scheel); 11) Kievan Rus’ in Ukrainian historiography (Valur Gunnarsson). The volume produces an entirely mosaic impression and is not always logically organised from the point of view of chronology. Nevertheless, the collection is interesting for the issues raised in it and its unconventional approaches and interpretations. However, many of these papers demonstrate an insufficient acquaintance of the authors with the Russophone scholarly literature, without which it is impossible to investigate the chosen topic comprehensively.

Grads on the go: Measuring college‐specific labor markets for graduates

AbstractThis paper introduces a new measure of the labor markets served by colleges and universities across the United States. About 50% of recent college graduates are living and working in the metro area nearest the institution they attended, with this figure climbing to 67% in‐state. The geographic dispersion of alumni is more than twice as great for highly selective 4‐year institutions as for 2‐year institutions. However, more than one quarter of 2‐year institutions disperse alumni more diversely than the average public 4‐year institution. In one application of these data, we find that the average strength of the labor market to which a college sends its graduates predicts college‐specific intergenerational economic mobility. In a second application, we quantify the extent of “brain drain” across areas and illustrate the importance of considering migration patterns of college graduates when estimating the social return on public investment in higher education.

Ready, Set, Fly! Preparedness of Sales Graduates for Entry Roles

Several studies show that while collegiate sales programs effectively prepare students for sales careers, there are various opportunities to improve. In this research, we look at how sales education impacts the career preparedness of recent 4-year college graduates. We focus specifically on the development of self-leadership and sales-related self-efficacy to explore how sales programs can better prepare undergraduates for successful careers in sales. This study uses a multistage process to consider key latent constructs that positively influence sales performance and intention to stay with current employers among recent college graduates. Results reveal how experiential education methods and college experiences positively influence early-stage sales performance and intent to stay and reduce employee turnover. Findings provide insights into recent graduates’ perceptions of preparedness for critical sales tasks provided by their college education and provide practical guidelines to university and business sales educators to enhance the sales education of university sales graduates.

Entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurship intentions, and entrepreneurship motivation on students’ entrepreneurship interest in entrepreneurship among higher education students

One of the initiatives to strengthen the Indonesian economy is entrepreneurship. Concern has been raised about how little entrepreneurship is being pursued by recent college graduates. Several earlier studies have discovered that an entrepreneur can successfully run his business if there is an interest in entrepreneurship. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate how entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurship intentions, and entrepreneurship motivation affect students’ entrepreneurship interest in entrepreneurship among higher education students in Bandar Lampung, Indonesia. Regarding the geopolitical constellations at the international, national, and regional levels, Bandar Lampung, Indonesia, is in a very favorable position. Thus, 180 students who had taken entrepreneurship courses at nine universities in Bandar Lampung were asked to complete a questionnaire, and the information was then analyzed using PLS-SEM. It was determined that entrepreneurship education had no discernible impact on entrepreneurship motivation. Furthermore, entrepreneurship interest was not significantly impacted by entrepreneurship motivation. Additionally, there was no discernible mediating effect of entrepreneurial motivation on entrepreneurial education to entrepreneurship interest. However, the relationship between entrepreneurship motivation and entrepreneurship education was significantly impacted by entrepreneurship intention. These results imply that students at the university in Bandar Lampung believe that entrepreneurship education is like other lectures and do not develop an interest in entrepreneurship.

The Impact of GeM on Gen Z: A Perspective on E-Commerce

This paper aims to discover the effects of e-commerce on the younger generations. The Indian e-commerce market is expanding at a fast rate and is expected to experience accelerated expansion in the coming years. Between 2019 and 2022, the e-commerce business experienced extraordinary growth, with its total revenues increasing by more than 60 times. In India, approximately 180 million internet users, or about 80 million households, are “ready” for e-commerce, but fewer than 10 million of these individuals make online purchases. One of the most significant benefits of e-commerce for a developing country like India is its capacity to support its young population. As Indian e-commerce nurtures, the most consistent returns for investors will come from enterprises with high margins. E-commerce, which consists of marketing and other commercial processes conducted over computer-mediated networks, is influencing the operations of businesses in a variety of industries. It causes some job responsibilities to be mechanized and others to be replaced by self-service operations, thereby increasing production per worker and decreasing the demand for some occupations. The introduction and use of new technologies have posed significant challenges for commercial employees around the globe. E-commerce has also boosted employment in the disciplines that develop the systems and software required for it, as well as those that deal with websites and networks. This is beneficial for young people, particularly those with an interest in engineering and technology. Recent college graduates favour the e-commerce industry and plan to invest in it to launch their own profitable businesses. The present paper looks into the influence of e-commerce, especially the effect of GeM, the government e-marketplace on the generation of youth more commonly known as Generation Z or simply, Gen Z.

Employers’ Expectations of University Graduates as They Transition into the Workplace

Abstract Research on work readiness indicates employers are increasingly pointing out that soft skills are as important as discipline specific knowledge and technical skills when hiring recent university graduates. However, many university students think excellent grades are the main reason they get the jobs. The disconnect between what employers expect and what students imagine is significant to the extent that many recent university graduates are unable to be employed in the jobs they want, and many employers have challenges dealing with recent university graduates who are not work ready. In 2018, a soft skills pilot study was conducted with internship supervisors who work with the Human Development and Family Studies Program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. An online survey was sent to 65 internship supervisors, and three focus group sessions were conducted as a follow-up of the survey. In 2019, Phase 2 of this study polled 76 employers who participated in a university career fair on what soft skills they expect university graduates to have at the time of hiring. This paper reports on findings to two questions: 1) What employers think of undergraduate university students who have completed an internship with them, and 2) What soft skills employers expect of recent university graduates who are transitioning into the workplace. Findings indicate that in addition to soft skills, employers also regard personal attributes and qualities as equally important at the time of hire.

Enhancing Cybersecurity: The Crucial Role of Self-Regulation, Information Processing, and Financial Knowledge in Combating Phishing Attacks

In today’s technologically advanced world, the escalating prevalence of phishing attacks necessitates an urgent exploration of effective countermeasures. This study delves into the crucial investigation of how self-regulation influences phishing susceptibility, while also examining the mediating role of information processing and the moderating influence of financial knowledge. A comprehensive survey was meticulously crafted, targeting 370 recent university graduates. The collected data underwent rigorous analysis using Hayes’ PROCESS macro, unveiling a mediated moderation model. The findings reveal that self-regulation does not directly predict phishing susceptibility. However, information processing, whether systematic or heuristic, significantly impacts phishing susceptibility. Additionally, information processing serves as a mediator, connecting self-regulation to phishing susceptibility. Notably, the interaction between systematic information processing and financial knowledge emerged as a significant determinant of phishing susceptibility. By establishing a comprehensive mediated moderation model, this study provides invaluable insights for individuals and organizations seeking to bolster their defenses against phishing attacks. Furthermore, it emphasizes the vital role of financial knowledge and employees’ heuristic information processing in mitigating cyber threats. This research serves as a crucial scientific contribution, offering compelling evidence that proactive management of contributing factors can effectively mitigate the escalating threats posed by phishing attacks.