Employability Learning of Engineering Students: Student Perspective on Employability as a Concept, Influences on Employability Learning and Work Placement Experience

Today’s labour market is increasingly dynamic and unpredictable due to technological advancements, globalisation, the gig economy together with unprecedented events. The employer-employee relationship is also evolving. The earlier relational and dependent relationship has now become more transactional and independent. Consequently, there is less career security, and individuals need to proactively manage their careers. Conceptions of employability have matured, and definitions have broadened to reflect this career insecurity. The narrow view of employability, that it is simply about gaining employment, has widened to include long-term aspects of sustaining employment. There is extensive literature on the ‘matter’ of employability, that is, ‘what’ employability is or what the categories or determinants of employability are. The determinants could be supply-side (that is, attributes of the individual such as technical skills, transferable skills and personal qualities) or demand-side (such as labour market conditions and employer expectations). However, there are calls to examine employability through a more holistic lens, integrating both demand- and supply-side factors. For engineers, there are additional challenges stemming from their professional context. Engineering is a heterogenous profession with engineers working in different fields and roles during their careers. Rapid changes in technology, working with global clients, and social and ethical aspects of work are some of the challenges that engineers face. So, engineers need to develop new skills throughout their careers. Taken together, these factors present the risk of a growing gap between the skills of engineering graduates and their future employers. Students need to develop a wider range of employability skills and attitudes, including how to develop their careers after graduation. Hence how universities develop students’ employability is becoming increasingly important. However, there is much less discussion in the employability literature on ‘how’ employability should be learnt and developed, that is, the ‘form’ of employability. In addition, in the Australian context, diversity in the engineering higher education sector and the workforce is significant, owing to the large number of international students and migrant engineers. There is minimal literature about whether these two cohorts have different employability skills, and whether the two cohorts might develop employability skills differently. This study explored both the ‘matter’ and ‘form’ of the employability of engineering students. It looked at the influences on students’ employability learning through a holistic lens. It examined both demand- and supply-side factors that influence how students gain awareness and work towards developing skills and competencies. Further, the study examined a major influence on students’ employability learning – the work placement experience. The process, person, context and time factors of work placement were examined to see how they influence a student’s learning at the workplace. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1976, 1979) and Bronfenbrenner’s PPCT (person-process-context-time) model (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998) provided the theoretical underpinning for these investigations. The study also examined differences between how local and international students view employability as a concept and the employability categories (supply-side) that they find most important. The CareerEDGE model (Dacre Pool & Sewell, 2007) provided the theoretical underpinning in terms of employability categories. The study was conducted as a phenomenological qualitative inquiry. Data were collected through interviews and focus groups with engineering students from RMIT University. Initially, an end-to-end pilot study was conducted where data were also collected from engineering practitioners. The aims of the pilot phase were to test the research design, identify improvements to the research process and improve researcher skills. As a result, the research design was revised, with the research focus changing from local versus international to employability learning in general, and data collection was limited to engineering students. After starting the main study, data collection had to be moved online because of COVID-19 restrictions. In total, ten focus groups and ten interviews were held with engineering students, with a total of 38 participants. The participants were from different engineering year levels and disciplines. One interview and three focus groups were held face-to-face, while the balance was held online. The study defined employability learning. After reviewing the concepts of ‘learning’ and ‘development’ through learning theories and social development theories, employability learning was defined as ‘The process through which the developing person acquires knowledge about employability and works towards changing their behaviour with the goal of achieving the outcome of employability’. As such there are two aspects to employability learning. One is acquiring knowledge about the demands and nature of the workplace and the other is developing required competencies (skills and abilities) to become employable. The study identified both similarities and differences in the perception of employability between local and international students. Both cohorts perceived the concept of employability more as 'getting employment' rather than a long-term phenomenon, attributed to having a ‘narrow’ conception of employability. Differences between the cohorts included how they prioritised employability categories such as experience, cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence, attributed to differences in perceived value. The study also found that in general, students perceived their employability learning to be an individual phenomenon, with both external (formal and informal learning) and internal (person-related characteristics) influences shaping their motivation and progress as employability learners. Influences were categorised as either enablers or limitations, depending on whether they supported the student’s employability learning or not. An example of an enabler was the student’s perception of teachers as ‘primary knowers’ in employability education in the classroom setting, thus endowing teachers with a powerful role in developing employability. An example of a limitation was the family influence, which some students perceived to have limited their development of generic skills. The influence of both external and internal factors on student learning during work placements was also examined. In terms of external factors, the main actors in a workplace that influence employability learning were found to be supervisors, peers and mentors. Development of higher-order employability attributes in students, such as self-efficacy and self-esteem, depended on the nature of tasks assigned, training and support for task execution and completion. In terms of internal factors, the skills of the student (such as the skill in learning, communicating expectations and prioritising work), personal qualities (such as reflectiveness, initiative and balancing work and life) and expectations (such as the closeness of supervision and level of training) were identified as key influences on learning in the workplace. The self-efficacy gained through work placement changed students’ perceptions as they accrued more life experience. The findings of this study have implications for university teachers, leadership and HEI policy makers in terms of supporting an employability-oriented curriculum and delivery. For example, one major implication is the need to clarify the role of the university teacher in developing employability. Further, it has implications for work placement hosting organisations, workplace supervisors and professional bodies in supporting employability learning of students. Workplace supervisors should encourage the student to make use of different modes of learning available in the workplace and foster a conducive environment for learning. Opportunities for further work include developing a practical framework that supports teachers to incorporate relevant employability content into the curriculum (the matter) and to design and deliver impactful employability learning activities (the form).