Abstract
In recent years, higher education has increasingly emphasized undergraduate employability, but the relationships between different types of extracurricular activities (ECAs) and the dimensions of employability still lack systematic investigation. Based on experiential learning theory and the USEM (understanding, skills, efficacy beliefs and metacognition) model, this study focused on academic-oriented, career-oriented and social-oriented activities. Questionnaire data were collected from 621 students from five universities in Chongqing, China. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, hierarchical regression and multiple regression were used for the analysis. After controlling for demographic variables, all three types of activities were significantly and positively associated with overall employability, with career-oriented activities having the strongest association. Social-oriented activities had the most prominent association with understanding, skills and efficacy beliefs and career-oriented activities had the strongest association with metacognition, while academic-oriented activities were not significantly associated with skills or metacognition. The results indicate that different types of ECAs have different roles in employability development. Therefore, the evaluation of the educational value of ECAs should not only look at whether students participate, but also consider the functional characteristics of the activities. Higher education institutions should integrate disciplinary learning, workplace experience, social participation and reflective practice and allocate extracurricular resources according to their functions to more effectively support the multidimensional development of undergraduate employability.
Keywords: Employability, Experiential Learning, Extracurricular Activities, Higher Education, USEM Model.