Co-operative education (co-op) programs enable students to gain real-world experience by alternating work and study terms. Understanding employers' expectations of students in different disciplines is therefore critical for success. To do this, the relationships between co-op job postings, required skills, and academic backgrounds can be modeled…

Purpose: This study explores employer perspectives regarding barriers to and responsibility for the workforce integration of skilled immigrants. Specifically, this study assesses employer perceptions of how influential various barriers are to the integration of self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) in the workplace, uncovers employer perceptions of…

Purpose: This study examines the competencies delineated by the Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA) in Canada and explores the gap between what universities provide, represented by the students' confidence in the knowledge acquired--and what the accounting profession in Canada requires and deems necessary. Design/methodology/approach: Using…

In 2013, an urban college developed a mandatory soft skills course. Unique among postsecondary institutions, the course has been running since fall 2015. Research has now been conducted into the effectiveness of the course. A mixed-methods research study collected primary data and a literature review of the pertinent secondary data. Data sets…

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze Northern Manitoba employers' indexes of employability skills that influence the UCN (University College of the North) students' employability in indigenous contexts. Design/methodology/approach: This study constructs the employability skills into six indexes from employers' perspective: reading comprehension,…

This study explored Canadian employers' perspectives around the hiring of students who come from international pathways (SFIP) using Q Methodology. The research question was: "What are employer perceptions and practices regarding the hiring of students who come to Canadian (B.C.) post-secondary institutions via international educational…

Student performance evaluations are a traditional method for assessing a student's skills during a work-integrated learning (WIL) experience. While these assessments provide students with feedback on the development of their skills, little documentation of student performance exists after the WIL experience. This paper explores the role of…

This paper identifies structural barriers faced by postsecondary students from diverse groups (women, racialized people, people with disabilities, and Indigenous peoples) when accessing work-integrated learning (WIL) programs. Drawing on the ecological model approach, this paper examines the challenges to inclusive WIL in Canada at the macro-level…

A plethora of micro-credentialing research and pilots are underway across Canada and around the world led by academic researchers, government, and industry. The intensity is creating a perfect storm of opportunity that is reframing assessment practices. Exploring their utility for admission and transfer into higher education, the focus of this…

The concept of graduate employability has gained great prominence in international education. However, there still exists a gap in sexual orientation discrimination in graduate employability among transgender and queer (TQ) international students. In our qualitative study investigating graduate employability of transgender and queer students…

This paper presents evidence of employer and graduate attitudes on the skill set requirements for professional accountants, and whether university accounting programs develop these skills, and in particular emotional intelligence (EI) skills. We use priority indices and strategic mapping to evaluate the positioning of 31 skills. This analysis…

Previous research has documented substantial overqualification and an association with social disadvantage and fields of study. Overqualification persistence has been less studied. Persistence is more important than prevalence because skill and job matches are likely to involve lags. Our data set allows us to estimate the prevalence, the…

Students are increasingly choosing online studies due to the flexibility, accessibility and cost savings. Employers have not been as receptive and when hiring, will often choose a face-to-face graduate over an online graduate. If online graduates cannot overcome negative attitudes they may not be hired and employers may overlook qualified…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore employer perceptions of graduate student employability. This study is novel since existing research focused on employability is largely theoretic, remains focused on defining employability of undergraduates and largely fails to determine employer perceptions of factors that increase or decrease…

This paper calls for a reexamination of the kind of transferable business communication skills that new graduates require as they enter the workforce. Market needs are studied as the focal point for developing relevant exercises to train towards workplace communication competence. The arguments presented in this study are based on an investigation…