Which way of learning benefits your career? The role of different forms of work-related learning for different types of perceived employability

Abstract

Building and maintaining employability is important for employees and organizations in a changing world of work. Research considered work-related learning as an antecedent of employability but provided ambiguous findings. We attribute this inconsistency to the multidimensionality of the constructs involved. Drawing on Conservation of Resources Theory, we investigated the links of three different forms of work-related learning (i.e., informal, formal, and self-regulated learning) with both internal (i.e., within the organization) versus external (i.e., in the general labour market) and qualitative (i.e., finding a better job) versus quantitative (i.e., finding another job) perceived employability. Our two-wave study (N = 307 employees) showed that informal learning positively relates to qualitative and quantitative internal employability, but not to any type of external employability. Conversely, self-regulated learning is positively linked to qualitative external employability, but not to quantitative external or any type of internal employability. Formal learning (i.e., training and workshops) surprisingly did not contribute to employability at all. Furthermore, we did not find that learning forms conceptually associated with more resource investment regarding effort would show stronger relations with employability. We discuss learning-related strategies to foster employability and address the missing association between formal learning and employability, calling for more sophisticated measures of formal learning.