Are graduates employable or not employable? That is the (hard) question.

Given that higher education requires high levels of individual and public investment, it is expected that universities will provide graduates with the skills that employers need and, consequently, that graduates will be able to find a job easily. Actually, possessing graduate-level credentials is not a guarantee for employment success and there is a heated debate concerning the graduates’ employability. Many theoretical models have been developed in order to predict the graduates’ potentiality to be employed (i.e. Berntson & Marklund, 2007; Fugate, Kinicki, & Ashforth, 2004; Van der Heijde & Van der Heijden, 2006). The present symposium intends to discuss how it is possible to intervene to support the transition from university to the labour market, starting from some evidence about personal resources and contextual factors that may foster graduates’ employability and enhance their career opportunities. Chiesa and colleagues’ study explored the relationship between dispositional employability and emerging construct of career goal management strategies in college students who are going to graduate. Magrin and colleagues focused on the condition of college students with disabilities and the role of resilience and employability resources, both in preventing negative expectation about the impact of disability on the employment opportunities and promoting the perception of employability. Lo Presti and colleagues investigated the complex relationship between career competencies, employability and subjective career success of recent graduates, clarifying the moderator effect of vocational choice, networking, and employment prospects. Bison and colleagues described the career developments of the graduates starting from few months to 24 months after completing their university degree exploring the relationship between personal resources, employment opportunities and economic conditions.