Crossing borders of employability: the career preparedness of Dutch liberal arts graduates

This dissertation explores the relationship between liberal arts education (LAE) bachelor’s programmes in the Netherlands and the world of work. Its main goal is to understand how the distinctive features of Dutch university colleges influence the career preparedness and labour market prospects of their graduates. To achieve this, the thesis follows university college graduates as they move across the borders of employability from higher education to employment. The four stages of the graduates’ path towards the labour market correspond to the four individual studies comprising the dissertation. These studies examine the LAE graduates’ career preparedness in terms of acquiring relevant skills during the bachelor’s programme, obtaining specialized master’s degrees, securing their first jobs, and achieving further professional success. Overall, the findings from the four studies show that university college students are well-prepared for the challenges of the labour market. These programmes foster skill development and adequately equip their graduates for specialized master’s studies. Moreover, they do not hinder their entry into the labour market and allow them to achieve career success comparable to their peers with conventional bachelor’s degrees. As an innovative development in the Dutch higher education system, university colleges established themselves as undergraduate programmes that provide a particular group of students the alternative, self-tailored academic path they need, without compromising their future labour market prospects.