Graduates’ Job Quality Dimensions According to a Delphi-Shang Experiment

In this paper we discuss the salient information drawn from a Delphi experiment (Shang version) realised by an e-mail interview of a panel of experts on some Italian job market issues. The job quality dimensions of freshly recruited graduates are first defined, also in relation with the literature on work organisations’ functionality, and finally compared with the possible situation at the end of graduates’ careers. The dimensions are compared with the results of a multivariate statistical analysis on the relationships between the satisfaction perceived by the University of Padua graduates for their own job, and some personal and job characteristics. Such an evaluation may suggest new criteria for a future survey on “external effectiveness” of university teaching based on graduates’ reports. The dimensions of initial and end-of-career quality of highly educated workers are correlated to the experts’ representations of the job market, through a semantic differential.