ABSTRACT
The past decade has seen a number of changes in the world of work across many economies, such as internationalization, individualization, informalization, informatization and intensification (see Schnabel 2000, for more details), each of which has implications for employability and HRD. The era when careers involved an upward trajectory within a long-term employment relationship appears to have passed (Arthur and Rousseau 1996; Briscoe et al. 2006; Sullivan 1999). Constant change, both in terms of the economic environment and required job qualifications, has made it hard to predict what knowledge and skills are needed in the (near) future. Therefore, a high level of employability, or career potential (Van Der Heijde and Van Der Heijden 2006; Van Der Heijden et al. 2009), and through this achieving flexibility in functioning, seem to be the key criteria that enable an employee to stay “in the race”.
