Employer development of professional capabilities among early career workers and implications for the design of work-based learning

Authors

Denise Jackson, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Hairong Shan, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Stephanie Meek, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

International Journal of Management Education

Volume

20

Issue

3

Publisher

Elsevier

School

School of Business and Law

RAS ID

51971

Funders

Spacecubed

Comments

This is an author accepted manuscript version of an article published by Elsevier in The International Journal of Management Education.

© 2022. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Jackson, D., Shan, H., & Meek, S. (2022). Employer development of professional capabilities among early career workers and implications for the design of work-based learning. The International Journal of Management Education, 20(3), article 100692. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2022.100692

Abstract

Professional capabilities, particularly enterprise behaviours, are increasingly sought after in the labour market, enabling new workers to perform effectively in complex and diverse contexts. Capability deficits among new graduates have prompted the growth of work-based learning (e.g., internships) in tertiary programs to better prepare students for transition to work. There is, however, a lack of understanding of how students learn at work, leading to this investigation of employer approaches to capability development among early career workers, including tertiary graduates and youth workers. Survey data were gathered from 306 business owners, managers, and human resource practitioners from diverse organisational settings. Respondents were largely committed to developing professional capabilities among new workers, although some were prioritised over others. Six broad approaches to capability development were identified, with differences observed by sector and organisational size. Findings reinforce the importance of socio-cultural factors, including barriers, in shaping how early career workers learn at work. Findings advance our understanding of ways to develop professional capabilities among early career workers and can inform work-based learning design to better prepare students for future employment.

DOI

10.1016/j.ijme.2022.100692

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.