Sex differences in self-perceived employability and self-motivated strategies for learning in Polish first-year students

Abstract

Self-perceived employability (SPE) is defined as the ability to attain sustainable employment appropriate to one’s qualification level (Rothwell 2008) and perceived as a crucial factor in university graduates’ career development. Meanwhile, University students are mainly assessed through the lens of academic achievement, which depend, inter alia, on the self-motivated strategies for learning (MSL). Firstly, we tested hypothesised sex differences in SPE’s and MSL’s factors in a group of the first-year university students (n = 600) in a Central European context. Our analyses revealed that female students, despite their higher results in MSL’s factors (self-regulation, learning strategies, intrinsic values, self-efficacy) presented lower internal SPE than male students. Secondly, we explored how much general SPE can be predicted from general MSL, taking into account sex as a moderator, finding that sex factor was not significant as a moderator. We can consider general MSL as a good predictor of general SPE in both sex groups. The results will provide evidence to support HEI curricular development and strategies for workplace attitude change to address existing sex inequalities. In addition, our findings relating to MSL will provide evidence to support the development of approaches to enhancing student employability with additional long term benefits in mental health and well-being.