Övergången från studier till arbete kan upplevas som en stressande period i livet för universitetsstudenter. Studiens syfte är att undersöka de stressorer som sistaårsstudenter upplever inför övergången från akademiska studier till yrkesliv, samt vilka copingstrategier studenter använder för att hantera övergången. Det är även av intresse att undersöka mer eller mindre framgångsrika copingstrategier som studenterna använder i denna övergång. Det genomfördes en kvalitativ datainsamling i form av nio semi-strukturerade intervjuer med sistaårstudenter på universitet och högskola. Intervjuerna genomfördes delvis genom fysiskt möte och delvis via det digitala mötesverktyget Zoom. I analysen gjordes tematisering av intervjuerna som genererade sju olika teman, varav tre teman beskrev olika stressorer och fyra teman beskrev copingstrategier. Resultatet visade att den tydligaste stressorn hos studenterna var oro inför sociala relationer och den copingstrategi som användes mest var omvänt fokus. Dock var denna strategi inte särskilt framgångsrik för studenterna. Med stöd från tidigare forskning var även en betydande stressor brist på arbetslivserfarenhet inom rätt område.

There has been limited evaluation to show the perceptions of student participants in school-to-work programs about the impact of school-to-work program participation as being beneficial to their postsecondary educational and career plans, and no research to determine whether perceptions differ significantly across race and gender. In addition, the minimal research conducted to date did not study student participants' perceptions about the impact of the program on their understanding of the relevance of the academics to the worksite and their overall academic success. Nor did the research address the actual change in grades and school attendance of students in school-to-work programs. Students are a major stakeholder group in the school-to-work initiative, and therefore, consulting with them about their perceptions about the impact of school-to-work program participation is an important aspect in school-to-work evaluation. Students have not been consulted in educational program evaluation and have not had a significant voice in the school-to-work arena (Hollenbeck, 1996). It is important to assess the opinions and perceptions of students who are currently participating in school-to-work programs, because they are the major focus of the school-to-work initiative and information that they provide can be used by program administrators and policymakers in making future decisions about school-to-work programs. Such assessment should seek to determine their perceptions about the impact of the program on their overall academic success and future postsecondary education and career choices. It is also important to assess the impact of the program on students' academic success and school attendance. A questionnaire was developed by the researcher and distributed to site coordinators in three school-to-work sites. Site coordinators worked with school staff to administer the questionnaire instrument. One-hundred twenty-four twelfth grade student participants in school-to-work programs, in these three sites, were asked to participate; 62% responded to the survey. Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions were made. • The findings on students' perceptions that school-to-work program participation improved their overall academic performance, increased their acceptance of responsibility, increased their self-confidence and motivation can be an indicator of the success of the school-to-work program. • The positive attitudes of students regarding the school-to-work program as being beneficial to their future education and career plans is important in promoting the concept of "life-long" learning. • The use of measures to determine students' perceptions about understanding the relevance of school-to-work, improvement in academic performance, and overall satisfaction with the school-to-work program can be used as measures to evaluate the success of a school-to-work program. • School-to-work program participation can be instrumental in influencing students to continue their education beyond high school. • School-to-work program participation does not appear to negatively impact any group (gender or race). / Ed. D.

The study identified the contributions families made to the work-readiness of youth with learning disabilities. A qualitative research approach, the in-depth telephone interview, was the primary information-gathering instrument. Two questions were posed to guide the study: 1.What communications or behaviors do families engage in within the contexts of the home, school, workplace, and community that contribute to the work readiness of youth with learning disabilities? 2. What value do these families place on their roles in the development of their youngster's work readiness? Families from the Commonwealth of Virginia were nominated by parent resource center directors as meeting the criteria established for the study. A total of 27 individuals were "purposefully selected" to be interviewed. The participants were family members of employed youth, age 16 to 22, with documented learning disabilities. Telephone interviews were taped, transcribed, coded, and analyzed using Ethnograph and a three-step coding process. A description of major themes and subthemes which emerged from the analysis was presented in narrative and table form. Participant statements were used to illustrate the themes. Participants identified 29 critical work-readiness skills they perceived youth would need for workplace success. These work-readiness skills supported six themes: human relations, work ethic, compoliance, personal qualities, education and training, and independence. Participants identified the various activities, behaviors, and conversations they engaged in to promote work-readiness in their children within four setting: the homes, school, workplace, and community. These actions were analyzed within and among the four settings, and in relation to the themes established. The themes of education and training and independence were the most prevalent. The family's responsibilities for and abilities to develop work-readiness skills were examined, and the types of assistance they had accessed or believed other families could benefit from were identified. Stakeholder groups and their roles and responsibilities in the collaborative effort to develop work skills were identified. Stakeholder roles included provider, teacher, facilitator, nurturer, communicator, and preparer. Participants reflected on the process of preparing youth with learning disabilities for work, determined what they would do differently, and offered advise on work-readiness skill development to other families of children with learning disabilities. / Ph. D.

Based on the social cognitive view of the school-to-work transition proposed by Lent, Hackett and Brown (1999), the study presents a comprehensive conceptual framework for career counselling, with special emphasis on enhancing adolescents' career-exploration behaviours and work-related motivations and attitudes. The career readiness model proposed in this study deals with interactions among a number of variables that affect career decision-making self-efficacy, career decision-making outcome expectations, career decision-making intentions, career-exploration behaviour, vocational identity and performance goals. It explains and illustrates the paths and factors that play a significant part in the development of career readiness. / The findings of this study may be used to develop individual and group interventions that will nurture students' school-to-work transitions. / The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships among students' performance goals, vocational identity and career-exploration behaviours and to examine the effects of their personal attributes on these variables. / The results support the hypothesis that career decision-making self-efficacy in plays a significant role in career decision-making outcome expectations, career decision-making intentions, exploration behaviour, performance goals and vocational identity of secondary school students. Most of the structural paths in the model were found to be significant. / The study also shows that a strong intention to develop one's career decision-making capacities may significantly enhance exploration behaviour, which Phillips and Blustein (1994) have found to be a vital element of career readiness and job choice. Exploration behaviour is directly correlated to the development of realistic career expectations (Stumpf & Hartman, 1984) and it enables individuals to determine the suitability of certain work environments (Stumpf et al., 1983). The process of career exploration should therefore be essential preparation for students' job searching. / The study concludes that students' self-efficacy in career decision-making is a crucial factor, which, together with outcome expectations, significantly affects performance goals and exploration activities, and strengthens subsequent effort. Students develop an affinity for career-exploration and decision-making activities when they have sufficient self-efficacy and expect positive outcomes. They normally establish goals for sustaining or increasing their involvement in these activities and maintain high performance goals, which, turn, increase the likelihood of active engagement. / The target population was secondary fourth form and secondary sixth form students in Hong Kong. A total of 1216 students from 14 secondary schools participated in this study. Gender had a more significant impact on scores than the effects of different backgrounds. Male respondents generally had lower mean scores than female respondents in most variables. It was also found that the standard deviations of the male students' scores from were greater than those of female students. Apart from gender differences, there were no significant differences among students from various grade levels and streams of study. / Chui, Yat Hung. / Adviser: Alvin Leung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0584. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 224-246). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Youth employability in South Africa has become an important focus for career counsellors. This study investigated the relationship between the employability (as measured by the Southern African Employability Inventory) and emotional intelligence (as measured by the Assessing Emotions Scale) of individuals within the school-to-work transition phase. A random sample of 590 Grade 9 and Grade 12 further education and post-school (recently exited) students from a total population of 1349 participated in the study. The research findings indicated that participants’ level of employability is significantly related to their emotional intelligence. Recommendations are postulated for the career counselling of individuals in the school-to-work career transition phase. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

This research focuses on the relationship between self-esteem, graduateness skills and attributes and career adaptability among young adults in the school-to-work transition phase to assist them in dealing with the transitions they are faced with during the school-to-work transition phase in the hopes of making them more career adaptable and employable. A cross-sectional quantitative research approach was followed, and a non-probability convenience sample (N = 332) of undergraduate black (98.5%) and female (62%) young emerging adults (18 to 29 years) at a Further Education and Training (FET) college in South Africa participated in the study. A canonical correlation analysis indicated a significant overall relationship between the graduateness/self-esteem canonical variate and the career adaptability canonical variate. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that the relationship between graduateness skills and attributes and career adaptability was moderated by self-esteem. Tests for mean differences revealed that males and females differed significantly regarding their personal self-esteem and lie items. Recommendations are suggested for use by human resource professionals in terms of career development practices. / Human Resource Management / M. Com. (Human Resource Management)

The School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 provided seed monies to educational institutions, if they were willing to form collaborative partnerships with members of the business and employer communities. The goal was to build learning opportunities for students that would facilitate their seamless transition from the public school system into adult work-settings and/or places of post-secondary education, training, and skills acquisition. An historical case study of school reform was conducted, using qualitative research methods that included extensive field observations, participant interviews, document analysis, narrative inquiry strategies, phenomenological reflection and data reduction. The lived experiences of 23 students and 14 community partners were juxtaposed against the recollected memories of the teacher-researcher, and analyzed in the context of complex change theory (Ambrose, 1987). The point was to distill the essential themes that could shed light on the research question. Those factors that were deemed to be influential in the development, delivery, or efficacy of the learning opportunities that were created as curriculum interventions, in support of this one piece of federal legislation, are discussed analytically, so as to make recommendations for similar practical programs with a career-education or work-based learning focus.

The purpose of the current outcome study was to determine the impact of Student Success Skills (SSS) classroom guidance lessons on the Academic Behaviors (motivation, social engagement, self-regulation) and Key Learning Skills and Techniques associated with college-career readiness (CCR) indicators for Grade 5 students (ACT, 2008a; Brigman & Webb, 2012; Conley, 2010; Robbins, Allen, Casillas, Peterson, & Le, 2006). School counselors in the treatment schools were trained in the implementation of the SSS classroom program and subsequently taught the material to Grade 5 students. Comparison school counselors conducted business as usual. The study applied a quasi-experimental pre/post1/post2 design utilizing student self-report instruments (Student Engagement in School Success Skills Survey [SESSS], Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire [MSLQ]), and a teacher survey instrument (Student Participation Questionnaire [SPQ]). / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015 / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

O ensino superior brasileiro se configura, historicamente, como um espaço de formação elitista e excludente, destinado às classes dominantes. No entanto, esse cenário tem se alterado ao longo dos últimos 20 anos, a partir do processo de expansão e diversificação do acesso ao ensino superior, o qual possibilitou o ingresso de grupos antes pouco expressivos, por meio de políticas públicas como o Programa Universidade para Todos – Prouni. Frente a esse contexto de expansão no acesso ao ensino superior do país, essa pesquisa visa compreender como a origem social influencia o acesso, permanência e conclusão do ensino superior, assim como a posterior inserção profissional dos jovens egressos do Prouni, no momento em que essa se configura como uma política pública baseada em critérios de seleção socioeconômicos. A fim de compreender o peso da origem social no processo de formação e ingresso no mercado de trabalho, adotou-se o olhar da sociologia disposicionalista, suportado teórica e metodologicamente em autores como Bernard Lahire, Pierre Bourdieu e Jessé Souza. Para isso, foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade com cinco egressos do Prouni – oriundos dos cursos de Direito e Administração de duas das melhores instituições de ensino privado do Rio Grande do Sul – as quais foram organizadas e apresentadas no formato de retratos sociológicos (LAHIRE, 2004). A partir da construção dos retratos, foram identificadas as disposições incorporadas ao longo da trajetória de cada um dos jovens, sendo analisadas a partir de suas ocorrências intra e interindividuais. Por meio das disposições compartilhadas, ou interindividuais, foi possível caracterizar os jovens egressos do Prouni como pertencentes a nova classe trabalhadora (SOUZA, 2010). Além disso, as diferenças nas disposições à nível individual permitiram identificar diferentes estratos dentro da nova classe trabalhadora, o que contradiz a ideia de um modo de conduta homogêneo entre aqueles pertencentes a uma mesma classe social. Percebeu-se que a identificação do sistema disposicional incorporado pelos indivíduos e a análise de sua influência ao longo da trajetória individual e coletiva dos egressos do Prouni contribuiu para desvelar o peso e influência da estrutura social sob a ação individual. Tal abordagem contribuiu para ressaltar as desigualdades existentes ao longo do processo de formação e inserção profissional, auxiliando no combate ao discurso meritocrático de responsabilização individual. Por fim, percebe-se no instrumento analítico de identificação das disposições um promissor caminho para aprofundar os estudos acerca da formação e inserção profissional no país e compreender as particularidades dos diferentes grupos de jovens que acessam o ensino superior, levando em conta suas trajetórias, que podem ser mais ou menos limitadas, a partir da origem de classe. / Brazilian higher education is historically an elitist field, destined to the highest social classes. However, this context has changed over the last 20 years, due to the process of expansion and diversification of higher education access. This allowed the entrance of minority groups at university, through public policies such as the University for All Program – in Portuguese called Prouni, which is based in social economic criteria. Based in this context of expansion in the access to higher education in Brazil, this research aims to understand the social origin influence on transition school-to-work process of young graduates from Prouni. In order to understand the social origin influence in higher education studies and transition school-to-work, a sociological dispositional view was adopted in this research, supported by authors such as Bernard Lahire, Pierre Bourdieu and Jessé Souza. In-depth interview were conducted with five graduated students from Prouni, enrolled in Administration and Law courses in two of the best universities of Rio Grande do Sul state. These interviews data were reconstructed and organized into sociological portraits (LAHIRE, 2004). From this material, some incorporated dispositions were identified, being classified based on their individual or collective occurrence. Based on these shared dispositions, was possible to identify this group of young Prouni students as part of the new working Brazilian class (SOUZA, 2010). Besides that, differences in the individual dispositions allowed the identification of distinctive social strata inside this social class, which contradicts the idea of a homogenous mode of conduct shared between members of a same social group. From the incorporated dispositional system analysis, was possible to identify some motivational factors which influence the decisions made by the individuals. Based on that, is possible to combat the meritocratic discourse of individual accountability, which make invisible the weight and influence of the social structure in agent’s life. Finally, the analytical instrument of dispositions identification seems to offer a promising alternative to deepen the transition school-to-work studies in Brazil. The individual analyses can help to understand the particularities in different young people groups that access the higher education, taking into account their trajectories and the divergent aspects they present, related to their social class origin.

Pasifika people are a youthful population group. It is important therefore that Pasifika youth have opportunities to live fulfilling and satisfying lives where they can achieve their dreams, support themselves and their families and make valuable contributions to their local communities, their country and global communities now and in the future. Government and local city councils have become more proactive in developing strategies that will assist young people to be part of an inclusive economy. One of the key areas identified, is the transitioning of low achieving and disengaged school leavers into further education, skills training or employment. Hence the government's and the councils' shared goals of implementing the Mayors' Taskforce for Jobs in 2007, which is to ensure that all youth between 15-19 years of age are in employment, education, training or other activities that lead to their long-term economic independence and wellbeing (Ministry of Youth Development, 2004). Transition courses provide bridging alternatives for youth transitioning from school to employment. They are designed to provide extra help for students who leave school with low or no qualifications. In some cases youth find themselves out of favour with mainstream education and have been forced to end secondary schooling prematurely. Transition learning gives youth a second chance at education by improving their employment marketability. This research highlights the rich stories of Samoan male youths' transitional journeys. The study discusses the critical factors that have contributed either positively or negatively in their ability to transition successfully into the workplace. Eight Samoan male participants were involved in the study ranging from 18-21 years of age. This research topic has evolved from the researcher's involvement in working with South Auckland Pasifika youth for over four years. Some of these youth have been traumatised by their school experiences and have had to face some enormous barriers when transitioning from school into the work place or further tertiary education. After selecting the topic, research frameworks that would be most appropriate for the research were explored. The researcher shares similar cultural and personal experiences to the participants. The framework for the study is therefore aligned to the values of the researcher. Accordingly, the multi-case study approach has been adopted; as such an approach has the potential to reveal what participants feel is significant. The interpretive paradigm underpins this research. The technique for gathering data was through semiformal in-depth interviewing. During the interviews, the participants had the opportunity to discuss the effects that the transitional courses had on them as learners and as Samoan youth. This method of research is culturally appropriate, as it allowed the depth of voices of these young Samoan people to be heard. The themes that have emerged from the findings reflect the broad categories of literature and research findings in the field of transition. The findings also provide new and insightful information about transitional experiences of Pasifika male youth. The research findings from this study focus on key aspects of programme implementation including; the teacher/student relationship, mentoring, student resiliency and the role of the government in youth transition. The research also evaluates the extent to which the transition course curriculum content supports student knowledge and skills in their current work situation. All participants in the study were generally positive about the courses they attended. They discussed the positives in terms of good tutoring, high degree of team cohesion and relevant meaningful learning experiences. The participants cited the negatives as poor teaching, and the low level of some of the literacy and numeracy activities they were expected to complete. Overall they were far more positive about their transitional learning than they were with learning at secondary school. Most felt prepared for work. The study proposes further research in the area of youth transition. Findings from this study will be disseminated to the appropriate government policy makers, city councils, youth services and tertiary providers through presentations at youth development conferences.