Abstract
The successful acquisition of employment is influenced by a number of parameters, including the individual’s perception that they are employable. This research uses sequential mixed methods to measure the perceived employability of commencing undergraduate students of a project management degree at an Australian university. Participants had lower scores on all employability dimensions in comparsion to students who had already commenced their degree, with the exception of collaboration. Gender differences emerged, with females having lower levels than males on the commencement readiness and lifelong learning dimensions. Students did not link previous work experience to perceived employability, and employability was not framed within a project management context for commencing students. Findings suggest that universities should include career education early in the qualification so that preparatory skills and knowledge are developed. Findings also highlight the importance of perceived employability in relation to project management, and how employability differs across industries and project types.
Keywords
EmployabilityHigher educationProject managementStudentsWork-readiness
1. Introduction
The proportion of graduates who are employed in a field related to their discipline of study at the completion of their degree is a common measure of tertiary education success (Clarke, 2018; Gough, 2018) as it is quantifiable, reportable and enables inter-university comparison. Rate of employment after graduation is also a popular measure for attracting potential students into courses. Besides the traditional outcomes of knowledge and skills, students can enhance their likelihood of successful employment through increasing their perception of their employability since perceived employability (PE) is positively associated with preparatory and active job search behaviour (Onyishi et al., 2015). Yet, PE amongst students and graduates is still “under explored, under developed and….. over simplified” (Clarke, 2018 p.1924). One aspect that is specifically under explored is the change in PE for students over the duration of their program of study, as much of the research has been cross-sectional rather than longitudinal and with an emphasis on final-year students (e.g. Álvarez-González et al., 2017; Baluku et al., 2021; Pitan and Muller, 2019). Jackson and Wilton (2017) show that PE is a dynamic rather than static state that changes and develops throughout the duration of a student’s program of study. Cross-sectional research limits the capacity to understand what factors influence these changes. As universities are tasked with developing students’ employability (Cheng et al., 2021), it is important that a whole-of-program approach is taken to developing PE through curriculum design and scaffolded learning. Some research has started to address this shortcoming in understanding. For example, Donald et al. (2018, 2019) explored self PE amongst penultimate and final year students from a wide range of disciplines at a UK university, from which we learn that students believe higher education increases their employability, from which we learn that students believe higher education increases their employability, but that final year students reported lower PE which Donald et al. (2019) attribute to greater awareness of the global labour market.
The role of the university in the 21st century is not just to educate, but to nurture employment confidence (Rajaram, 2021), self-esteem and passion in students entering the competitive world of job hunting. The acquisition of skills and knowledge alone, therefore, no longer fulfils the calling of a university. Arguably, if universities were to understand the antecedents of PE and incorporate these into degree programs, the frequency of job search behaviours and therefore graduate employment would increase.
Career development theory is considered an important area of investigation in project management because of the predicted growth of the profession and the demand for competent project practitioners now and into the future (PMI, 2021). The ability to prepare emerging professionals with the skills and knowledge they to need to confidently and competently transition into their careers in project management thus becomes important, especially against the backdrop of a global shortage of project professionals. Career development theory provides an important foundation for the study of vocational behaviour and career development, examining evidence-based practice, and for the development and delivery of career interventions (Sampson et al., 2014). However, it is acknowledged that the application of career theory has yet to be comprehensively explored in project management (Akkermans et al., 2020). To address this shortcoming in the extant literature, this research aims to explore the PE of emerging project professionals in the context of their tertiary education. The objective of the research is to establish a PE baseline for students before they commence a bachelor degree in project management. The baseline is intended to be used in longitudinal research which will study PE over the duration of student’s program of study. Findings of the study will be used to guide curriculum design and content to enhance the students’ ability to find project-related work at the completion of their degrees.
The paper is structured as follows: we review the literature associated with employability, the role of the university in developing the PE of students, and the influence of field of study on PE. We then explain the methodology adopted, a sequential mixed methods approach using quantitative data to inform interviews and idiographic analysis of qualitative data, before presenting and discussing the findings.
2. Literature review
2.1. Employability
There has been much debate about definitions of employability (Rothwell and Arnold, 2007), but a good starting point is “the ability of an individual to acquire and keep a job they desire” (Rothwell and Arnold, 2007, p.25) which is a definition also adopted by Berntson and Marklund (2007). Some variations (eg. Oliver, 2015) make reference to an individual’s ability to move between roles, and the acquisition and continual upgrading of skills and personal attributes that are required to get a job. Other authors include variables such as a capacity for learning (Lane et al., 2000), mastery of career management and job search (Hillage and Pollard, 1998), and resilience (Iles, 1997). Adaptability plays a significant role in Fugate and Ashforth (2003) model validated by McArdle et al. (2007) and in the concept of employability orientation (Van Dam, 2004).
Where employability of an individual is often measured by external observers, an individual’s self-PE is defined by Veld et al. (2015 p.867) as “employees’ perception of their chance of a job in the internal and/or external labour market”. Vanhercke et al. (2014) add the concept of maintaining a job to this definition, and they explore five aspects of the definition: the subjective nature of the evaluation of my employability, my perception of employment possibilities, the maintenance of my employment – which might not be as relevant for everyone and can be influenced by career stage, a comparison of my employment possibilities with the current employer compared to other employers, and finally the quantity and quality of jobs that are available. We use the first person in these variables because it reminds us of the self-perception lens of the research. The idea that employability can be measured internally leads to discussion on the impact of PE on behaviours such as the frequency of preparatory and active job search behaviours (Onyishi et al., 2015), as well as on career success (Greer and Waight, 2017).
In the 20th century career, it was largely expected that a person would remain employed by the same organisation for life, and that the employing organisation would take care of any professional development they considered essential (Pryor and Bright, 2011). In the 21st century this paternal employer notion is less frequently encountered. Instead, the chaos theory of careers describes the complexity that a young adult can expect in their employment (Pryor and Bright, 2011) employed by multiple organisations and sometimes in completely different roles some of which are only now being recognised (Seet and Jones, 2020). With this change, individuals are now expected to plan and implement their own career management. Thus employability is not just an external assessment, but must now be self-assessed; an awareness of, and taking responsibility for, one’s employability is required to maintain constant work. We observe a proven relationship between PE and career success among young people from Van der Heijden et al. (2009).
Both Blau (1993) and Saks (2006) observe a relationship between PE and job search behaviour, which Blau defines as when an individual spends time looking for work. Job search behaviour can be divided into preparatory job search behaviour in which an individual identifies information about jobs, employers and industries, and active job search behaviour where individuals are actually seeking employment (Blau, 1994). It is this concept of job search behaviour that is more useful to this research since the behaviour is required in order for students to get jobs which then contributes to the defined success of a degree.
For project managers in the 21st century, careers are heavily influenced by the inherently temporary nature of all projects, leading to protean careers that are characterised by multiple contracts, movement between organisations (Akkermans et al., 2020) and even industries, and quite possibly periods between projects with no employment. The nature of a career like this when combined with the previously noted self-managed style of career management in the 21st century, heightens the importance of how one perceives their employability, compared to permanent employees bound to a single organisation. For project managers, employability – the action of maintaining one’s networks, knowledge and development (Lo Presti and Elia, 2020) – is intrinsic to maintaining job security and a continuous flow of work across organisations (Lo Presti and Elia, 2020; Akkermans et al., 2020; Crawford et al., 2013). This paper previously highlighted the finding that job search behaviours are positively influenced by PE (Onyishi et al., 2015) and therefore it is important to understand how project management students are aware of their employability, career success, and how to increase both.
2.2. Development of employability in the university context
Universities play a critical role in the development of graduate employability. A chronology of the field of graduate employability begins with Hillage and Pollard (1998) who contend that graduate employability is the knowledge, skills and attributes that graduates are expected to be able to demonstrate that they have acquired in higher education. The limitation with this definition is that graduates cannot be taught attributes by universities; these come with maturity and experience in the workplace (Tran, 2016). Also, there is an absence of any consideration of the labour market in which employability is realised. Holmes’ (2013) definition sees the field of employability develop maturity and proposes three components: possession, position and process. Within these categories, we see that possession refers to skills, knowledge and experience. Position refers to a graduate’s networks, social class and – unique to this demographic – university ranking. Process refers to career building skills and interest in career self-management. In response, some universities have determined their own definition of graduate employability which suits the services a university can provide to its students, namely acquisition of skills, development of knowledge, and contextual experience represented by work integrated learning, internships or overseas exchanges (Clarke, 2018). Clarke (2018) goes on to report that there is criticism of this approach to defining employability. Both the approach and the criticism is understandable: universities are organisations in the business of attracting students, providing a service and receiving funding for it and must promote the benefits of attending a university to one’s future employability. At the same time, the criticism is appropriate because in using employability as a marketing strategy, universities have focused on only a few of the components of employability and ignore those outside of their control such as the condition of the labour market and personal disposition towards career management. Universities can rebut some of the criticism by adopting the phrase “employability skills” (rather than more generic “employability”) which according to Ramisetty and Desai (2017) specifically relates to four categories: basic academic skills, higher order thinking skills, interpersonal and teamwork skills, and personal characteristics and attitudes. Clarke (2018, p.1931) proposes a model for employability which as she says “brings the strands together” (2018, p.1930), including individual skills, knowledge, traits and social capital, together with labour market forces.
Graduate employment is a key measure of the success of undergraduate programs in Australia, and employment is not possible without graduates having a set of skills and abilities which constitute employability: effective communication, flexibility and adaptability, problem solving, teamwork skills and time management, commonly featured in university mission statements and industry discourses (Cavanagh et al., 2015). Universities engage classroom learning supported by work integrated learning experiences in order to develop and consolidate the skills listed by Cavanagh et al., which then aide in the development of graduate employability.
Researched antecedents of graduate employability include work integrated learning (WIL), work experience, careers advice, gender, and grade point average. Not all have been found to have a positive or unambiguous impact. Where Smith et al. (2019) present that the quality of a WIL placement experience contributes to employability, Jackson and Collings (2018) found that WIL did not relate to an increase in full time employment amongst graduates, whereas paid employment in the final year of studying did increase employment at graduation. It is important to distinguish between WIL and paid experience, as WIL is not exclusively industry based; it can also be simulated or classroom based but supported by industry mentors. The relationship between paid experience and PE is likely to be facilitated through a student becoming more aware of core skills expected by employers during their experience (Patrick and Crebert, 2004) which subsequently positively influences employment outcomes (Mason et al., 2003). Smith et al. (2019) found that work experience influenced the categories of employability which form their instrument for assessment of employability. In particular, the quality of the work experience was more important that the duration or structure of the experience.
The common purpose of the university and independent careers advisors is to enhance the employability of undergraduates to prepare for the transition from education into the labour market (Taylor and Hooley, 2014). Careers advice was found to have a positive correlation with employability and career ownership although Donald et al. (2019) clarifies that careers advice is not perceived as useful by the students on the receiving end, and that the advice must be an individual rather than a “one size fits all” approach.
Students’ PE is important because we know that PE influences job search behaviour which is a pre-requisite for graduate employment – a success indicator for university degrees. Onyishi et al. (2015) record a finding that PE is positively associated with preparatory job search behaviour, although the relationship between PE and active job search behaviour wasn’t found to exist. In the research, the factor of employed or unemployed was also investigated and this moderated job search behaviour.
Donald et al. (2019) also note that female students’ perception of their employability was lower than their male peers, and that students studying Business, Engineering, Law, Mathematics, Modern Languages had the highest perception of employability compared to students in other degrees. Included in Donald et al.’s (2019) research was the longitudinal measurement of PE, found to decrease between the penultimate and final years of study which was attributed to students having greater awareness of the challenges of the labour market. It is noted that Qenani et al. (2014) and Jackson and Wilton (2017) also report a reduction in PE with time spent at university and this phenomenon is supported by Smith et al. (2019) who observe the Dunning-Kruger effect (Kruger and Dunning, 1999) in which students with no work experience, paid or otherwise, overestimate their abilities. It is likely that these students are still in the early stage of their higher education. Finally, Greer and Waight (2017) assessed but could not find any evidence to support a relationship between grade point average (GPA) and PE amongst post-graduate research students at a university in the USA.
It’s important to acknowledge variables outside of the university context that have been identified as influencing PE. Berntson (2008) identified national economic prosperity, living/working in metropolitan areas, poor physical and good psychological work environments, formal education, and competency development as being positively associated with PE. Indirectly, Forrier et al. (2018) support this link between general wellbeing and PE: those who are employable become even more employable whereas those who are not employable may lack the resources to invest in their employability and therefore become even less employable.
2.3. Field of study and perceived employability
The field of a student’s tertiary study has been shown to have an impact on students’ PE. There is evidence that students who graduate from non-professional degrees or generalist degrees such as the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences have lower levels of PE than students graduating from professional degrees such as Engineering and Accounting due to having limited opportunities in the graduate labour market as compared to graduates from professional fields (Walker and Fongwa, 2017; Okay-Somerville and Scholarios, 2017; Donald et al., 2018; Pitan and Muller, 2019). For example, Donald et al. (2018) found that graduates from more specialist focused degrees (Business, Engineering, Law, Mathematics and Modern Languages) had higher PE than students studying more generalist degrees (Archeology, Art, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Civil and Environmental Sciences, Criminology, Education, English, Geography, History, Music, Ocean and Earth Sciences, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology and Social Sciences).
There has been little consideration of project management as a generalist or professional degree and how it is positioned within the broader research related to the relationship between field of study and PE. While examination of this relationship is outside the scope of our study, it is acknowledged as a possible factor which can influence PE of students as they move through their program of study. Walker and Fongwa (2017) also raise an important point in relation to field of study and employability, contending that students in fields of study which are in high demand in the labour market appear to be more confident of their likelihood of employment success. Irrespective of whether project management is considered as a generalist or professional degree, the labour market demand for competent project practitioners is high (PMI, 2021) and its possible this may have a positive impact on students’ PE. However, it is not well understood if, how, and at what point during their university program undergraduate project management students link PE to labour market demand and even whether PE fluctuates during their program of study. The scarcity of research exploring PE of project management may be explained in part by the number of undergraduate project management programs offered in Australia, of which our research is based. Nimmo and Usher (2020) identified 24 project management courses available from Australian universities and only two of these were undergraduate courses.
3. Method and instruments
3.1. Research approach
The research adopted an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach to data collection and analysis. This method was deemed the most suitable as it facilitates both a nomothetic and idiographic approach to the collection and analysis of data. The findings may then address the research objective and also begin to offer causal explanation for any relationships identified. Hoppe-Graff and Lammm-Hanel (2006) identify mixed methods research as “superior” (p.263) because of the opportunity to view the topic through both an idiographic and nomothetic lenses. Stage one, a quantitative survey, reveals relationships which are then further explored through open ended questions in stage two: interviews which adopt a narrative approach where the research participants are invited to tell their story (Creswell, 2014). Interview findings are compared to any phenomena identified from the prior survey. Hence the quantitative stage is the priority approach ie. a quantitative plus qualitative typology which uses multiple sequential strands or phases (Teddlie and Tashakkori, 2006). In order to avoid the qualitative stage being treated as “auxiliary” (Howe, 2004, p.52), the interview questions were carefully written to ensure they added value to the research; not just to confirm the findings of the quantitative stage, but to ask why those findings came about. Reflecting the narrative style, an idiographic approach to interpreting the qualitative data allowed each interview respondent’s story to be explored in a manner that adds context and meaning to the research. Since the research is exploring rather than explaining the nature of PE, presentation of individual experiences enhances the exploration and suggests where further research might be useful.
3.2. Sampling strategy
Since the aim of the research is to explore perceived employability at the start of a university degree in project management, the target population was students commencing a Bachelor level degree in project management at a large urban university in Australia. The Degree is a four year program accredited by the Global Accreditation Center for Project Management Education Programs (PMI, 2021a) and endorsed by the Australian Institute of Project Management (2021). In order to participate in the research, students were required to meet the following criteria: enrolled in the Bachelor of Applied Science (Project Management) (Honours) (“the Degree”), have yet to attend any classes, and have participated in orientation conducted by project management faculty. These criteria mean the population are as close to commencing the degree as possible yet have not been influenced by any classes at the time of the survey. After receiving ethical approval, data was collected from individuals who met the criteria for participation.
Since the Degree has a mid-year intake, this survey was distributed at three intervals to maximise the number of responses: during orientation at the start of the year, during orientation in the middle of the year, and during orientation at the start of the following year. The first orientation was conducted face to face and the survey was administered via paper-based hard copy. The second and third orientations were conducted during COVID19 and therefore conducted online. The paper-based survey was transferred to Qualtrics and a link was provided to the students.
3.3. Survey
The survey comprised of two sections. The first section asked questions related to demographics, study and work experience. The second section measured PE using a 20-item scale consisting of six employability dimensions: lifelong learning (2 items); integration of theory and practice (2 items); commencement readiness (3 items); informed decision making (4 items); collaboration (4 items), and professional practice and standards (5 items). Development of the scale is outlined in Smith et al. (2014). The PE scale was validated by Smith et al. (2016) and this version was used in our study. Smith et al. (2016) contend that the six dimensions of employability reflect that employable graduates are:•
“competent for autonomous, responsible and ethical practice;•
can work with other people effectively, fairly and cross-culturally;•
use information in judicious ways for specific work-related purposes;•
are willing to continue to learn to improve practice and are able to identify areas for self-development;•
integrate theory and practice;•
have confidence and self-awareness to seek and gain employment in a job market” (p.201).
Items are assessed on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from (1) never to (5) all the time. Example items include, from the commencement readiness factor: “Please rate your ability to effectively seek work relevant to your studies”; from the collaboration variable: “Please rate your ability to make sure everyone feels heard in group discussions”. The full set of questions is outlined in Smith et al. (2016). To gain an overall measure of PE, all items are summed and a mean score is calculated, as are the dimensions items. A higher score indicates better PE. The employability dimensions demonstrate satisfactory internal reliability consistency, ranging from α = .77 for commencement readiness and integration of theory and practice to α = 0.89 for lifelong learning (Smith et al., 2016). A limitation of the scale is that it is an internal measurement and does not take into account the students’ perception of the current labour market conditions. This limitation is acknowledged but for the purpose of this research, the scale is aligned with the research objective which seeks to establish a baseline of student perception of their own employability prior to commencing the degree.
3.4. Interviews
The second stage of data collection was the qualitative stage which was achieved by undertaking interviews with students who had completed a survey. To find potential interviewees, a question was added at the end of survey where participants were asked if they would like to participate in an interview. Students were invited to leave an email address or contact number if they would like to participate in the follow up interview. The complementary interviews captured data to clarify, elaborate and generally gain a rich insight into the quantitative results (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2011). The Microsoft Teams online meeting tool was used to conduct and transcribe interviews. Students were provided with a consent form in which they authorised the recording and use of the interview data for research purposes. The interview questions were provided to students prior to the interview. The students’ participation in the interview process was voluntary and all interview data were anonymised to protect participant’s confidentiality. The interview questions explored the findings from the survey and sought to identify how students define and perceive employability in the context of project management.
The qualitative data was analysed using idiographic story telling in which participant’s responses are reported and integrated with the researcher’s interpretation. Cervone et al. (2020) have used this approach in a similar context to ours: perceived self-efficacy of students in higher education.
4. Results
4.1. Survey participants
Of the 94 survey respondents, 68.12% (n = 64) were male and 31.9% (n = 30) were female. The mean age of respondents was 20.5 (SD = 1.94) years. Sixty-two (66.7%) respondents were aged 18–20 years, 31 (33%) were aged 21 years or over, and 1 (1.1%) respondent did not indicate their age. Respondents were asked to indicate what they did in the 12 months before they started their degree. Sixty-one (64.9%) respondents had completed secondary education in the year immediately before commencing university, 10 (10.6%) undertook a form of higher education, and 7 (7.4%) worked full time. Of those attending secondary education, almost half (n = 30, 49%) worked part time. Eight respondents (8.5%) did not indicate their education or work status.
4.2. Survey findings
Analysis of all three cohorts for significant differences in mean PE revealed none, and so the participant surveys were combined into one dataset for further analysis. Preliminary analysis of the scale indicated satisfactory internal consistency of the 20-item scale (α = 0.92) and the six subscales ranging from α = 0.71 for collaboration to α = 0.92 for lifelong learning, as outlined in Table 1. The PE scale ranges from 1 to 5 where higher scores indicate better PE. The mean score for overall PE was 3.89 (SD = 0.5). Table 1 outlines the mean score for each of the six categories of PE. Collaboration had the highest mean of 4.2 and commencement readiness had the lowest mean of 3.3.
Table 1. Means and standard deviation across disciplines for six employability dimensions.
| Empty Cell | α | Mean and standard deviation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Our sample | Business | Engineering | Arts | Education | ||
| Collaboration | .71 | 4.2 (.5) | 4.1 (.6) | 4.1 (.5) | 4.2 (.5) | 4.3 (.5) |
| Professional practice and standards | .84 | 4.1 (.6) | 4.2 (.5) | 4.2 (.4) | 4.2 (.5) | 4.4 (.5) |
| Integration of theory and practice | .83 | 3.7 (.7) | 4.0 (.6) | 4.1 (.5) | 3.9 (.7) | 4.1 (.6) |
| Informed Decision Making | .77 | 3.7 (.6) | 4.0 (.6) | 4.1 (.5) | 4.0 (.6) | 4.1 (.6) |
| Lifelong learning | .92 | 3.6 (.9) | 4.1 (.6) | 4.2 (.5) | 4.2 (.5) | 4.3 (.5) |
| Commencement readiness | .87 | 3.3 (.9) | 3.7 (.7) | 3.8 (.7) | 3.5 (.7) | 3.8 (.7) |
To provide context for our findings, a comparison was made with Australian-based professional undergraduate degrees (Business, Engineering) and generalist undergraduate degrees (Arts, Education) (Donald et al., 2018) that had used the same measure to explore PE (Smith et al., 2014) (Table 1). As our participants had yet to commence their studies, it might be expected that they would have a lower score than those students who had commenced their studies for all employability dimensions. As expected, our participants had lower scores on all employability dimensions with the exception of collaboration, for which their score was higher than for business and engineering disciplines. The reason for the high level of collaboration is not yet understood and is considered in the discussion. It is possible that the low score for commencement readiness is reflective of students who had been accepted into the project management degree but had yet to commence their program of study.
The relationship between age with overall PE and the six dimensions of employability were investigated using Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. There was a small, positive significant correlation between age and overall PE (r = .242, n = 88, p < .02), and commencement readiness (r = 0.230, n = 90, p < .03). An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare overall PE and the six employability dimensions with gender. There was a significant difference for males (M = 3.4, SD = 0.8) and females (M = 2.9, SD = 0.8; t(89) = 2.86,p = .00) for commencement readiness. The size of the differences in the means was moderate (eta squared = 0.08). There was also a significant difference for males (M = 3.8, SD = 0.8) and females (M = 3.3, SD = 1.0; t(92) = 2.43,p = .01) for lifelong learning. The size of the differences in the means was moderate (eta squared = 0.06). An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare overall PE and the six employability dimensions for school leaver status and work experience. There were no significant differences for respondents who had completed secondary education in the year immediately before commencing university and those who not attended secondary school in the year immediately before commencing university. There was also no significant difference between respondents who had work experience and those who did not.
4.3. Interview participants
Out of 94 students who participated in the quantitative stage of this study by completing the survey, nine students expressed their interest in participating in the follow up interview. All were contacted and four agreed to be interviewed. The interviews varied in their duration from 30 to 45 minutes. The interview participants were all aged in their early 20s (age ranged from 21 to 23 years) and included three male students and one female student. All participants had recently completed a vocational diploma (Diploma of Building and Construction or Diploma in Fashion). Whilst the generalizability of the findings of the research are limited by the small number of interview participants, the sample is considered sufficient for two reasons. Firstly, the interviews emphasised gathering rich, detailed information about the individual’s perspective of their experience prior to commencing their project management degree which is reported in the narrative style. Secondly, the interviews were the second stage of a mixed methods approach in which data is eventually integrated. We may not have achieved saturation, but when combined with quantitative analysis, saturation is not the aim.
4.4. Interview findings
Four key findings emerged from the interviews. Firstly, that students did not consider skills acquired from their previous employment as transferable. Secondly, that students do not view employability as directly influenced by the industry although it is noted that even with relevant skills, the industry of choice may not offer employment due to external events (such as COVID). Third, that some students would like to enter the construction industry in a project management capacity while others are not yet sure of which industry they will enter, and that gaining industry-specific knowledge from the degree is an important component of employability. Lastly, that PE may be influenced by gender. The following section provides data from participants to provide context of the four the key findings. Alias names are used in this section to maintain confidentiality.
Participant 1: Harrison is a male student. After Year 12 he completed one semester of a Bachelor of Business degree before dropping out. He then made a decision to continue his education, researched different career options and identified project management as a desirable career. In order to be accepted at the university of his choice he needed to first complete the Diploma of Building and Construction which provided a guaranteed pathway into the project management degree. Prior to the entering the project management degree Harrison had two paid positions, one in retail which ended due to COVID; the other – estimating and site supervision for his brother – was initiated during the completion of the estimating course in the Diploma of Building and Construction, providing evidence that development of technical skills leads to employment. Harrison explicitly makes this connection between completing the estimating course and commencing the estimating role. However, this connection does not transfer to the Diploma qualification which Harrison does not perceive as increasing his employability. This suggests that Harrison may connect specific parts of a qualification to employability, rather than the qualification as a whole.
At the same time as the decision to continue education, Harrison explained that “I got myself involved with a community group…..we did projects like a huge soccer event in Melbourne”. While describing this experience he uses project management language like “on budget”, however Harrison does not interpret the volunteer work as increasing his employability despite using project-related language.
Harrison describes employability as “ready to work in a job where you can get paid”. He isn’t immediately explicit about what being work ready entails, but during the interview there are suggestions that Harrison believes experience is very important. For example, he comments that the wide range of activities he’s undertaken mean that “I’m quite ahead to be employable into the project management industry” and he describes how he could have waited until he finished his project management degree to think about experience, but he wants to graduate with “experience in my hand” so that he can “get into a better company or organisation”. Harrison recognises that although he has acquired a lot of knowledge, he still has a lot to learn and that he expects the degree will expose him to new topics. In relation to the skills expected of project managers, Harrison indicates that leadership is very important to enable people who have lots of ideas to implement those ideas. He also anticipates learning more about different industries in which project managers are employed.
Harrison believes he is ahead of his peers in terms of employability as a result of his varied experience. However, at this stage of his degree he doesn’t seem to relate the skills, education and volunteering as contributing to his employability as much as his work experience does.
Participant 2: Simon is also a male student who, like Harrison, demonstrates a very clear career direction. In year 10 of secondary school, he identified his career goal of working in a Tier 1 construction company as a project manager. His secondary school results were insufficient to gain direct access to the project management degree, so he completed the Diploma of Building and Construction in order to access the guaranteed pathway into the project management qualification. Although not employed at the time of the interview, he has 2 years of experience as a site supervisor for a rendering contractor which he voluntarily ceased to enable him to prioritise his study.
Whilst Simon describes his supervisor role as coordinating employees and also communicating with builders, he doesn’t adopt the language of project management as Harrison does. However when defining employability, Simon begins to refer to skills: “being available for employment… having a set of skills”. Unlike Harrison, Simon doesn’t consider his work experience as a valuable contributor to his employability, focusing instead on skills and knowledge. He describes the need to be familiar with the industry that you work in as key to being employable and we observe him being very confident as a result of his knowledge of the construction industry, although he does add that he needs to know more. When probed again to confirm his perceived employability, Simon specifically mentions his communication and leadership skills (from Diploma level group assignments) and his attention to detail, and describes himself as having a “medium” level of skills and then “seven or eight out of ten”.
When comparing Simon with Harrison, it is clear that Simon’s focus is on contextual knowledge; he has chosen not to get experience at the same time as studying.
Participant 3, Wynston is a male student who also completed the Diploma in Building and Construction. However unlike Simon, he does not have a clear career destination. Although he has worked in a number of casual jobs such as removals and safety and also in Germany as a construction labourer for five months before returning to Australia, Wynston explained that during orientation for the project management degree, he was struck by the number of other industries which employ project managers. Wynston is currently employed in a casual position in a logistics company and is aware that his current employer does recruit project managers. During his interview it becomes clear he is very focused on work life balance “I really would like to get a good balance in my career of fulfilment and income”; he recalls enrolling in the project management degree with a construction focus but has been educated about other possible employment opportunities.
Wynston defines employability as “how available you are to work and when” and perceives it to be “very important….. in the sense of having more than one job has always been a big thing for me”. Wynston is seeking job satisfaction, challenge and diversity in his career. Wynston’s perceived employability is quite low at the time of the interview, stating “I don’t feel work ready in project management right now” but he sees the potential in the career and that is why he is continuing with his classes. When asked what skills he expects project managers to have, he discusses social skills as his strength and the further development of social skills in a professional context being developed during the degree. He reports feeling less competent at project management technical skills, and with emotional intelligence at work versus outside of work.
Participant 4, Jasmine is the only female respondent. She firstly completed a Diploma in Fashion, but as a result of a lack of employment opportunities in fashion and a desire to be close to home during the pandemic, she returned to the family home in regional Australia and assists in the family’s earthworks business preparing tenders. Although she’s now familiar with this aspect of the construction industry, she does not intend to work for the family business in the future. Jasmine also noticed the wide range of industries that recruit project managers, demonstrated at orientation for the degree, and is keeping an open mind about future career directions.
Like Simon, Jasmine defines employability as “having the correct skillset for a certain job” and she talks at length about the skills she is confident the project management degree will equip her with. Jasmine reports feeling not very employable at the start of the project management degree, which supports her definition of employability. She doesn’t mention the need for work experience even though she has some experience in the family business. Through the degree, Jasmine expects to be informed about technical project management skills, communication and leadership and also industry-specific skills.
Throughout the interview, Jasmine repeatedly refers to COVID and “what’s going on in the world and everything”. It becomes clear that her original career choice has been impacted by the pandemic. Jasmine is the only one of the four interview respondents who specifically mentions the nature of the construction industry and indirectly, COVID, as having a role to play in employability. Even though she has a qualification in fashion, the industry and the pandemic are preventing her working in this field: “especially with everything going on in the world, I feel like I am focusing a lot more on stable careers I guess, that’s probably why I changed courses”.
As the survey results indicated that females have lower lifelong learning and commencement readiness than males, we asked interview participants to share their view of gender and how it could impact on employability in project management. There appeared to be a gender bias when responding to this question. The male participants did not consider that gender would impact on PE. Given there was no manual labour involved, Harrison perceived there would be no impact between genders: “it’s quite the same because everyone has their own mindset… you can be female or male it doesn’t matter ….it [project management] doesn’t include heavy lifting”. Wynston didn’t believe that gender would be a barrier either, because “project management comes down to people in general, it doesn’t come down to whether being a female or male would make you readier”. However, Wynston did refer to “the industry” as being biased (he did not specify which industry). In contrast to the male participants, our single female participant, Jasmine, expects that being a female project manager will be more challenging due to gender barriers. While the male respondents didn’t observe gender as a limitation, Jasmine instead reports that “people just notice you’re a girl”. When discussing her enrolment into the project management degree with construction industry professionals, she was told that project management “is a man’s industry”. Although project management employers are not exclusively construction organisations, this perception makes her want to explore alternative industries.
5. Discussion
5.1. Collaboration
As might be expected, pre-commencing students had a relatively low level of PE when compared to students who had already commenced their tertiary studies (Smith et al., 2014). One exception was collaboration, where our students had a higher level than students in other degrees such as Business and Engineering (Smith et al., 2014). Project management is primarily a team-based undertaking and creating a collaborative project team environment is one of the 12 principles of project management (PMI, 2021b). Given its importance, the employability dimension of collaboration in the context of project management might be expected to be higher than in other degrees whereby there is less reliance of the interdependent activities of team members and the need for a high level of collaboration. It is possible that students with a perceived high level of collaboration-based skills may have self-selected into the project management degree.
Time spent at university has been shown to reduce PE (Qenani et al., 2014; Jackson and Wilton, 2017) as commencing students may overestimate their abilities. It is possible that level of collaboration may decrease when students are exposed to group work and experience the potential challenges that may arise in learning to work with others. Conflict is a common occurrence in group work which can be stressful and result in poor quality outcomes (Verma, 1998). Supporting students to take a reflective approach to group work and learning how to collaborate with others, particularly when facing challenges and experiencing negative emotion, is an important component of the project management curriculum.
5.2. Linking past work experience to future employability
The survey results identified no significant difference in PE between students who had work experience prior to commencing the project management degree and those who did not. This finding was consistent amongst interviewees who did not link past work experience to future employability.
A possible explanation for this is students’ lack of understanding of the skills and knowledge associated with a job in project management. It is expected that as students gain a better understanding of the skills and knowledge required of a project professional, they will be able to connect their previous work experience with the development of skills which contribute to employability. This may be one important area where the curriculum can be modified to help students link prior work experience to PE for project management. For example, working in retail or.hospitality can prepare students with skills in stakeholder management, managing conflict, and time management, all of which are key aspects of effective project management (Project Management Institute, 2021b). Bridgstock et al. (2019) suggest that career content in the curriculum can help students to see the link between previous experience and transferable skills.
5.3. Developing industry-specific knowledge and skills
The interview findings suggest that some commencing project management students have yet to decide on which industry they will enter upon graduation, and this may have a bearing on their PE. Stronger communication of project management destinations, for example industries which are project-based, will allow students to explore a range of destinations and engage in preparatory job search behaviour. This will help students to gain an understanding of the 19 industries in Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2013) and determine where they would like to practice project management. Kumar (2007) describes this as the opportunity stage in career development. Students can then tailor their qualification to include specific skills and knowledge expected by different industry contexts. This is important, as differences have been found in project management practice between industry sectors and project types (Crawford and Pollack, 2007). For example, agile project management is increasingly being used across industries, however the waterfall method remains the most common method used in construction. Because this general career advice precedes an individual conducting industry research, and because Donald et al. (2019) found career advice to be positively correlated to employability, there is an argument to include career related courses in the curriculum as early as possible concurrently with skill development in order to maximise the employability benefit.
5.4. Employability in the context of project management
At this early stage of their degree, PE was not understood in the context of project management. Instead, PE was described by students in generic and simplistic terms such as “being available for employment” and “having certain skills”. As students move through their degree and gain a better understanding of PE in the context of project management, it is expected that their description of PE will reflect a deeper level of knowledge of the core competencies required of a project professional. It is also possible that descriptions of PE may include an industry component which reflects the specialist knowledge needed for a particular industry as well as labour market conditions in that industry (Donald et al., 2019).
5.5. The early emergence of gendered differences
For the employability dimensions, our study revealed that males had a significantly higher level of commencement readiness and lifelong learning than females. When asked about gender in relation to project management, the male interviewees did not believe that gender presented as a barrier to employability in project management. In contrast, the female interviewee believed that being female in the construction industry would present as a barrier to employability. Our findings are consistent with previous research showing that the PE of female students is lower than for male students (Cifre et al., 2018; Donald et al., 2019). Pitan and Muller (2019) found that across final year students in two South African universities, female students had lower self-PE than male students. They attribute some of this difference to the influence of the labour market in South Africa being biased towards male students. It is possible that the gendered results of our study are reflective of a broader societal problem. For example, the Australian Human Rights Commission (2018) report that women continue to experience inequality and discrimination in many important parts of their lives, which can limit the choices and opportunities available to them.
Universities play an integral role in supporting broader societal change through the education of students on the occurrence of gender differences in the workplace and how these can be overcome. In the project management degree we can educate our students on the barriers which women can face in the workplace, and explore perceptions and impacts of conscious and unconscious bias through class activities. More broadly, universities can facilitate social support, female mentors, and female employers of choice. These initiatives can be an important step in supporting the PE of female students (Turner et al., 2021).
6. Conclusion
Field of study and perceived employability is a relatively understudied area in relation to project management, and this research sought to address this gap in understanding. Furthermore, much of the research of PE has focused on final year students using cross-sectional data. The objective of the research was to establish a PE baseline for students before they commence a bachelor degree in project management with a view to longitudinally studying their PE as they progress through their four-year program of study. Taking this approach enables a deeper understanding of the factors which contribute to PE and will help to identify how universities can support the development of PE in the project management context. We acknowledge the limitations of the sample composition and sample size of the interviews. All four interviewees had completed secondary school and a Diploma, therefore their perception of PE may differ to students who enter university immediately after secondary school. However, the interviews provided valuable context to the survey results and identified possible reasons for our findings which can be explored in subsequent research. Furthermore, additional research can explore the six dimensions of employability and start to understand how levels of PE may fluctuate as students move through their project management degree. Finally, undergraduate project management data was collected from one urban university in Australia, therefore the results cannot be generalised across other degrees or countries.
It is anticipated that our research will continue to gather data on an annual basis from the same cohort of students until they graduate. Future analysis will seek to establish if perceived employability changes across the duration of the four-year degree, if we can identify the influencing factors of PE, and how this understanding can be reflected in amendments to the curriculum.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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