One of the major challenges university students often face before graduating is preparing to transition into the workforce, a task made even more demanding after the Covid-19 pandemic.This phenomenological study explores how final-year students describe their career preparedness experiences in the post-pandemic era. In-depth interviews were conducted with four final-year students at a Malaysian public university. They were selected through a purposive sampling technique. The interview data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed five themes related to the students’ career preparedness experiences: expectations and realities, exposure to real work settings, promoting positive outcomes via preparation, development of professional identity, and acquisition of critical skills. The study recommends collaboration with selected secondary schools in exposing students to various client issues before practicum and internship training to further develop their counselling competencies and increase their career preparedness level.
Background: Fresh graduates face an increasingly difficult school-to-work transition, while artificial intelligence (AI) has become a routine study and job-search companion; yet how the intention to use AI translates into employability, and through which mechanisms, remains unclear. Objective: Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory, this study tests whether behavioral intention to use AI is associated with self-perceived graduate employability directly and indirectly through career adaptability and job search self-efficacy, and whether AI self-efficacy and AI trust moderate these paths. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey of 612 Indonesian fresh graduates who use AI for career preparation was analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Results: AI use intention positively predicted career adaptability (β = 0.305) and job search self-efficacy (β = 0.249), and both resources predicted self-perceived employability. The indirect paths through both resources were significant, and a direct effect of AI use intention on employability remained, indicating partial mediation. AI self-efficacy and AI trust showed significant main effects on their resources, while the interaction-related indirect effects were not significant. Conclusion: AI use intention is associated with self-perceived employability through career adaptability and job search self-efficacy. The cross-sectional findings do not establish causality. Educational institutions and career-service units may use these findings to inform structured AI-supported occupational exploration, skills-gap analysis, résumé refinement, and interview rehearsal, while encouraging critical verification of AI outputs.
International branch campuses (IBCs) deliver foreign science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) qualifications inside host economies, yet how graduates’ reported educational experiences relate to their professional outcomes has received little attention in the Gulf. This study examined employability, work readiness and job alignment among Qatari nationals who completed a bachelor's degree at one of two United States IBCs in Qatar. A cross-sectional survey of 75 employed graduates, recruited purposively through professional networks and snowball referrals, was analysed using Fisher exact tests with exact odds ratios and effect sizes, together with parsimonious binary, ordinal and Firth penalised logistic regression with Wald intervals for coefficients and bootstrap percentile intervals for average predicted probabilities; responses to one open-ended question were categorised descriptively. Most graduates worked in roles related to their major (86.7%) and entered employment immediately after graduation (61.3%). Labour-market preparedness was associated with very high perceived employability (odds ratio 4.9, 95% CI 1.6–14.7) and with a very smooth transition to work (Firth odds ratio 13.9, 95% CI 3.5–54.8), and professional ability development was also associated with very high employability (odds ratio 6.5, 95% CI 1.9–22.4). Job alignment corresponded with smoother transitions, though imprecisely (odds ratio 8.6, 95% CI 1.0–73.0). Women were less likely than men to report being very well prepared (adjusted odds ratio 0.11, 95% CI 0.03–0.45); other gender comparisons were inconclusive. Graduates most often requested internships and practical exposure and locally grounded labour-market knowledge. The findings suggest that monitoring preparedness and occupational alignment alongside employment rates offers a more informative account of the professional experiences reported by graduates of international STEM programmes delivered locally.
The decline in psychological well-being among students in higher education has been increasingly documented. Despite growing recognition of perceived employability as consequential for employees’ well-being in the labor market, less is known regarding its specific association with psychological health among college students approaching the school-to-work transition. This study examined the association between perceived employability and psychological distress among Chinese college students and further explored the variation of this association by gender and family economic condition. Data were from three consecutive waves of the Panel Survey of Chinese University Students (PSCUS, 2020–2022), tracking 2552 students from their first to their third year. Fixed-effects models were employed to account for unobserved time-invariant characteristics. Interaction models were used to investigate how gender and family economic condition would shape the relationship between perceived employability and psychological distress. Results showed that higher perceived employability was significantly associated with lower psychological distress. Interaction models further indicated that the association was primarily driven by female and economically disadvantaged students. These findings highlight the need for policymakers to develop career-related programs that enhance students’ perceived employability as a vital means of promoting the psychological well‑being of college students, with particular attention to vulnerable socioeconomic and gender groups.
کاهش بهزیستی روانشناختی در میان دانشجویان آموزش عالی به طور فزایندهای مستندسازی شده است. با وجود افزایش شناخت نسبت به اهمیت اشتغالپذیری ادراکشده برای بهزیستی کارکنان در بازار کار، اطلاعات کمتری درباره ارتباط خاص آن با سلامت روانشناختی در میان دانشجویان دانشگاهی که در آستانه گذار از مدرسه به کار هستند، وجود دارد. این مطالعه ارتباط میان اشتغالپذیری ادراکشده و پریشانی روانشناختی را در میان دانشجویان دانشگاههای چین بررسی کرده و همچنین به بررسی تفاوت این ارتباط بر اساس جنسیت و وضعیت اقتصادی خانواده پرداخته است. دادهها از سه موج متوالی پیمایش پانل دانشجویان دانشگاههای چین (PSCUS، ۲۰۲۰–۲۰۲۲) گردآوری شده است که ۲۵۵۲ دانشجو را از سال اول تا سوم پیگیری کرده است. مدلهای اثرات ثابت برای کنترل ویژگیهای مشاهدهنشده ثابت در طول زمان به کار گرفته شد. مدلهای تعاملی برای بررسی نحوه تأثیر جنسیت و وضعیت اقتصادی خانواده بر رابطه میان اشتغالپذیری ادراکشده و پریشانی روانشناختی استفاده شد. نتایج نشان داد که اشتغالپذیری ادراکشده بالاتر به طور معناداری با پریشانی روانشناختی کمتر همراه است. مدلهای تعاملی همچنین نشان دادند که این ارتباط عمدتاً توسط دانشجویان زن و دانشجویان دارای وضعیت اقتصادی نامطلوب هدایت میشود. این یافتهها بر ضرورت تدوین برنامههای مرتبط با شغل توسط سیاستگذاران برای ارتقای اشتغالپذیری ادراکشده دانشجویان به عنوان ابزاری حیاتی برای ارتقای بهزیستی روانشناختی دانشجویان دانشگاه، با توجه ویژه به گروههای آسیبپذیر از نظر اقتصادی و جنسیتی، تأکید میکند.
