How to manage the study-to-work transition? A comparative study of Hungarian and French graduate engineering students’ perception of their employability

Abstract : The purpose of this article is to explore graduate engineering students’ perception of their employability perspectives, strategy and the skills and competencies they require for their career. We have applied qualitative methodology to obtain a better understanding of the students’ transition from studies to professional life and conducted 28 semi-structured interviews in France and Hungary. Our results indicate that the engineering students have a markedly different perception of their employment prospects, strategy and the role of technical and non-technical skills to this end. The Hungarian students have short-term employability perspectives with a mainly informal job-seeking approach and they mostly consider technical skills as being of importance for their employability. On the contrary, the French students have a long-term employability vision applying a formal job-seeking approach with a considerably higher level of engagement in the engineering profession and consideration of the importance of non-technical skills in obtaining the desired work position.