Employability Through Imagination, Alignment, and Engagement - Students’ Prospects and Change During Their First Year in Computing Education

Abstract

Employability can be defined as a part of one’s identity formation, or pre-professional identity formation. In this paper, we have interviewed six computing students at the beginning of their first semester and in the middle of their second semester, exploring their perspectives on being a student and future professional. The results show that students have started their identity and employability development by aligning themselves with the practices in the computing discipline, engaging in a study program community, and imagine their future professional identity. The article gives recommendations on how Wenger-Trayner & Wenger-Trayner’s concept of modes of identification can be used to enhance employability in first-year computing education.