Project Leadership and Society 3 (2022) 100048

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Project Leadership and Society

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Empirical Research Paper

Working up to work: Perceived employability of students commencing a

project management degree
Guinevere Gilbert *, Michelle Turner, Omid Haass
School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The successful acquisition of employment is influenced by a number of parameters, including the individual’s
Employability perception that they are employable. This research uses sequential mixed methods to measure the perceived
Higher education employability of commencing undergraduate students of a project management degree at an Australian uni­
Project management
versity. Participants had lower scores on all employability dimensions in comparsion to students who had already
Students
commenced their degree, with the exception of collaboration. Gender differences emerged, with females having
Work-readiness
lower levels than males on the commencement readiness and lifelong learning dimensions. Students did not link
previous work experience to perceived employability, and employability was not framed within a project
management context for commencing students. Findings suggest that universities should include career educa­
tion early in the qualification so that preparatory skills and knowledge are developed. Findings also highlight the
importance of perceived employability in relation to project management, and how employability differs across
industries and project types.

1. Introduction changes. As universities are tasked with developing students’ employ­

The proportion of graduates who are employed in a field related to
their discipline of study at the completion of their degree is a common
measure of tertiary education success (Clarke, 2018; Gough, 2018) as it
is quantifiable, reportable and enables inter-university comparison. Rate
of employment after graduation is also a popular measure for attracting
potential students into courses. Besides the traditional outcomes of
knowledge and skills, students can enhance their likelihood of successful
employment through increasing their perception of their employability
since perceived employability (PE) is positively associated with prepa­
ratory and active job search behaviour (Onyishi et al., 2015). Yet, PE
amongst students and graduates is still “under explored, under developed
and….. over simplified” (Clarke, 2018 p.1924). One aspect that is spe­
cifically under explored is the change in PE for students over the dura­
tion of their program of study, as much of the research has been
cross-sectional rather than longitudinal and with an emphasis on
final-year students (e.g. Álvarez-González et al., 2017; Baluku et al.,
2021; Pitan and Muller, 2019). Jackson and Wilton (2017) show that PE
is a dynamic rather than static state that changes and develops
throughout the duration of a student’s program of study. Cross-sectional
research limits the capacity to understand what factors influence these
ability (Cheng et al., 2021), it is important that a whole-of-program
approach is taken to developing PE through curriculum design and
scaffolded learning. Some research has started to address this short­
coming in understanding. For example, Donald et al. (2018, 2019)
explored self PE amongst penultimate and final year students from a
wide range of disciplines at a UK university, from which we learn that
students believe higher education increases their employability, from
which we learn that students believe higher education increases their
employability, but that final year students reported lower PE which
Donald et al. (2019) attribute to greater awareness of the global labour
market.
The role of the university in the 21st century is not just to educate,
but to nurture employment confidence (Rajaram, 2021), self-esteem and
passion in students entering the competitive world of job hunting. The
acquisition of skills and knowledge alone, therefore, no longer fulfils the
calling of a university. Arguably, if universities were to understand the
antecedents of PE and incorporate these into degree programs, the fre­
quency of job search behaviours and therefore graduate employment
would increase.
Career development theory is considered an important area of
investigation in project management because of the predicted growth of

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: Guinevere.gilbert@rmit.edu.au (G. Gilbert), Michelle.turner@rmit.edu.au (M. Turner), Omid.haass@rmit.edu.au (O. Haass).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2022.100048
Received 5 December 2021; Received in revised form 12 April 2022; Accepted 17 April 2022
Available online 20 April 2022
2666-7215/© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/).
G. Gilbert et al.
the profession and the demand for competent project practitioners now
and into the future (PMI, 2021). The ability to prepare emerging pro­
fessionals with the skills and knowledge they to need to confidently and
competently transition into their careers in project management thus
becomes important, especially against the backdrop of a global shortage
of project professionals. Career development theory provides an
important foundation for the study of vocational behaviour and career
development, examining evidence-based practice, and for the develop­
ment and delivery of career interventions (Sampson et al., 2014).
However, it is acknowledged that the application of career theory has
yet to be comprehensively explored in project management (Akkermans
et al., 2020). To address this shortcoming in the extant literature, this
research aims to explore the PE of emerging project professionals in the
context of their tertiary education. The objective of the research is to
establish a PE baseline for students before they commence a bachelor
degree in project management. The baseline is intended to be used in
longitudinal research which will study PE over the duration of student’s
program of study. Findings of the study will be used to guide curriculum
design and content to enhance the students’ ability to find
project-related work at the completion of their degrees.
The paper is structured as follows: we review the literature associ­
ated with employability, the role of the university in developing the PE
of students, and the influence of field of study on PE. We then explain the
methodology adopted, a sequential mixed methods approach using
quantitative data to inform interviews and idiographic analysis of
qualitative data, before presenting and discussing the findings.
2. Literature review
2.1. Employability
There has been much debate about definitions of employability
(Rothwell and Arnold, 2007), but a good starting point is “the ability of
an individual to acquire and keep a job they desire” (Rothwell and Arnold,
2007, p.25) which is a definition also adopted by Berntson and Mar­
klund (2007). Some variations (eg. Oliver, 2015) make reference to an
individual’s ability to move between roles, and the acquisition and
continual upgrading of skills and personal attributes that are required to
get a job. Other authors include variables such as a capacity for learning
(Lane et al., 2000), mastery of career management and job search
(Hillage and Pollard, 1998), and resilience (Iles, 1997). Adaptability
plays a significant role in Fugate and Ashforth (2003) model validated
by McArdle et al. (2007) and in the concept of employability orientation
(Van Dam, 2004).
Where employability of an individual is often measured by external
observers, an individual’s self-PE is defined by Veld et al. (2015 p.867)
as “employees’ perception of their chance of a job in the internal and/or
external labour market”. Vanhercke et al. (2014) add the concept of
maintaining a job to this definition, and they explore five aspects of the
definition: the subjective nature of the evaluation of my employability,
my perception of employment possibilities, the maintenance of my
employment – which might not be as relevant for everyone and can be
influenced by career stage, a comparison of my employment possibilities
with the current employer compared to other employers, and finally the
quantity and quality of jobs that are available. We use the first person in
these variables because it reminds us of the self-perception lens of the
research. The idea that employability can be measured internally leads
to discussion on the impact of PE on behaviours such as the frequency of
preparatory and active job search behaviours (Onyishi et al., 2015), as
well as on career success (Greer and Waight, 2017).
In the 20th century career, it was largely expected that a person
would remain employed by the same organisation for life, and that the
employing organisation would take care of any professional develop­
ment they considered essential (Pryor and Bright, 2011). In the 21st
century this paternal employer notion is less frequently encountered.
Instead, the chaos theory of careers describes the complexity that a
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Project Leadership and Society 3 (2022) 100048
young adult can expect in their employment (Pryor and Bright, 2011)
employed by multiple organisations and sometimes in completely
different roles some of which are only now being recognised (Seet and
Jones, 2020). With this change, individuals are now expected to plan
and implement their own career management. Thus employability is not
just an external assessment, but must now be self-assessed; an awareness
of, and taking responsibility for, one’s employability is required to
maintain constant work. We observe a proven relationship between PE
and career success among young people from Van der Heijden et al.
(2009).
Both Blau (1993) and Saks (2006) observe a relationship between PE
and job search behaviour, which Blau defines as when an individual
spends time looking for work. Job search behaviour can be divided into
preparatory job search behaviour in which an individual identifies in­
formation about jobs, employers and industries, and active job search
behaviour where individuals are actually seeking employment (Blau,
1994). It is this concept of job search behaviour that is more useful to
this research since the behaviour is required in order for students to get
jobs which then contributes to the defined success of a degree.
For project managers in the 21st century, careers are heavily influ­
enced by the inherently temporary nature of all projects, leading to
protean careers that are characterised by multiple contracts, movement
between organisations (Akkermans et al., 2020) and even industries,
and quite possibly periods between projects with no employment. The
nature of a career like this when combined with the previously noted
self-managed style of career management in the 21st century, heightens
the importance of how one perceives their employability, compared to
permanent employees bound to a single organisation. For project man­
agers, employability - the action of maintaining one’s networks,
knowledge and development (Lo Presti and Elia, 2020) - is intrinsic to
maintaining job security and a continuous flow of work across organi­
sations (Lo Presti and Elia, 2020; Akkermans et al., 2020; Crawford
et al., 2013). This paper previously highlighted the finding that job
search behaviours are positively influenced by PE (Onyishi et al., 2015)
and therefore it is important to understand how project management
students are aware of their employability, career success, and how to
increase both.
2.2. Development of employability in the university context
Universities play a critical role in the development of graduate
employability. A chronology of the field of graduate employability be­
gins with Hillage and Pollard (1998) who contend that graduate
employability is the knowledge, skills and attributes that graduates are
expected to be able to demonstrate that they have acquired in higher
education. The limitation with this definition is that graduates cannot be
taught attributes by universities; these come with maturity and experi­
ence in the workplace (Tran, 2016). Also, there is an absence of any
consideration of the labour market in which employability is realised.
Holmes’ (2013) definition sees the field of employability develop
maturity and proposes three components: possession, position and
process. Within these categories, we see that possession refers to skills,
knowledge and experience. Position refers to a graduate’s networks,
social class and – unique to this demographic – university ranking.
Process refers to career building skills and interest in career
self-management. In response, some universities have determined their
own definition of graduate employability which suits the services a
university can provide to its students, namely acquisition of skills,
development of knowledge, and contextual experience represented by
work integrated learning, internships or overseas exchanges (Clarke,
2018). Clarke (2018) goes on to report that there is criticism of this
approach to defining employability. Both the approach and the criticism
is understandable: universities are organisations in the business of
attracting students, providing a service and receiving funding for it and
must promote the benefits of attending a university to one’s future
employability. At the same time, the criticism is appropriate because in
G. Gilbert et al.
using employability as a marketing strategy, universities have focused
on only a few of the components of employability and ignore those
outside of their control such as the condition of the labour market and
personal disposition towards career management. Universities can rebut
some of the criticism by adopting the phrase “employability skills”
(rather than more generic “employability”) which according to Ram­
isetty and Desai (2017) specifically relates to four categories: basic ac­
ademic skills, higher order thinking skills, interpersonal and teamwork
skills, and personal characteristics and attitudes. Clarke (2018, p.1931)
proposes a model for employability which as she says “brings the strands
together” (2018, p.1930), including individual skills, knowledge, traits
and social capital, together with labour market forces.
Graduate employment is a key measure of the success of under­
graduate programs in Australia, and employment is not possible without
graduates having a set of skills and abilities which constitute employ­
ability: effective communication, flexibility and adaptability, problem
solving, teamwork skills and time management, commonly featured in
university mission statements and industry discourses (Cavanagh et al.,
2015). Universities engage classroom learning supported by work inte­
grated learning experiences in order to develop and consolidate the
skills listed by Cavanagh et al., which then aide in the development of
graduate employability.
Researched antecedents of graduate employability include work in­
tegrated learning (WIL), work experience, careers advice, gender, and
grade point average. Not all have been found to have a positive or un­
ambiguous impact. Where Smith et al. (2019) present that the quality of
a WIL placement experience contributes to employability, Jackson and
Collings (2018) found that WIL did not relate to an increase in full time
employment amongst graduates, whereas paid employment in the final
year of studying did increase employment at graduation. It is important
to distinguish between WIL and paid experience, as WIL is not exclu­
sively industry based; it can also be simulated or classroom based but
supported by industry mentors. The relationship between paid experi­
ence and PE is likely to be facilitated through a student becoming more
aware of core skills expected by employers during their experience
(Patrick and Crebert, 2004) which subsequently positively influences
employment outcomes (Mason et al., 2003). Smith et al. (2019) found
that work experience influenced the categories of employability which
form their instrument for assessment of employability. In particular, the
quality of the work experience was more important that the duration or
structure of the experience.
The common purpose of the university and independent careers
advisors is to enhance the employability of undergraduates to prepare
for the transition from education into the labour market (Taylor and
Hooley, 2014). Careers advice was found to have a positive correlation
with employability and career ownership although Donald et al. (2019)
clarifies that careers advice is not perceived as useful by the students on
the receiving end, and that the advice must be an individual rather than
a “one size fits all” approach.
Students’ PE is important because we know that PE influences job
search behaviour which is a pre-requisite for graduate employment – a
success indicator for university degrees. Onyishi et al. (2015) record a
finding that PE is positively associated with preparatory job search
behaviour, although the relationship between PE and active job search
behaviour wasn’t found to exist. In the research, the factor of employed
or unemployed was also investigated and this moderated job search
behaviour.
Donald et al. (2019) also note that female students’ perception of
their employability was lower than their male peers, and that students
studying Business, Engineering, Law, Mathematics, Modern Languages
had the highest perception of employability compared to students in
other degrees. Included in Donald et al.’s (2019) research was the lon­
gitudinal measurement of PE, found to decrease between the penulti­
mate and final years of study which was attributed to students having
greater awareness of the challenges of the labour market. It is noted that
Qenani et al. (2014) and Jackson and Wilton (2017) also report a
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Project Leadership and Society 3 (2022) 100048
reduction in PE with time spent at university and this phenomenon is
supported by Smith et al. (2019) who observe the Dunning-Kruger effect
(Kruger and Dunning, 1999) in which students with no work experience,
paid or otherwise, overestimate their abilities. It is likely that these
students are still in the early stage of their higher education. Finally,
Greer and Waight (2017) assessed but could not find any evidence to
support a relationship between grade point average (GPA) and PE
amongst post-graduate research students at a university in the USA.
It’s important to acknowledge variables outside of the university
context that have been identified as influencing PE. Berntson (2008)
identified national economic prosperity, living/working in metropolitan
areas, poor physical and good psychological work environments, formal
education, and competency development as being positively associated
with PE. Indirectly, Forrier et al. (2018) support this link between
general wellbeing and PE: those who are employable become even more
employable whereas those who are not employable may lack the re­
sources to invest in their employability and therefore become even less
employable.
2.3. Field of study and perceived employability
The field of a student’s tertiary study has been shown to have an
impact on students’ PE. There is evidence that students who graduate
from non-professional degrees or generalist degrees such as the Hu­
manities, Arts and Social Sciences have lower levels of PE than students
graduating from professional degrees such as Engineering and Ac­
counting due to having limited opportunities in the graduate labour
market as compared to graduates from professional fields (Walker and
Fongwa, 2017; Okay-Somerville and Scholarios, 2017; Donald et al.,
2018; Pitan and Muller, 2019). For example, Donald et al. (2018) found
that graduates from more specialist focused degrees (Business, Engi­
neering, Law, Mathematics and Modern Languages) had higher PE than
students studying more generalist degrees (Archeology, Art, Biological
Sciences, Chemistry, Civil and Environmental Sciences, Criminology,
Education, English, Geography, History, Music, Ocean and Earth Sci­
ences, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology and Social Sciences).
There has been little consideration of project management as a
generalist or professional degree and how it is positioned within the
broader research related to the relationship between field of study and
PE. While examination of this relationship is outside the scope of our
study, it is acknowledged as a possible factor which can influence PE of
students as they move through their program of study. Walker and
Fongwa (2017) also raise an important point in relation to field of study
and employability, contending that students in fields of study which are
in high demand in the labour market appear to be more confident of
their likelihood of employment success. Irrespective of whether project
management is considered as a generalist or professional degree, the
labour market demand for competent project practitioners is high (PMI,
2021) and its possible this may have a positive impact on students’ PE.
However, it is not well understood if, how, and at what point during
their university program undergraduate project management students
link PE to labour market demand and even whether PE fluctuates during
their program of study. The scarcity of research exploring PE of project
management may be explained in part by the number of undergraduate
project management programs offered in Australia, of which our
research is based. Nimmo and Usher (2020) identified 24 project man­
agement courses available from Australian universities and only two of
these were undergraduate courses.
3. Method and instruments
3.1. Research approach
The research adopted an exploratory sequential mixed methods
approach to data collection and analysis. This method was deemed the
most suitable as it facilitates both a nomothetic and idiographic
G. Gilbert et al.
approach to the collection and analysis of data. The findings may then
address the research objective and also begin to offer causal explanation
for any relationships identified. Hoppe-Graff and Lammm-Hanel (2006)
identify mixed methods research as “superior” (p.263) because of the
opportunity to view the topic through both an idiographic and nomo­
thetic lenses. Stage one, a quantitative survey, reveals relationships
which are then further explored through open ended questions in stage
two: interviews which adopt a narrative approach where the research
participants are invited to tell their story (Creswell, 2014). Interview
findings are compared to any phenomena identified from the prior
survey. Hence the quantitative stage is the priority approach ie. a
quantitative plus qualitative typology which uses multiple sequential
strands or phases (Teddlie and Tashakkori, 2006). In order to avoid the
qualitative stage being treated as “auxiliary” (Howe, 2004, p.52), the
interview questions were carefully written to ensure they added value to
the research; not just to confirm the findings of the quantitative stage,
but to ask why those findings came about. Reflecting the narrative style,
an idiographic approach to interpreting the qualitative data allowed
each interview respondent’s story to be explored in a manner that adds
context and meaning to the research. Since the research is exploring
rather than explaining the nature of PE, presentation of individual ex­
periences enhances the exploration and suggests where further research
might be useful.
3.2. Sampling strategy
Since the aim of the research is to explore perceived employability at
the start of a university degree in project management, the target pop­
ulation was students commencing a Bachelor level degree in project
management at a large urban university in Australia. The Degree is a
four year program accredited by the Global Accreditation Center for
Project Management Education Programs (PMI, 2021a) and endorsed by
the Australian Institute of Project Management (2021). In order to
participate in the research, students were required to meet the following
criteria: enrolled in the Bachelor of Applied Science (Project Manage­
ment) (Honours) (“the Degree”), have yet to attend any classes, and have
participated in orientation conducted by project management faculty.
These criteria mean the population are as close to commencing the de­
gree as possible yet have not been influenced by any classes at the time
of the survey. After receiving ethical approval, data was collected from
individuals who met the criteria for participation.
Since the Degree has a mid-year intake, this survey was distributed at
three intervals to maximise the number of responses: during orientation
at the start of the year, during orientation in the middle of the year, and
during orientation at the start of the following year. The first orientation
was conducted face to face and the survey was administered via paper-
based hard copy. The second and third orientations were conducted
during COVID19 and therefore conducted online. The paper-based sur­
vey was transferred to Qualtrics and a link was provided to the students.
3.3. Survey
The survey comprised of two sections. The first section asked ques­
tions related to demographics, study and work experience. The second
section measured PE using a 20-item scale consisting of six employ­
ability dimensions: lifelong learning (2 items); integration of theory and
practice (2 items); commencement readiness (3 items); informed deci­
sion making (4 items); collaboration (4 items), and professional practice
and standards (5 items). Development of the scale is outlined in Smith
et al. (2014). The PE scale was validated by Smith et al. (2016) and this
version was used in our study. Smith et al. (2016) contend that the six
dimensions of employability reflect that employable graduates are:
• “competent for autonomous, responsible and ethical practice;
• can work with other people effectively, fairly and cross-culturally;
• use information in judicious ways for specific work-related purposes;
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Project Leadership and Society 3 (2022) 100048
• are willing to continue to learn to improve practice and are able to
identify areas for self-development;
• integrate theory and practice;
• have confidence and self-awareness to seek and gain employment in
a job market” (p.201).
Items are assessed on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from (1) never to
(5) all the time. Example items include, from the commencement
readiness factor: “Please rate your ability to effectively seek work rele­
vant to your studies”; from the collaboration variable: “Please rate your
ability to make sure everyone feels heard in group discussions”. The full
set of questions is outlined in Smith et al. (2016). To gain an overall
measure of PE, all items are summed and a mean score is calculated, as
are the dimensions items. A higher score indicates better PE. The
employability dimensions demonstrate satisfactory internal reliability
consistency, ranging from α = .77 for commencement readiness and
integration of theory and practice to α = 0.89 for lifelong learning
(Smith et al., 2016). A limitation of the scale is that it is an internal
measurement and does not take into account the students’ perception of
the current labour market conditions. This limitation is acknowledged
but for the purpose of this research, the scale is aligned with the research
objective which seeks to establish a baseline of student perception of
their own employability prior to commencing the degree.
3.4. Interviews
The second stage of data collection was the qualitative stage which
was achieved by undertaking interviews with students who had
completed a survey. To find potential interviewees, a question was
added at the end of survey where participants were asked if they would
like to participate in an interview. Students were invited to leave an
email address or contact number if they would like to participate in the
follow up interview. The complementary interviews captured data to
clarify, elaborate and generally gain a rich insight into the quantitative
results (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2011). The Microsoft Teams online
meeting tool was used to conduct and transcribe interviews. Students
were provided with a consent form in which they authorised the
recording and use of the interview data for research purposes. The
interview questions were provided to students prior to the interview.
The students’ participation in the interview process was voluntary and
all interview data were anonymised to protect participant’s confidenti­
ality. The interview questions explored the findings from the survey and
sought to identify how students define and perceive employability in the
context of project management.
The qualitative data was analysed using idiographic story telling in
which participant’s responses are reported and integrated with the re­
searcher’s interpretation. Cervone et al. (2020) have used this approach
in a similar context to ours: perceived self-efficacy of students in higher
education.
4. Results
4.1. Survey participants
Of the 94 survey respondents, 68.12% (n = 64) were male and 31.9%
(n = 30) were female. The mean age of respondents was 20.5 (SD =
1.94) years. Sixty-two (66.7%) respondents were aged 18–20 years, 31
(33%) were aged 21 years or over, and 1 (1.1%) respondent did not
indicate their age. Respondents were asked to indicate what they did in
the 12 months before they started their degree. Sixty-one (64.9%) re­
spondents had completed secondary education in the year immediately
before commencing university, 10 (10.6%) undertook a form of higher
education, and 7 (7.4%) worked full time. Of those attending secondary
education, almost half (n = 30, 49%) worked part time. Eight re­
spondents (8.5%) did not indicate their education or work status.
G. Gilbert et al.
4.2. Survey findings
Analysis of all three cohorts for significant differences in mean PE
revealed none, and so the participant surveys were combined into one
dataset for further analysis. Preliminary analysis of the scale indicated
satisfactory internal consistency of the 20-item scale (α = 0.92) and the
six subscales ranging from α = 0.71 for collaboration to α = 0.92 for
lifelong learning, as outlined in Table 1. The PE scale ranges from 1 to 5
where higher scores indicate better PE. The mean score for overall PE
was 3.89 (SD = 0.5). Table 1 outlines the mean score for each of the six
categories of PE. Collaboration had the highest mean of 4.2 and
commencement readiness had the lowest mean of 3.3.
To provide context for our findings, a comparison was made with
Australian-based professional undergraduate degrees (Business, Engi­
neering) and generalist undergraduate degrees (Arts, Education) (Don­
ald et al., 2018) that had used the same measure to explore PE (Smith
et al., 2014) (Table 1). As our participants had yet to commence their
studies, it might be expected that they would have a lower score than
those students who had commenced their studies for all employability
dimensions. As expected, our participants had lower scores on all
employability dimensions with the exception of collaboration, for which
their score was higher than for business and engineering disciplines. The
reason for the high level of collaboration is not yet understood and is
considered in the discussion. It is possible that the low score for
commencement readiness is reflective of students who had been
accepted into the project management degree but had yet to commence
their program of study.
The relationship between age with overall PE and the six dimensions
of employability were investigated using Pearson product-moment
correlation coefficient. There was a small, positive significant correla­
tion between age and overall PE (r = .242, n = 88, p < .02), and
commencement readiness (r = 0.230, n = 90, p < .03). An independent-
samples t-test was conducted to compare overall PE and the six
employability dimensions with gender. There was a significant differ­
ence for males (M = 3.4, SD = 0.8) and females (M = 2.9, SD = 0.8; t(89)
= 2.86,p = .00) for commencement readiness. The size of the differences
in the means was moderate (eta squared = 0.08). There was also a sig­
nificant difference for males (M = 3.8, SD = 0.8) and females (M = 3.3,
SD = 1.0; t(92) = 2.43,p = .01) for lifelong learning. The size of the
differences in the means was moderate (eta squared = 0.06). An
independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare overall PE and
the six employability dimensions for school leaver status and work
experience. There were no significant differences for respondents who
had completed secondary education in the year immediately before
commencing university and those who not attended secondary school in
the year immediately before commencing university. There was also no
significant difference between respondents who had work experience
and those who did not.
4.3. Interview participants
Out of 94 students who participated in the quantitative stage of this
study by completing the survey, nine students expressed their interest in
participating in the follow up interview. All were contacted and four
Table 1
Means and standard deviation across disciplines for six employability dimensions.
α Mean and standard deviation
Our sample
Collaboration .71 4.2 (.5)
Professional practice and standards .84 4.1 (.6)
Integration of theory and practice .83 3.7 (.7)
Informed Decision Making .77 3.7 (.6)
Lifelong learning .92 3.6 (.9)
Commencement readiness .87 3.3 (.9)
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Project Leadership and Society 3 (2022) 100048
agreed to be interviewed. The interviews varied in their duration from
30 to 45 minutes. The interview participants were all aged in their early
20s (age ranged from 21 to 23 years) and included three male students
and one female student. All participants had recently completed a
vocational diploma (Diploma of Building and Construction or Diploma
in Fashion). Whilst the generalizability of the findings of the research are
limited by the small number of interview participants, the sample is
considered sufficient for two reasons. Firstly, the interviews emphasised
gathering rich, detailed information about the individual’s perspective
of their experience prior to commencing their project management de­
gree which is reported in the narrative style. Secondly, the interviews
were the second stage of a mixed methods approach in which data is
eventually integrated. We may not have achieved saturation, but when
combined with quantitative analysis, saturation is not the aim.
4.4. Interview findings
Four key findings emerged from the interviews. Firstly, that students
did not consider skills acquired from their previous employment as
transferable. Secondly, that students do not view employability as
directly influenced by the industry although it is noted that even with
relevant skills, the industry of choice may not offer employment due to
external events (such as COVID). Third, that some students would like to
enter the construction industry in a project management capacity while
others are not yet sure of which industry they will enter, and that gaining
industry-specific knowledge from the degree is an important component
of employability. Lastly, that PE may be influenced by gender. The
following section provides data from participants to provide context of
the four the key findings. Alias names are used in this section to maintain
confidentiality.
Participant 1: Harrison is a male student. After Year 12 he completed
one semester of a Bachelor of Business degree before dropping out. He
then made a decision to continue his education, researched different
career options and identified project management as a desirable career.
In order to be accepted at the university of his choice he needed to first
complete the Diploma of Building and Construction which provided a
guaranteed pathway into the project management degree. Prior to the
entering the project management degree Harrison had two paid posi­
tions, one in retail which ended due to COVID; the other – estimating
and site supervision for his brother - was initiated during the completion
of the estimating course in the Diploma of Building and Construction,
providing evidence that development of technical skills leads to
employment. Harrison explicitly makes this connection between
completing the estimating course and commencing the estimating role.
However, this connection does not transfer to the Diploma qualification
which Harrison does not perceive as increasing his employability. This
suggests that Harrison may connect specific parts of a qualification to
employability, rather than the qualification as a whole.
At the same time as the decision to continue education, Harrison
explained that “I got myself involved with a community group…..we did
projects like a huge soccer event in Melbourne”. While describing this
experience he uses project management language like “on budget”,
however Harrison does not interpret the volunteer work as increasing
his employability despite using project-related language.
Business Engineering Arts Education
4.1 (.6) 4.1 (.5) 4.2 (.5) 4.3 (.5)
4.2 (.5) 4.2 (.4) 4.2 (.5) 4.4 (.5)
4.0 (.6) 4.1 (.5) 3.9 (.7) 4.1 (.6)
4.0 (.6) 4.1 (.5) 4.0 (.6) 4.1 (.6)
4.1 (.6) 4.2 (.5) 4.2 (.5) 4.3 (.5)
3.7 (.7) 3.8 (.7) 3.5 (.7) 3.8 (.7)
G. Gilbert et al.
Harrison describes employability as “ready to work in a job where you
can get paid”. He isn’t immediately explicit about what being work ready
entails, but during the interview there are suggestions that Harrison
believes experience is very important. For example, he comments that
the wide range of activities he’s undertaken mean that “I’m quite ahead
to be employable into the project management industry” and he describes
how he could have waited until he finished his project management
degree to think about experience, but he wants to graduate with
“experience in my hand” so that he can “get into a better company or
organisation”. Harrison recognises that although he has acquired a lot of
knowledge, he still has a lot to learn and that he expects the degree will
expose him to new topics. In relation to the skills expected of project
managers, Harrison indicates that leadership is very important to enable
people who have lots of ideas to implement those ideas. He also antic­
ipates learning more about different industries in which project man­
agers are employed.
Harrison believes he is ahead of his peers in terms of employability as
a result of his varied experience. However, at this stage of his degree he
doesn’t seem to relate the skills, education and volunteering as
contributing to his employability as much as his work experience does.
Participant 2: Simon is also a male student who, like Harrison,
demonstrates a very clear career direction. In year 10 of secondary
school, he identified his career goal of working in a Tier 1 construction
company as a project manager. His secondary school results were
insufficient to gain direct access to the project management degree, so
he completed the Diploma of Building and Construction in order to ac­
cess the guaranteed pathway into the project management qualification.
Although not employed at the time of the interview, he has 2 years of
experience as a site supervisor for a rendering contractor which he
voluntarily ceased to enable him to prioritise his study.
Whilst Simon describes his supervisor role as coordinating em­
ployees and also communicating with builders, he doesn’t adopt the
language of project management as Harrison does. However when
defining employability, Simon begins to refer to skills: “being available
for employment… having a set of skills”. Unlike Harrison, Simon doesn’t
consider his work experience as a valuable contributor to his employ­
ability, focusing instead on skills and knowledge. He describes the need
to be familiar with the industry that you work in as key to being
employable and we observe him being very confident as a result of his
knowledge of the construction industry, although he does add that he
needs to know more. When probed again to confirm his perceived
employability, Simon specifically mentions his communication and
leadership skills (from Diploma level group assignments) and his
attention to detail, and describes himself as having a “medium” level of
skills and then “seven or eight out of ten”.
When comparing Simon with Harrison, it is clear that Simon’s focus
is on contextual knowledge; he has chosen not to get experience at the
same time as studying.
Participant 3, Wynston is a male student who also completed the
Diploma in Building and Construction. However unlike Simon, he does
not have a clear career destination. Although he has worked in a number
of casual jobs such as removals and safety and also in Germany as a
construction labourer for five months before returning to Australia,
Wynston explained that during orientation for the project management
degree, he was struck by the number of other industries which employ
project managers. Wynston is currently employed in a casual position in
a logistics company and is aware that his current employer does recruit
project managers. During his interview it becomes clear he is very
focused on work life balance “I really would like to get a good balance in my
career of fulfilment and income”; he recalls enrolling in the project man­
agement degree with a construction focus but has been educated about
other possible employment opportunities.
Wynston defines employability as “how available you are to work and
when” and perceives it to be “very important….. in the sense of having more
than one job has always been a big thing for me”. Wynston is seeking job
satisfaction, challenge and diversity in his career. Wynston’s perceived
6
Project Leadership and Society 3 (2022) 100048
employability is quite low at the time of the interview, stating “I don’t
feel work ready in project management right now” but he sees the potential
in the career and that is why he is continuing with his classes. When
asked what skills he expects project managers to have, he discusses so­
cial skills as his strength and the further development of social skills in a
professional context being developed during the degree. He reports
feeling less competent at project management technical skills, and with
emotional intelligence at work versus outside of work.
Participant 4, Jasmine is the only female respondent. She firstly
completed a Diploma in Fashion, but as a result of a lack of employment
opportunities in fashion and a desire to be close to home during the
pandemic, she returned to the family home in regional Australia and
assists in the family’s earthworks business preparing tenders. Although
she’s now familiar with this aspect of the construction industry, she does
not intend to work for the family business in the future. Jasmine also
noticed the wide range of industries that recruit project managers,
demonstrated at orientation for the degree, and is keeping an open mind
about future career directions.
Like Simon, Jasmine defines employability as “having the correct
skillset for a certain job” and she talks at length about the skills she is
confident the project management degree will equip her with. Jasmine
reports feeling not very employable at the start of the project manage­
ment degree, which supports her definition of employability. She
doesn’t mention the need for work experience even though she has some
experience in the family business. Through the degree, Jasmine expects
to be informed about technical project management skills, communi­
cation and leadership and also industry-specific skills.
Throughout the interview, Jasmine repeatedly refers to COVID and
“what’s going on in the world and everything”. It becomes clear that her
original career choice has been impacted by the pandemic. Jasmine is
the only one of the four interview respondents who specifically mentions
the nature of the construction industry and indirectly, COVID, as having
a role to play in employability. Even though she has a qualification in
fashion, the industry and the pandemic are preventing her working in
this field: “especially with everything going on in the world, I feel like I am
focusing a lot more on stable careers I guess, that’s probably why I changed
courses”.
As the survey results indicated that females have lower lifelong
learning and commencement readiness than males, we asked interview
participants to share their view of gender and how it could impact on
employability in project management. There appeared to be a gender
bias when responding to this question. The male participants did not
consider that gender would impact on PE. Given there was no manual
labour involved, Harrison perceived there would be no impact between
genders: “it’s quite the same because everyone has their own mindset… you
can be female or male it doesn’t matter ….it [project management] doesn’t
include heavy lifting”. Wynston didn’t believe that gender would be a
barrier either, because “project management comes down to people in
general, it doesn’t come down to whether being a female or male would make
you readier”. However, Wynston did refer to “the industry” as being
biased (he did not specify which industry). In contrast to the male par­
ticipants, our single female participant, Jasmine, expects that being a
female project manager will be more challenging due to gender barriers.
While the male respondents didn’t observe gender as a limitation,
Jasmine instead reports that “people just notice you’re a girl”. When dis­
cussing her enrolment into the project management degree with con­
struction industry professionals, she was told that project management
“is a man’s industry”. Although project management employers are not
exclusively construction organisations, this perception makes her want
to explore alternative industries.
5. Discussion
5.1. Collaboration
As might be expected, pre-commencing students had a relatively low
G. Gilbert et al.
level of PE when compared to students who had already commenced
their tertiary studies (Smith et al., 2014). One exception was collabo­
ration, where our students had a higher level than students in other
degrees such as Business and Engineering (Smith et al., 2014). Project
management is primarily a team-based undertaking and creating a
collaborative project team environment is one of the 12 principles of
project management (PMI, 2021b). Given its importance, the employ­
ability dimension of collaboration in the context of project management
might be expected to be higher than in other degrees whereby there is
less reliance of the interdependent activities of team members and the
need for a high level of collaboration. It is possible that students with a
perceived high level of collaboration-based skills may have self-selected
into the project management degree.
Time spent at university has been shown to reduce PE (Qenani et al.,
2014; Jackson and Wilton, 2017) as commencing students may over­
estimate their abilities. It is possible that level of collaboration may
decrease when students are exposed to group work and experience the
potential challenges that may arise in learning to work with others.
Conflict is a common occurrence in group work which can be stressful
and result in poor quality outcomes (Verma, 1998). Supporting students
to take a reflective approach to group work and learning how to
collaborate with others, particularly when facing challenges and expe­
riencing negative emotion, is an important component of the project
management curriculum.
5.2. Linking past work experience to future employability
The survey results identified no significant difference in PE between
students who had work experience prior to commencing the project
management degree and those who did not. This finding was consistent
amongst interviewees who did not link past work experience to future
employability.
A possible explanation for this is students’ lack of understanding of
the skills and knowledge associated with a job in project management. It
is expected that as students gain a better understanding of the skills and
knowledge required of a project professional, they will be able to con­
nect their previous work experience with the development of skills
which contribute to employability. This may be one important area
where the curriculum can be modified to help students link prior work
experience to PE for project management. For example, working in retail
or.hospitality can prepare students with skills in stakeholder manage­
ment, managing conflict, and time management, all of which are key
aspects of effective project management (Project Management Institute,
2021b). Bridgstock et al. (2019) suggest that career content in the cur­
riculum can help students to see the link between previous experience
and transferable skills.
5.3. Developing industry-specific knowledge and skills
The interview findings suggest that some commencing project
management students have yet to decide on which industry they will
enter upon graduation, and this may have a bearing on their PE.
Stronger communication of project management destinations, for
example industries which are project-based, will allow students to
explore a range of destinations and engage in preparatory job search
behaviour. This will help students to gain an understanding of the 19
industries in Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2013) and
determine where they would like to practice project management.
Kumar (2007) describes this as the opportunity stage in career devel­
opment. Students can then tailor their qualification to include specific
skills and knowledge expected by different industry contexts. This is
important, as differences have been found in project management
practice between industry sectors and project types (Crawford and
Pollack, 2007). For example, agile project management is increasingly
being used across industries, however the waterfall method remains the
most common method used in construction. Because this general career
7
Project Leadership and Society 3 (2022) 100048
advice precedes an individual conducting industry research, and
because Donald et al. (2019) found career advice to be positively
correlated to employability, there is an argument to include career
related courses in the curriculum as early as possible concurrently with
skill development in order to maximise the employability benefit.
5.4. Employability in the context of project management
At this early stage of their degree, PE was not understood in the
context of project management. Instead, PE was described by students in
generic and simplistic terms such as “being available for employment”
and “having certain skills”. As students move through their degree and
gain a better understanding of PE in the context of project management,
it is expected that their description of PE will reflect a deeper level of
knowledge of the core competencies required of a project professional. It
is also possible that descriptions of PE may include an industry
component which reflects the specialist knowledge needed for a
particular industry as well as labour market conditions in that industry
(Donald et al., 2019).
5.5. The early emergence of gendered differences
For the employability dimensions, our study revealed that males had
a significantly higher level of commencement readiness and lifelong
learning than females. When asked about gender in relation to project
management, the male interviewees did not believe that gender pre­
sented as a barrier to employability in project management. In contrast,
the female interviewee believed that being female in the construction
industry would present as a barrier to employability. Our findings are
consistent with previous research showing that the PE of female students
is lower than for male students (Cifre et al., 2018; Donald et al., 2019).
Pitan and Muller (2019) found that across final year students in two
South African universities, female students had lower self-PE than male
students. They attribute some of this difference to the influence of the
labour market in South Africa being biased towards male students. It is
possible that the gendered results of our study are reflective of a broader
societal problem. For example, the Australian Human Rights Commis­
sion (2018) report that women continue to experience inequality and
discrimination in many important parts of their lives, which can limit
the choices and opportunities available to them.
Universities play an integral role in supporting broader societal
change through the education of students on the occurrence of gender
differences in the workplace and how these can be overcome. In the
project management degree we can educate our students on the barriers
which women can face in the workplace, and explore perceptions and
impacts of conscious and unconscious bias through class activities. More
broadly, universities can facilitate social support, female mentors, and
female employers of choice. These initiatives can be an important step in
supporting the PE of female students (Turner et al., 2021).
6. Conclusion
Field of study and perceived employability is a relatively under­
studied area in relation to project management, and this research sought
to address this gap in understanding. Furthermore, much of the research
of PE has focused on final year students using cross-sectional data. The
objective of the research was to establish a PE baseline for students
before they commence a bachelor degree in project management with a
view to longitudinally studying their PE as they progress through their
four-year program of study. Taking this approach enables a deeper un­
derstanding of the factors which contribute to PE and will help to
identify how universities can support the development of PE in the
project management context. We acknowledge the limitations of the
sample composition and sample size of the interviews. All four in­
terviewees had completed secondary school and a Diploma, therefore
their perception of PE may differ to students who enter university
G. Gilbert et al.
immediately after secondary school. However, the interviews provided
valuable context to the survey results and identified possible reasons for
our findings which can be explored in subsequent research. Further­
more, additional research can explore the six dimensions of employ­
ability and start to understand how levels of PE may fluctuate as students
move through their project management degree. Finally, undergraduate
project management data was collected from one urban university in
Australia, therefore the results cannot be generalised across other de­
grees or countries.
It is anticipated that our research will continue to gather data on an
annual basis from the same cohort of students until they graduate.
Future analysis will seek to establish if perceived employability changes
across the duration of the four-year degree, if we can identify the
influencing factors of PE, and how this understanding can be reflected in
amendments to the curriculum.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
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