Developing employability competences through career coaching in higher education: supporting students’ learning process

Abstract

Higher education plays a pivotal role in preparing students for the dynamic and complex labour market. Helping students develop employability competences supports them in obtaining the necessary expertise and skills to facilitate their transition to the labour market and to address the requirements of their new jobs. Employability competences are considered to contribute to students’ wellbeing and economic prosperity. Colleges and universities offer career coaching programmes to support students in developing their employability competences. Despite the importance of employability competences, empirical studies on the impact of such coaching programmes remain scarce. The present study aims to fill that gap by exploring the relationship between career coaching and the development of employability competences. A two-study design based on a multiple-methods approach was used to gain more insight in how coaching in higher education contributed to the development of students’ employability. Data were collected at institutions of higher education in the Netherlands and Belgium via student surveys (n = 491) and interviews with coaches (n = 9). Our quantitative data showed a significant positive relationship between coaches’ autonomy support and the development of students’ employability competences. The interviews provided in-depth detailed findings on how coaches support students in their learning process. Coaching sessions became most effective by encouraging students to engage in trial and error and by stimulating (self-) reflection. Taken together, our results show that (career) coaching in higher education has the potential to support students’ development of employability competences, which will, in turn, foster their transition to the workplace.