Abstract
There are concerns that some university students perhaps have a tendency to avoid engaging with employability at an early enough stage in their studies, and do not always seek out the best available support. This chapter explores the role that motivation plays in students’ career management behaviours, for example, career exploration, decision-making, and job-searching. The literature highlights the crucial role played by self-efficacy i.e. the belief in one’s ability to perform a given task, as informed by personal experience and feedback. Time spent on career exploration (reflecting on one’s own qualities and exploring potential opportunities) is often associated with greater confidence in making career decisions. Job search behaviours, not least active effort, are similarly tied to better career outcomes. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding just how earlier engagement with career exploration and decision-making activities might inform subsequent job searches. This chapter goes on to identify opportunities for addressing this gap, by highlighting the value of early student job search strategies, against a backdrop of relevant environmental conditions within the labour markets, which similarly cannot be overlooked.
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Clements, A.J. (2019). What Motivational Processes Underpin Student Engagement with Employability? A Critical Review. In: Diver, A. (eds) Employability via Higher Education: Sustainability as Scholarship. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26342-3_5
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