Session Information
01 SES 16 B, General Issues: Employability, Vocational Education and Materials Development
Paper Session
Contribution
Youth employability has become a recurrent topic in the scientific literature, establishing itself as "the concept of the new millennium" (Clarke, 2008; García-Álvarez et al., 2022; Santos Rego et al., 2018). Its importance is explained by the rapid transformations in the labour market, the rise of globalisation and digitalisation, unemployment, temporary and precarious employment -especially among the young population- together with the need to have a profile of "boundaryless careers" in a complex world of work (Bennett, 2018; Clarke, 2008; García-Álvarez et al., 2022).
In the context of global instability, this notion is based on a multidimensional construct comprising “the human capital, social capital and individual characteristics that underpin perceived employability, in a specific labour market context, and that, in combination, influence employment outcomes” (Clarke, 2018, p. 1931). It is a construct that combines complex interactions between individual and contextual variables (Monteiro et al., 2022).
In this sense, recent comprehensive approaches to the concept of employability emphasise the ability of individuals to use acquired skills in a meaningful way and contribute to all social contexts in which the individual interacts throughout life (Bridgstock & Jackson, 2019). In this respect, all the spaces in which the individual develops the competencies are fundamental to employability. For this reason, in its complementary action with formal organisations, such as Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), non-formal education plays a significant role for its possibilities in the integral development of young people (Santos Rego et al., 2018).
Non-formal education is defined as planned and organised training, that includes a broad set of activities and programmes targeting heterogeneous populations with diverse socio-educational needs (Council of the European Union, 2012; Romi & Schmida, 2009). Non-formal education has a great potential in optimising human capital as a dimension of youth employability (Santos Rego et al., 2018). This capital includes educational and training investments that help individuals to achieve a set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes (competencies) valued by employers during recruitment processes (Becker, 1964).
According to the literature, and in a competency-based approach (Vanhercke et al., 2014), the development of transversal competencies -also referred to in the research as soft skills or generic competencies- is a determinant factor in youth employability. They can be defined as a “dynamic combination of cognitive and meta-cognitive skills, interpersonal, intellectual and practical skills” that “help people to adapt and behave positively so that they can deal effectively with the challenges of their professional and everyday life (Haselberg et al., 2012, p. 67).
Overall, the scientific literature indicates the role of transversal competencies to act effectively in various working environments. Thus, they are widely reported as important by employers in the international context (García-Álvarez et al., 2022; World Economic Forum, 2020). For this reason, they could be referred as "transversal competencies for employability" (García-Álvarez et al., 2022).
Research focused on university graduates suggest an adequate development of technical or specific skills (hard skills), as opposed to transversal or generic skills (soft skills), which do not meet the expectations of recruiters (García-Álvarez et al., 2022; Monteiro et al., 2022). In this sense, non-formal education programmes are an essential resource to promote the development of transversal competencies to ensure higher rates of employability and social inclusion in the young population (Santos Rego et al., 2018).
In this context, the main aim of this study is to analyse the development of transversal competencies, as a dimension of employability, in young participants in non-formal education programmes. Specifically, the study analyses two non-formal education programmes for young people in the Autonomous Community of Galicia (Spain): the first, Galeuropa, for international mobility, and the second, Iniciativa Xove for social entrepreneurship.
Method
This paper is based on a non-experimental, exploratory and descriptive research. In particular, the study employs a two-stage sample selection. In stage one, non-formal education programmes have been selected: the Galeuropa programme for international mobility and the Iniciativa Xove programme for social entrepreneurship, both led by Public Administrations in Spain. In stage two, the programmes calls and the subjects participating were selected by a simple random sampling. Specifically, the participants in the study belong to the calls from the beginning of the programmes until the last one in which the authorisation for data processing was obtained (2016). The study sample is made up of 348 young participants: 106 from the Iniciativa Xove programme (48.1% men and 51.9% women) with an age range between 16 and 38 years (M= 28.35; SD= 5.06) and, mostly, with university studies (42.7%); and 245 from the Galeuropa programme (35.5% men and 65.4% women) aged between 23 and 34 years (M=28.07; SD=3.02) and, again, with a higher educational level (83.4% with university studies). Regarding the instruments, from a scale of transversal or generic competencies, we evaluate the degree to which the participants consider that they have developed a range of transversal competencies (soft skills) that the scientific literature identifies as fundamental for youth employability. For its design, among others, the scales of generic competencies of the Tuning project (González & Wagenaar, 2003) and the Reflex project (Allen & Van der Velden, 2007), or specific investigations that assess the development of transversal competencies in non-formal education programmes have been used (Souto-Otero et al., 2016). The psychometric analysis of the scale was carried out using an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), indicating all the indexes a good fit. The final scale resulted in 14 items linked to transversal competencies for youth employability.
Expected Outcomes
The research has revealed the possibilities of non-formal education programmes to optimize the career options of young people. The results show a link between participation in non-formal education programmes and the development of transversal competencies which, as a factor of human capital, increase youth employability. However, depending on the characteristics of each programme, a different competence profile is observed. Thus, statistically significant differences are observed in favour of the participants in Galeuropa in transversal competencies referred to the adaptation to other cultural environments, communication in a foreign language, emotional management and analysis of information from a critical point of view. On the other hand, in Iniciativa Xove, significant differences are observed in the competence of effective coordination of a group of people. In this sense, from the perspective that considers the involvement in non-formal education as a possibility of optimising 'personal capital' (Brown & Hesketh, 2004), in the case of Galeuropa, young people have achieved professional experience with the development of skills to work in an international and globalised context, and, in Iniciativa Xove, the participants have been able to develop their leadership qualities as social entrepreneurs through the design and management of youth initiatives. In general, the findings are in line with research on the improvement of human capital in activities known as out-of-school education (Brown & Hesketh, 2004; Santos Rego et al., 2018). Thus, young people see these experiences as a way to improve their employability through the development of transversal competencies in the face of their difficult employment situation. But also, in line with comprehensive approaches of employability (Bridgstock & Jackson, 2019), such transversal competencies developed allow young people to be able to move appropriately in all academic, social and professional spaces in which the person develops throughout life, also favouring their social inclusion.
References
Allen, J., & Van der Velden, R. (2007). The Flexible Professional in the Knowledge Society. General Results of the REFLEX Project. Maastricht University. https://cordis.europa.eu/docs/results/506/506352/124857011-6_en.pdf Becker, G. S. (1964). Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education. National Bureau of Economic Research. Bennett, D. (2018). Graduate employability and higher education: Past, present and future. HERDSA Review of Higher Education, 5, 31-61. https://www.herdsa.org.au/herdsa-review-higher-education-vol-5/31-61 Brown, P., & Hesketh, A. (2004). The Mismanagement of Talent. Employability and Jobs in the Knowledge Economy. Oxford University Press. Bridgstock, R., & Jackson, D. (2019). Strategic institutional approaches to graduate employability: navigating meanings, measurements and what really matters. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 41(5), 468-484. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2019.1646378 Clarke, M. (2008). Understanding and managing employability in changing career contexts. Journal of European Industrial Training, 32(4), 258-284. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590810871379 Clarke, M. (2018). Rethinking graduate employability: the role of capital, individual attributes and context. Studies in Higher Education, 43(11), 1923-1937. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1294152 Council of the European Union. (2012). Council Recommendation of 20 December 2012 on the validation of non-formal and informal learning. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32012H1222(01)&from=ES García-Álvarez, J., Vázquez-Rodríguez, A., Quiroga-Carrillo, A., & Priegue, D. (2022). Transversal Competencies for Employability in University Graduates: A Systematic Review from the Employers’ Perspective. Education Sciences, 12(3), 1-37. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12030204 González, J., & Wagenaar, R. (2003). Tuning Educational Structures in Europe. Universidad de Deusto. Haselberger., D., Oberheumer, P., Perez, E., Cinque, M., & Capasso, D. (2012). Mediating Soft Skills at Higher Education Institutions. Guidelines for the design of learning situations supporting soft skills achievement. https://gea-college.si/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/MODES_handbook_en.pdf Monteiro, S., Almeida, L., Gomes, C., & Sinval, J. (2022). Employability profiles of higher education graduates: a person-oriented approach. Studies in Higher Education, 47(3), 499-512. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2020.1761785 Romi, S., & Schmida, M. (2009). Non-formal education: a major educational force in the postmodern era. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(2), 257-273. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057640902904472 Santos Rego, M. A., Lorenzo, M., y Vázquez-Rodríguez, A. (2018). Educación no formal y empleabilidad de la juventud [Non-formal education and youth employability]. Síntesis. Souto-Otero, M. (2016). Young people's views of the outcomes of non-formal education in youth organisations: its effects on human, social and psychological capital, employability and employment. Journal of Youth Studies, 19(7), 938-956. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2015.1123234 Vanhercke, D., De Cuyper, N., Peeters, E., & De Witte, H. (2014). Defining Perceived Employability: A Psychological Approach. Personnel Review, 43(4), 592-605. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-07-2012-0110 World Economic Forum. (2020). The Future of Jobs Report—2020. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2020.pdf
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