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The present study proposes coaching as a pedagogical intervention to prepare students for transitioning to the labour market. Taking a competence-based approach, the proposed coaching practice aims to enhance students' employability competences to facilitate a smoother school-to-work transition. However, what transition coaching looks like remains largely unclear. Moreover, in competence-based education, teachers are expected to be highly skilled coaches, facilitating students' transition to the labour market. The present study aims to map the core competencies of a transition coach.

A qualitative design was adopted to map the core competences of a transition coach. Data were collected from two focus groups, consisting of coaches in higher education and in the workplace.

Results show that, to create the necessary support conditions, a coach creates a safe coaching environment and supports students in setting goals, guide them in the activities they undertake to attain these goals, and asks reflective questions. Moreover, the coach stimulates students' ownership by putting the student in the centre of the decision-making process. Furthermore, the results emphasize the importance of the coach's professional attitude and knowledge about the transition process and the labour market.

The article concludes with practical implications for novice transition coaches and teachers in higher education.

The present study adds to the agenda of graduate work readiness by proposing a coaching practice aimed at preparing students for their transition to the labour market.

To keep up with their changing environment, organizations are investing in continuous skills development of their employees and therefore implement personal development plans (PDPs). However, to be effective, PDPs require employees to show self-direction in learning (SDL). Autonomy-supportive supervisors can foster employees’ SDL. Therefore, the purpose of this cross-sectional study is two-fold. First, this study explores the relationship between perceived autonomy support and learning at the workplace. Second, this study investigates the mediating role of SDL when using a PDP.

Based on data from a convenience sample from employees in various industries (n = 193), structural equation modelling was used to investigate the relationships between the different variables.

First, a positive relationship was found between perceived autonomy support and informal learning activities, but not with formal learning activities. Second, results indicated that SDL when using a PDP mediates the relation between perceived autonomy support and both formal and informal learning activities at the workplace. These results suggest that a supervisor who is perceived as autonomy supportive can foster employees’ SDL when using a PDP and, in turn, support learning at the workplace.

Also, these findings indicate that autonomy-supportive supervisors can encourage the undertaking of learning activities by stimulating SDL when using a PDP.

For a PDP to be effective, a degree of SDL is assumed. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate SDL within a PDP setting.

In a fast evolving labour market, higher education graduates need to develop employability competences. Key in becoming employable is the ability to reflect on learning experiences, both within a curriculum as well as extra-curricular and work placements. This paper wants to conceptualise how an online learning platform might entail a reflective practice that systematically supports students in reflecting on their learning experiences.

When studying online learning platforms for developing students' employability competences, it became clear that the effectiveness of the platform depends on how the platform guides students' reflective practice. In turn, the authors studied which features (tools, services and resources) of the online learning platform are guiding the reflective practice.

This resulted in the introduction of an online learning platform, containing a comprehensive set of online learning tools and services, which supports students' reflective practice and, in turn, their employability competences. The online platform facilitates both feedback from curricular and work-related learning experiences and can be used as a start by students for showcasing their employability competences. The reflective practice consists of a recurrent, systematic process of reflection, containing various phases: become aware, analyse current state, draft and plan a solution, take action and, finally, reflect in and on action.

Future research revolves around studying the features of online learning platforms and their role in fostering students' reflection and employability competences.

The conceptual model provides concrete indicators on how to implement online learning platforms for supporting students' reflection and employability competences.

This is the first article that analyses an online learning platform that guides students' reflective practice and fosters their employability competences. The authors provide concrete suggestions on how to model the online platform, building further on reflective practice theory.

This study examines whether learning climate relates to employability competences through social informal learning (i.e. feedback, help and information seeking).

Multiple regression analyses and structural equation modeling were used to test direct and indirect effects in a sample of 372 employees working in two Dutch governmental institutes.

The analyses confirmed that learning climate has an indirect effect on employability competences through feedback, help and information seeking. More specifically, the findings suggest that learning climate is important for employees' engagement in proactive social informal learning activities. Engaging in these learning activities, in turn, relates to a higher level of employability.

This study employs an integrative approach to understanding employability by including the organization's learning climate and employees' social informal learning behavior. It contributes to the extant literature on professional development by unraveling how proactive social informal learning relates to employability competences. It also provides new insights on learning climate as a determinant for social informal learning and employability.

The purpose of this study is to develop the self-initiated work adjustment for learning (SIWAL) scale that measures the adjustments that employees make in their work to enhance learning, based on theories and research on workplace learning, work adjustment and work design.

The SIWAL scale was validated in two independent studies. Study 1 (n = 208) focused on the internal consistency and factor structure of the SIWAL scale. Study 2 (n = 178) re-examined the factorial structure using confirmatory factor analysis and investigated scale validity.

In both studies, the SIWAL scale showed good psychometric characteristics, i.e. a clear two-factorial structure and internal reliable sub-scales. The findings also indicated convergent, divergent and concurrent validity.

Using the SIWAL scale, future research could focus on the individual, social and organizational predictors and outcomes of SIWAL, collect supervisor and peer ratings to further validate this self-report scale and investigate lower-educated workers.

Organizations might try to enhance their employees' SIWAL through organizational policies, such as supportive leadership, and a learning climate.

This study provides a first step toward a better understanding of what workers do to enhance their workplace learning. The study findings indicate that employees address two adaptive behaviors: adjusting job responsibilities and adjusting social interactions.

This study aims to support researchers and practitioners in finding suitable instruments for future research studies and organizational quality assessments.

Employees’ success of learning at work is strongly influenced by the quality of the workplace learning environment. In the recent decades growing effort has been given to the development of surveys to measure the quality of workplace learning, resulting in a large number of available survey instruments. This study conceptually draws on a 3-P model and uses a qualitative metasynthesis to collect and categorize n = 94 surveys that intend to measure the quality of workplace learning (WPL).

The results underline that research on WPL environments is a highly interdisciplinary endeavor, where every discipline enriches the field by a new perspective and own foci. Overall, this study finds a focus on learning culture and working conditions, on social and functional inclusion of the learner and on support and feedback during training. Products of WPL such as professional competences or career aspirations play a minor role.

With the integration of quality measurement instruments from various research studies, this study produces an interactive online instrument map that gives a broad, yet organized overview of available quality measures in the WPL field.

Massive open online courses (MOOCs), a Taylorist attempt to automate instruction, help make course delivery more efficient, economical and better. As an implementation of Digital Taylorism Implementation (DTI), MOOCs enable individuals to obtain an occupation-oriented education, equipping them with knowledge and skills needed to stay employable. However, learning through online platforms can induce tremendous amounts of technology-related stress in learners such as complexity of platforms and fears of redundancy. Thus, the aim of this paper is to study how student perceptions of DTI and technostress (TS) influence their perceived employability (PE). The role of TS as a mediator between DTI and PE has also been studied.

Stratified sampling technique has been used to obtain data from 305 students from 6 universities. The effect of DTI and TS on PE, and the role of TS as a mediator, has been examined using the partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modelling approach with SMART PLS 4.0. software. Predictive relevance of the model has been studied using PLSPredict.

Results indicate that TS completely mediates the relationship between DTI and PE. The model has medium predictive relevance.

Learning outcomes from Digitally Taylored programs can be improved with certain reforms that bring the human touch to online learning.

This study extends Taylorism literature by linking DTI to PE of students via technostress as a mediator.

Successful knowledge transfer (KT) between younger and older workers (YW and OW, respectively) is critical for organizational success, especially in light of the recent surge in employment volatility among the youngest and oldest segments of the workforce. Yet, practitioners and scholars alike continue to struggle with knowing how best to facilitate these exchanges. The qualitative study offers insight into this phenomenon by exploring how KT unfolds in YW/OW dyads.

The authors performed a reflexive thematic analysis of semistructured interviews with two samples of blue- and white-collar younger/older workers from the USA (N = 40), whereby the authors interpreted the “lived experiences” of these workers when engaged in interdependent tasks.

The analysis, informed by social exchange theory and exchange theories of aging, led to the development of the knowledge transfer process model in younger/older worker dyads (KT-YOD). The model illustrates that, through different combinations of competence and humility, KT success is experienced either directly (by workers weighing the perceived benefits versus costs of KT) and/or indirectly (through different bases of trust/distrust perceived within their dyads). Further, humility in dyads appears to be necessary for KT success, while competence was insufficient for realizing KT success, independently.

In exposing new inner workings of the KT process in YW/OW dyads, the study introduces the importance of humility and brings scholars and organizations a step closer toward realizing the benefits of age diversity in their workplaces.