As of 2022, one third of college students in the United States are first-generation students (FGCS), with a significant number pursuing engineering degrees. This research focused on understanding and addressing the unique challenges and needs of FGCS in engineering, emphasizing the importance of career and professional development. FGCS often face…

This study aims to explore how higher education institutions respond to the challenge of incorporating soft skills into their curricula. It employs a mixed-methods approach in which the quantitative analysis of the disciplines addressing this issue is complemented by a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with four higher…

There is an ever-increasing demand for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to engage with the challenges of the changing labour market contexts and trends, such as the Fifth Industrial Revolution and the new normal. However, a major criticism is that higher education institutions do not often prepare graduates for real-life contexts. For that…

Young people in the Nordic countries have many options and face obligations to participate in career guidance and counselling (guidance). In Finland, young people are subjected to multiple institutionalized guidance practices especially in educational transition phases. Guidance has various objectives as a public policy, thereby setting a…

Youth unemployment remains a major political and socioeconomic challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, particularly given the region's young population. Literature points to two key barriers facing youth employment in the region, skills deficiencies and weak fundamentals that inhibit job creation and growth. Labor supply challenges are…

The purpose of this paper is to explore to what extent industry representatives deem employees' readiness as satisfactory for the implementation of Industry 4.0 elements, to determine how the availability of related positions in the market is perceived and, on that basis, to identify the implications for the education system in terms of structure…

Lack of university funding and support of experiential learning programs reduces opportunities for meaningful employment for culturally diverse students. Economic conditions foster a university's ability to fund experiential programs, and lack of funding places experiential learning programs (ELPs) at risk of being cut, impacting student…

There is a widening gap between traditional higher education and the needs of the industry workforce. Higher education has lately been criticized for having too few voices playing a role in most curricula development, with the voices being used consisting largely of career academics (Nature Editorial, 2023). Both industry and academia have found a…

This study examines the role of microcredentials in supporting learning for employment. The study collected information through an online survey among mostly European VET providers, national authorities, employee and employer organisations, in-depth country case studies and interviews, as well as Cedefop's ReferNet network. While the topic has…

Student success is a movement mobilizing various community college stakeholders to make policy and institutional change. More recently, researchers, policy leaders, and other community college stakeholders suggest expanding definitions of student success to include community college student post-graduate labor market outcomes, as community college…

This descriptive/transcendental phenomenological design aimed to understand how working college graduates perceived their college experience, their transition from school to work for workforce integration, and their career alignment to gainful employment. The intended sample was ten working college graduates with bachelor's degrees. However, due…

This study examined higher education workforce development practitioners' views on incorporating innovation ecosystems into workforce models to address U.S. workforce pipeline gaps and evolving labor market needs. While current programs have some success, they often fail to prepare graduates with knowledge and specific skills for rapid entry into…

Purpose: Graduates' employability has been recognised as a complex and multidimensional phenomenon in the theoretical literature. However, some critics have emerged around the lack of relation between structural, contextual and individual dimensions that have been acknowledged as relevant for the understanding of graduates' employability. This…

New hires must prepare to make an immediate impact in a fluctuating and dynamic job market. Teaching career readiness and employability skills helps prepare college students for a job search and, ultimately, success in their careers. This paper discusses how an academic program at a university adapted to prepare students for the workplace during a…

Contribution: This article demonstrates and illustrates the implication of design-based learning (DBL) and plan, do, check, and act (PDCA) methodology to foster creativity, critical thinking, collaborative decision making, and communication skills ("C4") with realistic constraints, theory, and practical implementation in higher…