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The objective of the study is to identify those skills that are actually needed by the labour market and allow university graduates to achieve the highest remuneration. To achieve this objective, the authors monitored, for 18 months, online job postings from six countries addressed to geography graduates. Online job postings are the most up-to-date and reliable source of data about the salaries that employers are willing to offer for specific skills or skillsets. A total of 17,397 advertisements were collected, out of which 7,407 included information about the offered salary. Applying text mining and regression tree (classification and regression tree [CART]) analyses, the authors identified skills that significantly differentiate annual salaries. The group of competences associated with higher earnings includes highly specialised geographic information system (GIS), statistical and geological skills. Lower salaries were linked to some general skills such as communicating in a native language as well as some specialised skills, but only to those related to teaching and conducting scientific research.

One of the important roles of HE institutions is to train graduates who will smoothly enter the labour market. The literature review demonstrates that one effective method to facilitate this transition is to ensure students acquire professional experience. The aim was to establish the scale and characteristics of employers' demand for work experience expressed in job adverts. The data sample consisted of 17 397 adverts posted over a period of 18 months and addressed to geography, earth and environmental sciences specialists across six European countries. Quantitative analyses demonstrated that over one third of job postings required work experience. Text mining methods of content analysis revealed differences in the structure of high-importance words in adverts addressed to graduates with no, some or short work experience and those addressed to candidates with more extensive professional experience. A hierarchical cluster analysis helped us identify strong relationships between the word 'experience' and other words in specific subsets of adverts. The analysis led us to determine the characteristics of employers' demand for work experience. The results help outline the directions of education policy for HE institutions regarding market-oriented measures aimed at ensuring work integrated learning which can clearly improve graduates' chances on the labour market.

Competences are the most important career capital a university graduate can have. The objective of the paper is to determine which competences acquired at tourism degree programmes affect students' self-assessment regarding their own competitive advantage on the labour market. The data was collected during a nationwide diagnostic survey (N = 476) carried out at ten Polish universities among students finishing their tourism degree courses. Principal component analysis allowed us to identify a set of competences that have a significant impact on the students' perception of their chances of finding employment in the tourism industry. These are: ability to cope with challenges and stress; writing and speaking skills in a foreign language; public speaking; planning and implementation of subject-specific projects; ability to conduct subject-specific research and perseverance. The higher the assessment of each of the above, the more confident of their competitive advantage on the labour market the students were.

In the literature, analysing job adverts is considered to be a credible method for collecting data about the real demand for employees with higher education. Studies on the demand for teachers based on this data source have been conducted in many countries, but never in Poland. On this basis, the research objective was to identify regional and temporal changes in the demand for geography teachers. As part of the study we tracked all job adverts addressed to geography teachers which were published online over a period of nearly two years. It turned out there were 3,438 such job vacancies in Poland, which included part-time and full-time positions. The study results indicated vast temporal and regional differences in the demand for teachers, and also a clear imbalance in the demand for geographers between Warsaw – the capital city – and the rest of the country. It should be highlighted that both the methodology and the results presented in the paper are pioneering.

An analysis of both theoretical and empirical literature suggests that career counselling should begin in childhood and that it should be an ongoing process based on a narrative approach. The basis of this paradigm is an insightful reflection over one's life history, which requires tapping into the capacities of autobiographical memory. At the same time, childhood and adolescence are periods when readiness for insightful analysis of one's past are at their lowest. Literature reviews illustrate that comics are an effective way of inciting reflection and stimulating early development memories. Accordingly, this research aimed at examining the usefulness of comics in stimulating insights into life among young adolescents. The sample comprised 242 students, that is 114 boys and 128 girls aged 13-15. We found that comics help create an environment that is conducive to recalling memories among young people.

The literature review has clearly indicated that the scale and characteristics of demand for Geography Earth and Environmental Sciences experts across different countries is unknown. Therefore, there is an urgent need to investigate this issue. This paper presents the results of research on the real demand for GEES specialists. In the paper, real demand is expressed by job vacancies (N = 17 378) published in six European countries over a period of 18 months. To analyse such an extensive body of text data, we used data mining techniques such as: SVD, inter-factor correlation analysis, word frequency analysis and word significance indicators, which allowed us to recognise similarities and differences in the size and structure of demand for these specialists in specific groups of countries. Employers from the UK and Ireland offered the most comprehensive range of positions whereas the expectations of Polish employers were the least diverse. Word frequency analyses for each occupation group demonstrated which components of GEES experts' knowledge and skills are considered universal on the labour market and which are subject to substantial regional variations. Moreover, word significance analyses allowed us to identify the occupations where a wider range of general skill areas was required and the positions for which primarily geographic skills were in demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the paper was to outline the possibility of utilising information from online job postings and text‐mining analyses to identify mismatches and gaps between learning outcomes prepared by universities, and the knowledge and skills that employers need. The study uses job advertisement contents and learning outcomes documents from universities. We analysed both data sets using word importance classification, cluster analysis and hierarchical clustering. Word importance classification presented the mismatches in a quantitative and diagram format. Cluster analysis and hierarchical clustering provided information on how to correct the detected gaps and mismatches. The study empirically corroborates that the method we put forward for analysing both sources (LOs and job ads) helps identify and assess the significance of gaps and mismatches in the approaches to knowledge and skills adopted by universities and employers. Consequently, the method can be helpful during the auditing process and while implementing market‐oriented curriculum changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article was to highlight plans versus actual actions of university graduates in Poland aimed at finding employment. The paper also empirically verifies the impact of chosen job-seeking strategies on the success or failure of their transition to employment. The study was Polish-wide and included graduates of geography. It consisted of two stages. The first stage (N = 1120) allowed the researcher to identify the most successful job search methods for university-to-work transition. These included: applying for vacancies advertised on the Internet and direct contact with employers. In the event of failure to find employment, graduates turned to more informal methods. The second stage (N = 375) supplied data which made it possible to learn about the graduates' status on the labour market 6 months after graduation. It also provided information on a structure of methods used by graduates which resulted in acquiring a job and evolution of job search methods in case of failure to perform transition to work. Discriminant function analysis was used to establish that the following job search methods are the best predictors of one's situation on the labour market: applying for vacancies advertised in the press and public employment agencies. Other variables were found not to be statistically significant in discriminating between the group of working and unemployed graduates.

The article aims to empirically verify the impact of educational capital on the success or failure of higher education graduates' transitions. The paper uses the example of geography graduates in Poland who took part in a nationwide survey in 2012, six months after their graduation. This allowed the author to collect detailed data on the characteristics of the respondents' educational capital and their situation in the job market. Discriminant function analysis was used to establish that the following variables are best predictors of one's situation in the labour market: specialisation and study cycle (BA or MA). Other variables, including the final grade of the degree and the self-assessment of one's competences were found not to be statistically significant in discriminating between the group of working and unemployed graduates.

The concurrent processes of globalisation, computerisation, and integration shape and constantly modify developmental factors and generate multidirectional social changes. Among social life fields, one of them has been particularly sensitive to the impact of those processes and has remained in clear feedback relationship with them is education, including university-level education. This article aims to present some reflections on the key processes which influence the environment of higher education institutions’ activity and on what their impact specifically is. The factors taken into account include: the transformation of the political and economic system, integration with the European higher education area, the market shift of education, evolving social demands towards higher education institutions and society’s attitude towards work. As knowledge has become an asset largely affecting the quality of life of people and society, universities have changed their focus from searching for and exploring truth, good and beauty in the world towards becoming innovation centres, transferring knowledge as offering their educational services. In this article, those trends have been exemplified in relation to geography degree programmes, and shown through an evolution of the model of the university. Based on a review of the literature, it seems that the processes discussed also concern geography degree programmes, and the future operation of these programmes closely depends on whether they can maintain their care for high quality education coupled with genuine efforts to ensure the smooth transition of graduates into the labour market.

The article presents results of a survey conducted among Polish geography graduates. They were asked questions about the relevance of their degree to their transition from university studies to the job market. The research project revealed that less than half of them found a job. Out of working graduates, one in five geographers worked in an area related to geography and only one in six graduates found their degree useful in their job-seeking efforts. The respondents were also of the view that potential employers often did not perceive them as professionals with a specialised range of skills.

One of the important roles of HE institutions is to train graduates who will smoothly enter the labour market. The literature review demonstrates that one effective method to facilitate this transition is to ensure students acquire professional experience. The aim was to establish the scale and characteristics of employers' demand for work experience expressed in job adverts. The data sample consisted of 17 397 adverts posted over a period of 18 months and addressed to geography, earth and environmental sciences specialists across six European countries. Quantitative analyses demonstrated that over one third of job postings required work experience. Text mining methods of content analysis revealed differences in the structure of high-importance words in adverts addressed to graduates with no, some or short work experience and those addressed to candidates with more extensive professional experience. A hierarchical cluster analysis helped us identify strong relationships between the word 'experience' and other words in specific subsets of adverts. The analysis led us to determine the characteristics of employers' demand for work experience. The results help outline the directions of education policy for HE institutions regarding market-oriented measures aimed at ensuring work integrated learning which can clearly improve graduates' chances on the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of both theoretical and empirical literature suggests that career counselling should begin in childhood and that it should be an ongoing process based on a narrative approach. The basis of this paradigm is an insightful reflection over one's life history, which requires tapping into the capacities of autobiographical memory. At the same time, childhood and adolescence are periods when readiness for insightful analysis of one's past are at their lowest. Literature reviews illustrate that comics are an effective way of inciting reflection and stimulating early development memories. Accordingly, this research aimed at examining the usefulness of comics in stimulating insights into life among young adolescents. The sample comprised 242 students, that is 114 boys and 128 girls aged 13–15. We found that comics help create an environment that is conducive to recalling memories among young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]