The Contribution of Part-Time Work Experience to Pre-Service Teachers' Development of Graduate Employability

Abstract

Work-integrated learning (WIL) has been found to be effective in developing graduate employability. Working part-time while undertaking undergraduate studies may produce similar effects; however, its contribution to the development of students' employability has not yet been examined adequately. Therefore, this chapter will report a study investigating 22 Vietnamese pre-service teachers' experiences of how working as teaching assistants in commercial English language centers has contributed to their employability. Content analysis of semi-structured interviews revealed that part-time work experience elevated the pre-service teachers' specialized knowledge and skills, equipped them with soft skills, expanded their social networks, enhanced their adaptability to different work cultures, and modified their teacher identity. The chapter calls for universities to award credits for part-time work experience as a type of WIL, develop a mechanism for integrating it into curricula, and help graduates evidence their work experience to their future employers.