Career values and proactive career behaviour among contemporary higher education students

ABSTRACT

The paper draws on evidence from a survey of Australian and UK students (N = 433) on students’ career values and their relationship to their proactivity in career self-management. Much of the dominant approaches to careers have focused on career competencies and adaptability in the context of increased movement from traditional to more self-managed career trajectories. Limited attention has been given to the role of career values in shaping individuals’ approaches to career management, particularly among higher education students. This study reveals data on a range of career values among students on a continuum between intrinsic and extrinsic careers. It revealed a preponderance of intrinsic career values and a clear relationship emerged on the strength of career values and levels of proactivity towards career management. Further, higher levels of intrinsic and extrinsic career values were reported for certain student groups. The article discusses the implications of these data for enhancing students’ career planning and engagement.

KEYWORDS:

• Career values
• career self-management
• intrinsic values
• extrinsic values
• employability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Denise Jackson

Denise Jackson is an Associate Professor Jackson is Director of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) in the School of Business and Law at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. Denise is a leading scholar in WIL, also publishing extensively in student outcomes, career self-management and professional identity development in the higher education sector.  She has received a number of research and teaching and learning awards, most recently a national Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning, for her work on innovative and inclusive WIL design. She sits on the National Board for the Australian Collaborative Education Network, the professional association for WIL in Australia. She is passionate about curriculum that enhances the outcomes of less advantaged students and has led numerous grants on enhancing graduate employability.

Michael Tomlinson

Michael Tomlinson is an Associate Professor at Southampton Education School, University of Southampton. His interests are broadly in the areas of the higher education and the labour market and he has extensively researched issues of graduate employability. In this field, he has pioneered a number of significant models, including the graduate career orientations model and, more recently, the graduate capital model. The latter has been actively incorporated in the University of Southampton careers and employability strategy.