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Higher education plays a pivotal role in preparing students for the dynamic and complex labour market. Helping students develop employability competences supports them in obtaining the necessary expertise and skills to facilitate their transition to the labour market and to address the requirements of their new jobs. Employability competences are considered to contribute to students' wellbeing and economic prosperity. Colleges and universities offer career coaching programmes to support students in developing their employability competences. Despite the importance of employability competences, empirical studies on the impact of such coaching programmes remain scarce. The present study aims to fill that gap by exploring the relationship between career coaching and the development of employability competences. A two-study design based on a multiple-methods approach was used to gain more insight in how coaching in higher education contributed to the development of students' employability. Data were collected at institutions of higher education in the Netherlands and Belgium via student surveys (n = 491) and interviews with coaches (n = 9). Our quantitative data showed a significant positive relationship between coaches' autonomy support and the development of students' employability competences. The interviews provided in-depth detailed findings on how coaches support students in their learning process. Coaching sessions became most effective by encouraging students to engage in trial and error and by stimulating (self-) reflection. Taken together, our results show that (career) coaching in higher education has the potential to support students' development of employability competences, which will, in turn, foster their transition to the workplace.

Purpose: Given the dynamic and fast-evolving labour market, developing students' employability competences has become of utmost importance for higher education institutions. The ability to reflect is essential to develop these competences, as it helps students to identify their learning needs and make plans for further development. However, reflective abilities are not easy to acquire and students need guidance to help them reflect. Therefore, mentoring is often used as an instructional approach to stimulate students to reflect. Empirical evidence on the relation between mentoring and employability competences is scarce, and the mediating role of reflection especially has rarely been researched. Consequently, the present study aims to investigate this mediating relationship, employing a pre-test post-test design. Design/methodology/approach: Questionnaire data were collected from students before and after participation in four similar 1-year mentoring programmes in higher education within the Netherlands and Belgium (n = 160). Findings: The path analysis demonstrated that, first, trust and availability, autonomy support and empathy were significantly related to students' employability competences. Secondly, autonomy support and similarity were significantly related to students' critical reflection. Thirdly, critical reflection was significantly related to students' employability competences. Last, reflection partially mediated the relationship between mentoring (autonomy support and similarity) and employability. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first attempt to demonstrate that mentoring programmes in higher education enable students to reflect and, in turn, develop their employability competences. Furthermore, it provides mentoring programme directors and mentors with concrete guidelines for developing students' reflection and employability competences.

Employability, defined as a set of competences that allow an individual to create and maintain a job, is pivotal for both organizations and employees. Organizations with an employable workforce remain competitive and individuals who are employable experience better career development. The present study investigates self-directed learning orientation (SDLO), job control, and job demand as predictors for three employability competences: occupational expertise, personal flexibility, and anticipation and optimization. Data were collected from a sample from two different sectors (health care and finance) in the Netherlands. A path model was built to investigate the relationships between the dependent and independent variables. Results indicate that SDLO and job demands relate positively to all three employability competences. These results suggest that employees with a self-directed learning orientation and employees working in a demanding job are more employable. In addition, we found that the positive relationship between SDLO and employability competences was moderated by job control. To create an employable workforce, supervisors and managers can promote employees' orientation toward self-directed learning and pay considerable attention to job design in terms of job demands and job control.

Purpose: 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. Design/methodology/approach: 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. Findings: 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. Practical implications: The article concludes with practical implications for novice transition coaches and teachers in higher education. Originality/value: 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.

ObjectiveClinical genetic testing is commercially available for rs61764370, an inherited variant residing in a KRAS 3' UTR microRNA binding site, based on suggested associations with increased ovarian and breast cancer risk as well as with survival time. However, prior studies, emphasizing particular subgroups, were relatively small. Therefore, we comprehensively evaluated ovarian and breast cancer risks as well as clinical outcome associated with rs61764370.MethodsCentralized genotyping and analysis were performed for 140,012 women enrolled in the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium (15,357 ovarian cancer patients; 30,816 controls), the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (33,530 breast cancer patients; 37,640 controls), and the Consortium of Modifiers of BRCA1 and BRCA2 (14,765 BRCA1 and 7904 BRCA2 mutation carriers).ResultsWe found no association with risk of ovarian cancer (OR=0.99, 95% CI 0.94-1.04, p=0.74) or breast cancer (OR=0.98, 95% CI 0.94-1.01, p=0.19) and results were consistent among mutation carriers (BRCA1, ovarian cancer HR=1.09, 95% CI 0.97-1.23, p=0.14, breast cancer HR=1.04, 95% CI 0.97-1.12, p=0.27; BRCA2, ovarian cancer HR=0.89, 95% CI 0.71-1.13, p=0.34, breast cancer HR=1.06, 95% CI 0.94-1.19, p=0.35). Null results were also obtained for associations with overall survival following ovarian cancer (HR=0.94, 95% CI 0.83-1.07, p=0.38), breast cancer (HR=0.96, 95% CI 0.87-1.06, p=0.38), and all other previously-reported associations.Conclusionsrs61764370 is not associated with risk of ovarian or breast cancer nor with clinical outcome for patients with these cancers. Therefore, genotyping this variant has no clinical utility related to the prediction or management of these cancers.

BackgroundBRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers are at substantially increased risk for developing breast and ovarian cancer. The incomplete penetrance coupled with the variable age at diagnosis in carriers of the same mutation suggests the existence of genetic and nongenetic modifying factors. In this study, we evaluated the putative role of variants in many candidate modifier genes.MethodsGenotyping data from 15,252 BRCA1 and 8,211 BRCA2 mutation carriers, for known variants (n = 3,248) located within or around 445 candidate genes, were available through the iCOGS custom-designed array. Breast and ovarian cancer association analysis was performed within a retrospective cohort approach.ResultsThe observed P values of association ranged between 0.005 and 1.000. None of the variants was significantly associated with breast or ovarian cancer risk in either BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation carriers, after multiple testing adjustments.ConclusionThere is little evidence that any of the evaluated candidate variants act as modifiers of breast and/or ovarian cancer risk in BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation carriers.ImpactGenome-wide association studies have been more successful at identifying genetic modifiers of BRCA1/2 penetrance than candidate gene studies.

Multiplet analysis assumes that events with highly similar waveforms originate in the same source region and with the same source mechanism. We have determined how waveform similarity could be used at different stages of microseismic processing and interpretation for quality-control purposes to assess internal consistency among events from the same multiplet group. Crosscorrelation (CC) values decayed with interevent distance, and we found that doublets with large separation distances revealed location errors due to mispicks. Using histograms of differential times between highly correlated events (doublets), time-picking errors could also be detected. Waveform correlation could also detect inconsistencies in derived source mechanisms. Doublets should fall within similar regions in the Hudson source-type plots even for events with large nondouble-couple components or when the inversion results were internally inconsistent. A similar assessment was done by plotting the P- and T-axes of multiplets in a focal sphere. We used a minimum CC threshold of 90%, a sufficiently high level, such that the assumption of waveform similarity remained valid, and we analyzed a microseismic data set recorded during two stages of a hydraulic fracturing experiment to demonstrate these quality-control procedures. These techniques could be used in other settings, such as geothermal studies, mining projects, reservoir monitoring, and earthquake seismology and were most beneficial in scenarios in which repeating events were expected, facilitating the detection of compounded errors commonly encountered in microseismic analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]