Recent economic, social and educational changes in contemporary societies have had a considerable impact on how the relationship between the worlds of education and training and work is perceived. In the case of European Higher Education, which in recent years has become massified and, to a certain extent, democratised, it is interesting to investigate to what extent educational and labour pathways are conditioned by the sociocultural conditions of origin. It has been increasingly evidenced that having a higher education degree is no longer a sufficient condition for securing a job. Labour market changes occurred over the last few years, largely as a result of technological development and globalization, have made job perspectives less defined and predictable over time, whilst the transitions between jobs tend to be more frequent and difficult (Savickas, 2013). Young adults who have just entered the labour market, even if graduates, are the ones who suffer the most, with higher unemployment rates (ILO, 2017). In this context, additional forms of capital, which go beyond generic skills, have been identified as important predictors of employability, namely those related to social background, gender and ethnicity (Reay et al., 2006; Tomlinson, 2017). This may give rise to social inequalities, resulting from different educational and cultural biographies that will affect dispositions towards employability (Tomlinson, 2017).

Taking a comprehensive definition of employability, that not only focuses on individual attributes, but that considers it as resulting from the dynamic and evolving interactions between governmental and educational policies, organizational strategy, individual characteristics, and the social, economical, cultural and technological context (Guilbert, Bernaud, Gouvernet & Rossier, 2016), this study will explore the relationship between contextual factors, namely social capital, and career resources of higher education students. This proposal is grounded on the framework for career success (Hirschi et al., 2018). Taking the concepts of capital, Hirschi, Nagy, Baumeler, Johnston and Spurk (2018) propose, on the basis of a meta-analytic research, a comprehensive framework to assess key predictors of career success. Four types of career resources integrate this model: (i) human capital resources – referring to knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics considered relevant to achieve performance expectation for an occupation; (ii) social capital resources – including  resources external to the individual, such as networks, mentors, and social support; (iii) psychological resources – integrating positive psychological traits and states; and (iv) career identity resources - referring to conscious awareness of oneself as worker and to the subjective meanings linked with the professional role. Career resources are here defined as “anything that helps an individual attain his or her career goals” (p. 4, Hirschi et al., 2018). Despite the positive and promising results of this theoretical framework, there is not much empirical research on this yet. In this scope, one of the open questions that this study will address is: how do career resources are affected by the social conditions of origin, namely, social class, gender and participation in extracurricular activities?

This study is framed in a broader project entitled “(Re)Search for Career: Distance career intervention, employability and social equity in the access to the labour market” (PTDC/CED-EDG/0122/2020), funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. This project was approved by the Ethical Committees of both universities engaged in the project (CEISCH 076-2021). The participants of this study are 2353 higher education students, from two public Portuguese universities. 66.1% of the participants are female, 33.1% are male, and 0.8% are identified with another gender or prefer not to respond. The average age of participants is 23.65 (SD= 8.67). Data were collected during the academic year of 2021/2022, both in face-to-face and online classroom contexts, by completing an online questionnaire made available through LimeSurvey. The protocol for data collection included a sociodemographic questionnaire and three assessment scales. For the specific purpose of this study, we used the sociodemographic questionnaire, which included questions such as gender, age, professional status, parental education and professional situation, and extracurricular activities. The Career Resources Questionnaire, originally developed by Hirschi and colleagues (2018) and adapted and validated for Portuguese Higher Education students (Monteiro & Almeida, 2021), was the instrument used for career resources assessment. The instrument is composed by a total of 38 items, aggregated in twelve dimensions: (i) Occupational expertise; (ii) Job market knowledge; (iii) Soft skills; (iv) Organizational career support; (v) Job challenge; (vi) Social career support; (vii) Career involvement; (viii) Career confidence; (ix) Career clarity; (x) Networking; (xi) Career exploration; (xii) Learning. A 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (completely false) to 5 (completely true), was presented for participants respond to each item. Confirmatory analysis evidenced adequate indicators of validity (χ2/df= 1.93, p< 0.001; CFI=0.966; TLI= .960; RMSEA= 0.38) and reliability analysis indicated good to excellent values (all the 12 factors presented Coefficient Cronbach’s alpha (α) and by the Composite Reliability ranging between .78 and .93).

The topics of social inclusion and employability represent current priorities on political agendas, namely the 2030 agenda for sustainable development of the United Nations: "to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”(BCDS Portugal, 2020). With this study, we expect to contribute to the identification of specific needs that Higher Education institutions need to recognize and address in the scope of their social responsibility (Harvey, 2000). The results and conclusions from the statistical analysis that will be presented are expected to deepen the understanding of the relationship between students’ career resources and social capital, taking particularly the variables of gender, social class and participation in extracurricular activities. Taking previous evidence that career resources are malleable and can be developed throughout higher education studies (Monteiro et al., 2023), such knowledge is relevant for the understanding of how and what specific needs higher education institutions should address in order to potentiate a widen and more democratic participation in higher education (Boliver, Stephen and Siddiqui, 2017).

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