Empregabilidade: medidas e perspectivas de graduandos e profissionais de gestão de pessoas

Abstract

Employability, the set of competencies to obtain, maintain, and progress in work, is fundamental for personal, social, and economic development. To understand how this construct has been measured and to analyze the perspectives of key actors in the university-to-market transition, three investigations were conducted, presented in the form of two articles. A systematic scoping review of employability measures and their psychometric properties was carried out, following the PRISMA-ScR protocol. The objective was to identify, classify, and describe the instruments used to assess this construct, analyzing their geographical distribution, target audiences, and, most importantly, their psychometric properties. Searches in databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, and PsycINFO resulted in the analysis of 99 articles that identified 35 seminal measures and 42 adapted versions. Two empirical studies were also conducted. One describes the importance that 189 Human Resource Management professionals attribute to demographic attributes, curricular indicators, and capabilities/skills in selection processes. A form based on the Multidimensional Employability Inventory (IME) was used. The other assessed the perceived development of competencies (skills and abilities) and the possession of curricular requirements among 524 undergraduate students through the online application of the IME. The scoping review revealed that most employability instruments are developed in developed countries, being predominantly multidimensional Likert scales that focus on perceived employability and soft skills. It was found that the psychometric properties of these measures are insufficiently examined, generally being limited to internal consistency and evidence of validity based on internal structure, signaling the urgency of developing Brazilian instruments with psychometric robustness. The empirical studies highlighted the centrality of soft skills, such as Professionalism and Empathy, which are more valued by Human Resource Management professionals than hard skills. In turn, undergraduates also self-assess the development of soft skills more positively, such as Respect for Diversity and Teamwork. A strong positive correlation was identified between the importance that recruiters give to curricular indicators and the possession of these indicators by students. Together, the three studies corroborate that employability is a multidimensional, contextual, and dynamic phenomenon that challenges researchers and professionals in various fields. They also signal the complexity involved in its measurement and the need for a dialogue between the 'world' of work and the 'world' of education.