Enhancing career adaptability to prepare for the school to work transition: Outcomes of an ePortfolio intervention among university students

Abstract

Many graduates struggle when it comes to the school to work transition. Because career adaptability has proved to be helpful when managing career transitions, this study tested an ePortfolio intervention aimed at enhancing students’ career adaptability (concern, control, curiosity, and confidence). The intervention consisted of a self-exploration meeting and an environmental exploration meeting. The development of the different career adaptability dimensions is compared between the experimental group (n=23) which received the entire intervention and the control group (n=26) which only attended the environmental exploration meeting. Results indicated that after attending the self-exploration meeting, participants in the experimental group showed significantly higher levels of concern, self-exploration (curiosity) and job search self-efficacy (control) compared to the control group. Participants in both groups showed an increase in all career adaptability measures after attending the environmental exploration meeting. The intervention seemed to be more effective on enhancing career planning (concern) and environmental exploration (curiosity) when the entire intervention was attended. In sum, results indicated that the ePortfolio intervention is effective in enhancing career adaptability in the short run. Moreover, the results showed the significance of self-exploration before conducting environmental exploration.