Abstract

This work contributes to a greater understanding of how to prepare graduates for future employability that meets the expectations of employer needs.

At the University we offer as one of the many extracurricular activities the opportunity to take part in volunteering however, what we know is that not all students will actively engage in this behaviour. My work is to try and understand the factors that positively influence students to engage in volunteering opportunities that will enhance their future career prospects and employability skills whilst embedding this practice within teaching and learning across wider provision.

There is a well-established model that allows us to identify the different factors that underpin motivation, and which have the strongest impact known as the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB: Ajzen, 1991). According to the TPB, a person’s intention to engage in a specific behaviour is influenced by three things; a general feeling of favourableness or unfavourableness towards a behaviour or attitude, perception of social pressure from significant others or subjective norm and perceived behavioural control (PBC) which captures perception of how easy or difficult behavioural engagement is likely to be in the face of barriers and facilitators.

The research has been undertaken in a series of studies the first study identifies the beliefs that underpin undergraduate students’ motivation to take part in employability enhancing volunteering opportunities. Followed by a second study that not only examines the validity of TPB in predicting this behaviour but further extends the TPB model with the inclusion of the additional variable personal norm in order to assess any additional variability explained. The final study will use the results of study one and two, to inform the development of an intervention study aimed at modifying the beliefs in order to motivate participation in employability enhancing volunteer opportunities.

The results of this work can be used by the careers academy and related teams to develop strategies that enhance motivation to engage in activities that increase employability prospects and overall enhance the quality of provision across educational programmes.

Ajzen, I. (1991) ‘The theory of planned behaviour’, Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision processes, 50, pp.179-211