Advancing employability : applying training evaluation to employability development programs

Purpose: This paper aims to apply training evaluation to employability development, providing a systematic process to assess employability development programs' effectiveness under the framework of employability capital resources (Peeters et al., 2019). Design/methodology/approach: The authors demonstrate the training evaluation process within an employability development program for US secondary school students. This process included providing validation evidence for measures of evaluation criteria across multiple samples of secondary school students and testing the effectiveness of the program utilizing a quasi-experimental design. Findings: The authors systematically found support for the intervention's effects on training criteria (i.e. reactions, learning, behavior, results) and demonstrated the utility for training evaluation's application to employability development. The findings illustrate how a training evaluation approach can provide holistic evidence that an employability development program achieved its intended outcomes. Originality/value: Employability is a new and burgeoning topic – however, employability development varies in how it is conceptualized, evaluated and assessed. By applying training evaluation approaches, employability development can be assessed within a unifying framework and better integrated within the Human Resource Management literature.