Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

Universidade Aberta

Stimulating employment is a political concern for several countries and organizations, and is one of the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: “promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”. Changes in the labor market in recent years, now exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic crisis, make job prospects less defined and predictable over time, while transitions between jobs tend to be more frequent and difficult. Such circumstances require individuals to actively engage in their careers in order to survive in a labour market characterized by high instability, flexibility, uncertainty and insecurity. Graduates are thus challenged to become active agents of their career from an early age, so that they can explore – the self and the environment -, develop – the necessary skills -, and prepare – the university-work transition and other possible transitions.On the other hand, and despite the obvious concern of higher education institutions with employability, initiatives in this area have still been very focused on instrumental and sporadic strategies and, when available, only a minority of students seek out these types of services, often due to the prevalence of stigma, preference for anonymity, difficulty in matching schedules or physical distances or financial costs.This scenario does not meet the need for comprehensive interventions that are accessible to people regardless of their economic, social, cultural, educational or personal situation, emphasized by the scientific and political community in order to promote employability.

Distance career intervention, using new technologies, is an opportunity to address some of these challenges.Given their flexibility in learning time and space, this type of program can contribute to student engagement, especially among non-traditional audiences, including workers, cultural minorities or older students.Despite the general recognition of the use of technologies for career interventions, the effectiveness of such actions represents an open question in the scientific field, particularly among specific groups.

Against this social, political and scientific backdrop, the general objectives of the R4C project are: (i) to develop knowledge about the career resources of students with different individual and socio-cultural characteristics.Although it is recognized that adaptation processes vary, there is still some uncertainty about the contextual circumstances that influence these processes.This study will contribute to understanding the specificities of Career Construction Theory and to validating the Career Resources Model, by analyzing the variation in career resources of different audiences, taking into account various individual and contextual antecedents.

This will inform the second part of the project which consists of:

(i) develop and evaluate a career intervention program based on e-learning, adapted to the characteristics of the participants. Empirical studies in this area are scarce, and there is a need for greater evaluation and dissemination of career programs, which inform about the most effective type of intervention with different groups. The expected contribution of this project is: (ii) development of empirical evidence of the contribution of Career Resource Theory to the area of employability; (iii) development of knowledge about the career resources of students, according to different personal and contextual circumstances; (iv) development of an e-learning based intervention program for the promotion of career resources with higher education students, appropriate to the needs identified; (v) development of knowledge about the impact of this intervention with higher education students, with diverse individual and contextual characteristics, increasing evidence-based practices in this area. This contribution is socially and scientifically relevant given its importance for academics, professionals and policy makers, in order to assess what kind of programs can promote employability in efficient and effective ways, but also to mitigate social inequalities. This proposal integrates different areas of knowledge – education, distance learning, psychology and sociology – represented by researchers selected for their experience in previous projects related to employability in higher education, career development and career development with vulnerable groups, social equity, e-learning and student retention in higher education.