Measurement properties of the dispositional measure of employability in Australian university students

Abstract

Dispositional employability can be understood as a psychosocial process that facilitates the enactment of behaviors directed toward career self-management. This investigation aimed to test the validity of a measure of dispositional employability to predict salient career outcomes in university students. Two studies using distinct samples of students at a multi-campus university in Australia deployed surveys containing measures of dispositional employability, career adaptability, and job search self-efficacy. The measures’ properties were tested using principal axis factoring in Study 1 and confirmatory factor analysis in Study 2. Furthermore, hierarchical regression analyses in Study 2 found that dispositional employability has distinctive relations with measures of career adaptability and job search self-efficacy. Our findings inform recommendations for higher education institutions to measure the psychosocial aspects of employability.