Determinants of Higher Education Students' Self-Perceived Employability

Abstract

Self-perceived employability denotes how individuals view their possibilities of attaining sustainable employment in relation with their qualifications. Thus, employability perceptions hold invaluable importance when one is presented with job insecurity and also help form coping strategies. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between self-perceived employability, objective employability and personality dispositions. We used a convenience sample of students (N=230) from nine different faculty studies at the University of Zagreb. Objective employability was defined by "Recommendations for education enrollment and scholarship policy" (HZZ, 2013). Students participated via on-line survey by giving responses on self-perceived employability and personality disposition scales (core self-evaluations, locus of control, positive and negative affect). The analysis demonstrated that objective employability had the biggest account for variance explanation of self-perceived employability. Despite significant correlations displayed between all personality dispositions (except for locus of control) and self-perceived employability, only the core self-evaluations disposition accounted for the significant unique contribution to self- -perceived employability variance, besides objective employability.