Abstract
This paper examines the factors of perceived employability of 623 final-year students of vocational colleges in four provinces of Southern China. A modified scale of perceived employability was used, and the scale included the concepts of self-efficacy, career identity, institutional support, and social capital. The overall means of the scale of perceived employability were moderate (M = 3.31). The students rated themselves against the recognition of the institution in the labor market. The hierarchical regression results showed that a combination of individual, institutional, and environmental factors explained 35.8% of the variance of perceived employability. Self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of perceived employability (β = .27), followed by institutional support (β = .20), career identity (β = .15), social capital (β = .14), and internship experience (β = .11). There were significant differences among the provinces; Guangdong outperformed the less economically advanced provinces.
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