Career Competencies and Career Success: On the Roles of Employability Activities and Academic Satisfaction During the School-to-Work Transition

• Published in: Journal of career development Vol. 49; no. 1; pp. 107 - 125
• Main Authors: Presti, Alessandro Lo, Capone, Vincenza, Aversano, Ada, Akkermans, Jos
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.02.2022
• Subjects: Career Choice; Career Development; College Graduates; Competence; Education Work Relationship; Educational Objectives; Employment Potential; Foreign Countries; Job Skills; Labor Market; Satisfaction; Skill Development; Success; Italy; employability; career competencies; subjective career success; school-to-work transition; academic satisfaction
• ISSN: 0894-8453; 1556-0856
• DOI: 10.1177/0894845321992536

Building on the integrative career competencies framework, we examined the indirect association between career competencies, assessed at graduation, and subjective career success (SCS) via employability activities, both assessed six months after graduation, among a sample of 613 Italian graduates. We also examined the moderating role of three facets of academic satisfaction (i.e., vocational choice, educational goals, and occupational prospects). Our findings showed an indirect relation between career competencies and SCS through employability activities. Furthermore, academic satisfaction acted as a moderator. The results of this time-lagged study, that tapped into the actual transition into work process, have implications for (1) school-to-work transitions, providing insights into graduates’ transition into the labor market, (2) employability, focusing on employability activities and providing additional knowledge on their antecedents and outcomes, and (3) career competencies, providing further empirical evidence that career competencies are an important resource that graduates can mobilize to during and after their school-to-work transition.