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Graduates’ Psycho-Social Career Preoccupations and Employability Capacities in the Work Context

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Graduate Employability in Context

Abstract

The capacity to uphold one’s employability in today’s more volatile and uncertain employment climate has become a fundamental requirement for surviving in the contemporary workplace. This chapter explores the notion of employability capacities as important psycho-social resources supporting graduates’ career management and development in the contemporary work context. The employability of graduates has significant consequences for their future work selves, including their economic and social status, lifestyle and career well-being, all of which are seen as important psycho-social career preoccupations. This chapter explores an under-researched theme, namely how graduates’ self-evaluation of their employability capacities relate to their psycho-social career preoccupations. A sample of graduates employed in the human resource and financial fields (N = 160; 67% black people; 59% females; age 25–45 years: 80%) participated in the study. The results showed that career-adaptation preoccupations (expectations about one’s career outcomes) could largely be attributed to self-efficacious beliefs about one’s social capital and goal-directedness. The chapter further outlines the implications of the research findings for graduate employability in the work context.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

    Melinde Coetzee

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  1. Melinde Coetzee
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Southampton Education School, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom

    Michael Tomlinson

  2. Susanna Wesley Foundation, Southlands College, University of Roehampton, London, United Kingdom

    Leonard Holmes

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Coetzee, M. (2017). Graduates’ Psycho-Social Career Preoccupations and Employability Capacities in the Work Context. In: Tomlinson, M., Holmes, L. (eds) Graduate Employability in Context. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57168-7_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57168-7_14

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-57167-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-57168-7

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