Building a scale of the meanings of transition from higher education to work

Abstract

Higher education institutions intend to provide young people with a range of capabilities and skills that will prepare them to face transition into the labor market. In modern societies, however, marked by structural unemployment, forms of temporary work prevail, offering increasingly unstable conditions, lower security, and fewer social rights. At this critical historical and social juncture, it becomes important for both the research and social agenda to understand the meanings Portuguese higher education students attribute their transition from education to work. In Study 1, based on a sample of 712 Portuguese higher education students, words associated with the transition from higher education to work were collected and they were grouped by their semantic proximity. These semantic groups served to build items for a first version of the Scale of the Meanings of Transition from Higher Education to Work (SMTHEW). Study 2 was developed based on this version, with a sample of 546 participants. An exploratory factor analysis yielded a version of the SMTHEW consisting of four subscales (Professional Achievement, Uncertainty, Unemployment, and Professional Responsibility) with psychometric qualities we considered appropriate. In Study 3, based on data from 505 participants, a confirmatory factor analysis of the SMTHEW was conducted, defining thus its final version, which revealed appropriate levels of adjustment to the proposed model.