Search Results (273)

The integration of industry and education serves as a critical pathway for improving the quality of talent training in higher vocational colleges and achieving high-quality employment for graduates. This study employs linear regression and moderating effect models to examine the impact of industry–education integration on employment quality in higher vocational institutions, using data from the 2024 Vocational Education Quality Annual Report from 689 higher vocational colleges in China. The results show an inverted “U” relationship between the integration level of industry and education and employment quality in higher vocational colleges. Moreover, teachers’ qualification level and curriculum development capacity negatively moderate this relationship. Additionally, the effect of the industry–education integration on employment quality is heterogeneous across the public and private institutions, and whether a college has been designated as a “Double High” institution. Therefore, efforts should be made to strengthen teachers’ practical teaching abilities and enhance curriculum adaptability, as well as to implement differentiated guidance and support policies to effectively improve graduates’ employment quality. Full article

Soft skills are increasingly recognised as decisive factors for employability and career advancement in the global labour market. This study examines their role in the professional trajectories of university graduates in Ecuador, analysing both the competencies supplied by higher education and the structural demand of the labour market. Based on institutional surveys applied to 3358 graduates from the Salesian Polytechnic University (Cuenca campus), the results show that more than $90\%$ of graduates remain in operational positions, while only $5\%$ reach tactical or managerial levels. To address this phenomenon, five key soft skills—leadership, effective communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and adaptability—were evaluated through a structured questionnaire using Likert-type items. The findings reveal a persistent concentration of professionals in lower organisational levels and heterogeneous perceptions of the applicability of academic training. These outcomes highlight both individual skill gaps and structural limitations of the Ecuadorian labour market, such as the scarcity of managerial positions and the prevalence of family-based business structures. In response, the study proposes a sector-based curricular improvement strategy that systematically incorporates soft skills into university programmes, differentiated by economic sectors such as education, health, commerce, public administration, industry, and primary activities. Grounded in empirical evidence, this approach provides a practical framework to enhance graduates’ career progression, foster more equitable professional mobility, and strengthen the relevance of higher education. The model can be replicated across other Latin American universities facing similar challenges, while also aligning with international standards for competency-based education. Full article

Work is historically evolving due to technological advancements, posing challenges for individuals and institutions. The actual Fourth Industrial Revolution, marked by AI, biotechnology, and nanotechnology, has rapidly increased these advancements, while the COVID-19 pandemic has anticipated future expected changes in the labor market. In this context, Higher Education Institutions must match their curricula with this dynamic labor market to equip graduates with relevant skills. However, the slow pace of educational transformation, partly due to a lack of data, hinders this alignment. This research introduces Future-oriented Higher Education Degree Employability (Fo-HECE) as an evaluation tool for the adherence of undergraduate degrees to the demands of the labor market in the next decade. We used a novel approach, combining the Operationalization of a social phenomenon with Multi-Criteria Decision-Making, with the participation of nine experts. As a use case, we applied the new approach to assess the future employability of ten undergraduate programs with the most enrolled students from one of the largest Brazilian universities. As a result, the indicators considered most relevant to measure Fo-HECE are Student-to-Job Ratio, Employment Balance, and Wage Premium. The degrees with the highest Fo-HECE grades were Law and Medicine, while Physical Education had the lowest grade. The Fo-HECE approach, as demonstrated in this case study, shows potential applicability to other HEIs and countries, provided that comparable labor market data are available. Full article

Career choices of master’s students, particularly regarding the pursuit of doctoral degrees, have received limited scholarly attention. This study examines the employment pathways and influencing factors of engineering master’s students. Drawing on human capital theory, career preference theory, and the two-way selection model, we analyse nationwide survey data from 21,973 engineering master’s students collected in 2021. Using a multinomial logistic regression model, we examine their post-graduation choices, including pursuing a doctorate, joining universities or scientific research institutions, working in government agencies, or entering the workforce. The findings suggest that gender, family background, and human capital have a significant impact on students’ career destinations. Male students are more likely to choose academic sectors, while those from high-income families tend to opt for non-academic sectors. Higher parental educational attainment increases the likelihood of pursuing doctoral studies, and students with more academic publications are also more likely to pursue a doctorate. These results highlight divergence in employment intentions between academic and non-academic sectors and reveal their underlying logic. The study offers insights for reforming talent cultivation models in universities, enhancing graduate employability, and informing the development of educational policy. Full article

Soft skills play a fundamental role in transversal competences in the field of training and employment, especially in university collectives with disabilities. Traditional methodologies are giving way to gamified and transmedia environments, which are more efficient in the educational process and more sustainable for institutions. This study compares two educational programmes, one based on MOOCs and the other in a gamified environment (Transwork), with the participation of 181 university graduates with some degree of disability and unemployed for more than five years. The gamified educational programme shows a significantly lower dropout rate and a higher employability rate (χ², p < 0.001), as well as an improvement in interpersonal skills such as teamwork and conflict management. This demonstrates that methodologies in gamified and transmedia environments promote social sustainability by enhancing autonomy and inclusion in vulnerable groups, as well as contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially those related to quality education, reducing inequality, and decent work. This improvement in the labour market integration of people with disabilities represents not only an advance in equity, but also a long-term saving in care costs, by promoting their autonomy and active participation in the labour market. Thus, the sustainability of the social system is reinforced through inclusive educational policies based on gamified environments. Full article

The persistent issue of unemployment and the mismatch between graduate skills and labor market demands has drawn increasing attention from academics and educational institutions, especially in light of rapid advancements in technology. Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) offer valuable opportunities to analyze job market dynamics. In this work, we present a novel framework aimed at predicting graduate employability using current labor market data from Morocco. Our approach combines Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) techniques with ML-based predictive models. AHP prioritizes employability factors and TOPSIS ranks skill demands—together forming input features for machine learning models. 2100 job listings obtained through web scraping, we trained and evaluated several ML models. Among them, the K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) classifier demonstrated the highest accuracy, achieving 99.71% accuracy through 5-fold cross-validation. While the study is based on a limited dataset, it highlights the practical relevance of combining MCDM methods with ML for employability prediction. This study is among the first to integrate AHP–TOPSIS with KNN for employability prediction using real-time Moroccan labor market data. Full article

With rising employment pressure on preservice teachers in the context of negative population growth and higher education expansion in the world, which have jointly reduced the demand for teachers while increasing the supply of graduates, the digital era offers new opportunities to enhance their employability. This study proposes a moderated mediation model to explore how career planning influences perceived employability, using a sample of 650 respondents. Results show that career planning positively predicts perceived employability, with job search clarity serving as a mediator. Digital literacy significantly moderates this mediation effect. Preservice teachers with higher digital literacy benefit more from career clarity in enhancing perceived employability. These findings suggest that strengthening digital literacy and clarifying career goals are key strategies to improve employability among preservice teachers. Full article

In the context of digital transformation and Industry 4.0, the engineering profession is evolving rapidly, demanding new skill sets to maintain employability and support career development. This study identifies the competencies engineers must acquire to meet these challenges, addressing concerns from employers who perceive graduates as underprepared for real-world demands. A systematic literature review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines, using the Methodi Ordinatio technique to select and rank 59 peer-reviewed articles published between 2014 and 2024. The review identified 47 key competencies, which were organized into a comprehensive framework of seven dimensions: 4 transversal, 9 social, 15 personal, 4 cognitive, 7 digital, 3 green, and 5 technical skills. The results highlight that, while technical expertise remains essential, soft skills—such as leadership, teamwork, communication, and adaptability—are increasingly critical for success in the digital era. The proposed framework offers insights for curriculum development, corporate training, and policymaking, contributing to aligning education and professional development with the evolving demands of Industry 4.0. Future research will focus on the empirical validation of the framework to reinforce its applicability across academic and professional settings. Full article

Background/Objectives: International students pursuing higher education in the United States face unique challenges that increase their risk of food insecurity, including limited financial resources, employment restrictions, and cultural barriers. While food insecurity among domestic students has been widely studied, limited research focuses on the lived experiences of international graduate students. This study explores the challenges, perceptions, and coping strategies related to food insecurity among international graduate students at a large public university in North Texas. Methods: This qualitative, ethnographic study involved 20 semi-structured interviews with international graduate students who were clients of the university’s food pantry. Participants were recruited using purposive convenience sampling. Interviews focused on students’ experiences with food access, financial constraints, campus resources, and cultural food preferences. Data were analyzed using thematic coding in MAXQDA. Two standardized food insecurity measures—the USDA and FAO scales—were also administered and analyzed using SPSS. Results: Findings revealed that 85% of participants experienced limited access to nutritious and culturally appropriate foods, with 70% reporting hunger due to financial constraints. Themes included lack of cooking skills, limited campus food options, difficulty accessing familiar groceries, and limited job opportunities. Students expressed that food insecurity significantly impacted their physical health, mental well-being, and social lives, though many continued to prioritize academics over personal nourishment. Conclusions: Food insecurity among international graduate students is multifaceted, shaped by financial, cultural, and institutional barriers. Addressing this issue requires culturally sensitive interventions, improved access to diverse food options, tailored student support services, and institutional efforts to better understand and meet the needs of international students. Full article

This study, based on engineering education accreditation standards, addresses the supply–demand imbalance in China’s cybersecurity talent cultivation by constructing a sustainable “education-industry-society” collaborative model. Through case studies at Huaihua University and other institutions, employing methods such as literature analysis, field research, and empirical investigation, we systematically explore reform pathways for an innovative cybersecurity talent development system. The research proposes a “three-platform, four-module” practical teaching framework, where the coordinated operation of the basic skills training platform, comprehensive ability development platform, and innovation enhancement platform significantly improves students’ engineering competencies (practical courses account for 41.6% of the curriculum). Findings demonstrate that eight industry-academia practice bases established through deep collaboration effectively align teaching content with industry needs, substantially enhancing students’ innovative and practical abilities (172 national awards, 649 provincial awards). Additionally, the multi-dimensional evaluation mechanism developed in this study enables a comprehensive assessment of students’ professional skills, practical capabilities, and innovative thinking. These reforms have increased the employment rate of cybersecurity graduates to over 90%, providing a replicable solution to China’s talent shortage. The research outcomes offer valuable insights for discipline development under engineering education accreditation and contribute to implementing sustainable development concepts in higher education. Full article

In higher education, the employability and entrepreneurship services play an essential role in the labor market insertion of graduates. The management of public relations promotes institutional projection, the creation of networks with companies, and the dissemination of initiatives to strengthen professional skills. This research analyzes how the communication strategies of Andalusian public universities improve employability and encourage entrepreneurship. A methodological triangulation is used: literature review, analysis of social networks with Fanpage Karma, and study of corporate websites. The results show a focus on counseling, training, workshops, job fairs, and networking events, strengthening the brand of universities and their commitment to the professional development of students. Full article

In causal inference research, accurate estimation of individualized treatment effects (ITEs) is at the core of effective intervention. This paper proposes a dual-structure ITE-estimation model based on Bayesian Additive Regression Trees (BART), which constructs independent BART sub-models for the treatment and control groups, estimates ITEs using the potential outcome framework and enhances posterior stability and estimation reliability through Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling. Based on psychological stress questionnaire data from graduate students, the study first integrates BART with the Shapley value method to identify employment pressure as a key driving factor and reveals substantial heterogeneity in ITEs across subgroups. Furthermore, the study constructs an ITE model using a dual-structured BART framework (BART-ITE), where employment pressure is defined as the treatment variable. Experimental results show that the model performs well in terms of credible interval width and ranking ability, demonstrating superior heterogeneity detection and individual-level sorting. External validation using both the Bootstrap method and matching-based pseudo-ITE estimation confirms the robustness of the proposed model. Compared with mainstream meta-learning methods such as S-Learner, X-Learner and Bayesian Causal Forest, the dual-structure BART-ITE model achieves a favorable balance between root mean square error and bias. In summary, it offers clear advantages in capturing ITE heterogeneity and enhancing estimation reliability and individualized decision-making. Full article

In Vietnam, English proficiency is a graduation requirement and offers students great opportunities to win scholarships and employability after graduation. Universities in the Mekong Delta region (MDR) often face challenges in foresting students’ English proficiency despite continuous assistance offered. Although students have taken online supplementary courses (OSC) delivered through e-learning systems to support their English formal classes for several years, students’ successes in English tests with such supplementary courses and the predictors of this issue remain unknown. Therefore, we developed a model to predict students’ success in English final tests based on behaviors and grades in OSC using logistic regression (LR) and classification and regression tree (CART) classifiers. A total of 109 students of OSC in a target university in MDR participated in this study, and the result showed that CART (area under the curve (AUC) = 89.3%) was slightly better than LR. The outcomes of this study contribute to students’ success in English tests and the enhancement of the effectiveness of online supplementary courses for English improvements. Full article

The increased menstrual disturbances post-vaccination remain unclear. We examined factors, types, frequencies, and emotional challenges. We used a self-administered online questionnaire with the IBM-based SPSSv-24-Windows software for analysis. Of 1372 females, 61.1% (n = 838) were aged 19–29 years, 94.2% (n = 1292) were Saudis, 66.4% (n = 911) were graduates, 70% (n = 965) were single, and 15% (n = 205) had chronic diseases. Moreover, 96.5% (n = 1285/1332) had two vaccine doses, mostly Pfizer’s first- and second doses (82% and 78, respectively), while 3.5% (n = 47) only had one. Vaccine groups significantly differed (Pfizer, Moderna, Oxford, and do not know) after the first (0.047) and second (0.049) doses, while Pfizer vaccines were predictive [OR = 2.09 (0.96–4.10), p = 0.029] at two-doses [OR = 3.21 (1.23–5.21), p = 0.030]. No acute COVID appeared. The majority (77%; n = 1057) had no issues, except, in a subgroup of 23% (n = 315) of participants, 43% (n = 135) experienced worsening issues. However, 47.2% (n = 629) complained only post vaccination. Most issues were (75%; n = 471) cycle-timing disruptions; the rest were minor (decreased blood or bleeding, missed-periods, or pain). Other potential reasons were fear, stress, and mental health problems, which occurred in 51% (n = 674) of the group, while 53% (n = 701) were worried. Intriguingly, the menstrual issues in the remaining 47% (n=631) who were not worried could be due to a direct molecular vaccine interaction, irrespective of any mental issue ([OR = 1.78 (0.76–3.21), p = 0.033]. Age proportionalities were significant (p = 0.05) in the 30–39 year-old group (51%). Postgraduate education [OR = 2.11 (0.98–4.72), p = 0.015) and employment [OR = 2.18 (0.95–4.86), p = 0.049] were also predictors. These findings have significant implications in women’s health and vaccine improvement. Future studies on diverse factors are warranted. Full article

The increasing flexibility and rapid, profound changes in the labor market require employability skills from graduates, dem1anding greater attention from higher education institutions to training opportunities that foster the development of these skills among their students. Using a sample of 373 first-year engineering students, this study analyzed, through regression analysis, the impact of sociodemographic (gender, age), academic (work, program choice, average grade), and psychological (life satisfaction, perseverance of effort, consistency of interests) variables on students’ confidence in achieving their professional career project after completing their degree. The results indicate that women and younger students show lower levels of confidence in achieving their future vocational projects, as do students with lower academic performance and those with less consistency in their interests. These findings suggest the need for specialized support services for students, starting from the first year, in career development provided by higher education institutions. Full article