Career guidance, employability, and entering the workforce at University through a Structural Equation Model

Pilar Martínez Clares y Cristina González Lorente

Abstract

This research presents a hypotheticalmodel regarding university students’ perceptions of their current preparation for entering the workforce that uses a structural regression model to connect various aspects regarding training, satisfaction, information, and career guidance programs. Its research objectives are to establish the goodness of fit of the model, analyse the relationships established among the variables, and compare the effect of career guidance on these variables. To this end, a representative sample of 931 final year undergraduate students from the Universidad de Murcia and the Universidad de Granada from a range of degrees and branches of knowledge participated anonymously and voluntarily by completing an ad hoc questionnaire (named COIL). The AMOS v21 program was used to analyse the data and estimate the relationships established among the different variables of the model. Elevated model fit indexes stand out among the main results obtained, corroborating its design using the empirical data, as well as statistically significant causal relations in all cases analysed. In addition, introducing participation in professional guidance programs as a grouping variable strengthens these causal relationships. These results emphasize the role of career guidance as a key connection between higher education and employment at a time of change and transition to the workforce for university students where difficulties are not measured by the benefits achieved but rather by the permanent configuration of the changing and ambiguous social context in which they must make this transition.

Cite this article as: Martínez Clares, P. and González Lorente, C. (2018). Orientación, empleabilidad e inserción laboral en la universidad a través de un Modelo de Ecuaciones Estructurales | Career guidance, employability, and entering the workforce at University through a structural equation model. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 76 (269), 119-139. doi: 10.22550/REP76-1-2018-06

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Author Biography

Pilar Martínez Clares is PhD in education from the Universidad de Murcia. Lecturer in the Department of Educational Research and Diagnosis Methods in the Faculty of Education of Universidad de Murcia. She works on topics related to career guidance and professional training, diagnosis, development, and evaluation of professional competencies, European Higher Education Area, learning focuses, quality, tutoring in education, and entering the workforce.

Cristina González Lorente is a PhD student. Predoctoral Resercher on the Training Assistance Programme for University Teachers (FPU) of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport in the Department of Educational Research and Diagnosis Methods in the Faculty of Education of Universidad de Murcia. She has also been beneficiary of a research grant in the Support Unit for the General Directorate of Vocational Training at the MECD.

Citación recomendada | Recommended citation

Clares y Cristina González Lorente, P. M. (2018) . Career guidance, employability, and entering the workforce at University through a Structural Equation Model. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 76(269). https://www.revistadepedagogia.org/rep/vol76/iss269/13