Teachers’ transformational leadership and students’ employability development: A social cognitive career perspective

Higher education policy and talent training are failing to meet the ever-changing expectations of employers and society in Taiwan, resulting in a gap between university education and employment. We used social cognitive career theory to explore the relationships between problem-based learning, teachers’ transformational leadership, and students’ self-efficacy and employability. Participants were 619 undergraduates from 12 Taiwanese higher education institutions. We performed structural equation modeling and found that there were significant positive correlations between students’ self-efficacy, problem-based learning, and employability, along with teachers’ transformational leadership. Further, problem-based learning and the students’ self-efficacy were key mediators of the relationship between teachers’ transformational leadership and  students’ employability. Implications are discussed for related issues and future research involving models of students’ employability.