Graduate Employability and Students’ Orientation to Labor Market

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

Employability as a concept demonstrates true potential of students to undertake future employment. Simultaneously employability represents significant linkage between industry and academia. This paper attempts to measure the orientation of graduate students towards employability and the labor market. Sample of the study included 124 MBA students of three higher education universities located in the region of Punjab and data collection was done through the administration of questionnaires among them. Analysis was done using the statistical technique of factor analysis with the help of SPSS version-17. Study findings identified four main factors that affect the graduate students' orientation to labor market as goal-setting and accomplishment, performance consciousness, institute image and association, job scenario and skills in demand. The paper thus puts special emphasis on the higher education institutes and universities in context to prepare their students for future job prospects. Besides this, the research also discusses the implications of the same for the higher education sector and the industry.

Library Progress International, 2024

Nowadays, perceived employability has gained significant attention due to the competitive nature of the employment sector, which now requires individuals to possess not only academic qualifications but also relevant skills and competencies. These skills and competencies help students to align their academic pursuits with their career goals, thereby boosting their confidence in their ability to secure employment after completing their higher education. The present study aims to examine the perceived employability of higher education students. A quantitative approach was used, and 302 university students of Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, Uttarakhand, India were selected as samples for data analysis. A normative survey research method was adopted to investigate the influence of stream (Arts & Humanities and STEM), level of study (UG and PG) and course (Traditional and Professional) of university students on their perceived employability. The perceived Employability Scale developed by K. P. Naachimuthu was used to measure the perceived employability of students. The study findings identify that most university students have a high level of perception towards employability. Arts & Humanities students and professional courses students have greater perceived employability as compared to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) and traditional courses students respectively. There is no difference in perception towards employability among under graduation (UG) and post graduation (PG) students.

Universities are expected to function to contribute to national development through high level relevant manpower training. University education is the core of the higher education. Since unemployment rate is a key macroeconomic indicator, with low unemployment rate taken to indicate a healthy economy, this study focused on the employability of graduates of different faculties of Eastern University. The study included four faculties viz., Agriculture, Commerce & Management, Health-Care Sciences and Science. Questionnaire survey was done among 207 graduates who had completed their degrees after 2011 from Eastern University to find out their employability. Discussions and telephone conversations with higher officials in government and private sectors was done to validate the study. Results revealed that percent employed was highest (92.6%) for the faculty of Health Care Sciences, while the lowest (70.6%) was for the Agriculture. median expected monthly salary of the graduands was between Rs. 30,000-40,000 for all the faculty graduands. And the preference level for different sector varies from faculty to faculty. All the faculty graduands faced several obstacles to get a job. It is recommended that courses should be designed to face the current job market.

International Journal of Engineering & Technology

Graduate employability is a critical issue in Higher Education. Employers are expecting not only the subject knowledge from the students to compete with the current industry demands, but also additional skills to face corporate battles and challenges. The aim of this research is to identify the skills demanded by the employers and to incorporate them in the learning outcomes of higher education. This research aims to review and analyses all the papers published from 2010 until now regarding the evaluation of graduate students from employers’ perspectives. This subject has been rarely touched in literature and needs more focus regarding to its importance for both education institutions and employers. Papers were collected from different databases and carefully analyzed by the authors. Different classification methods were done. The results were analyzed. The results indicate that there is a gap between the learning outcome and the employability skills.

This article examines the way students, making the transition from higher education into the labour market, construct, understand and begin to manage their employability. It draws upon a qualitative study of 53 final year undergraduates in a pre-1992 university in the UK. It firstly explores students' perceptions of the current labour market for graduates and how they understand future career progression. It examines their different orientations and attitudes to work and careers through the development of an ideal-type model. It then considers how these orientations influence the way students approach future work and careers and manage their employability, and further discusses some of the implications this has for current policies around higher education and the labour market in the UK context.

2012

In Malaysia, there is a profusion of evidence of high graduate unemployment since many graduates are found lacking of what are needed to acquire and to maintain their jobs. In this paper, graduate employability skills were analyzed based on four major criteria: qualification, academic score, experience and specific soft skills. The data and information used were extracted from 300 online job advertisements accessed via electronic databases at http://www.JobStreet.com.my from January to March 2011. A simple checklist form was developed to quantify the information from ads into quantitative data that was later keyed in the Statistical Package for Social Science for descriptive analyses. Based on the data, it was concluded that graduates with bachelor degrees were more likely to be employable due to high demand. It was also found that academic excellence based on CGPA was not the utmost factor for graduate employability. However, since less than one-third ads were free from work experiences requirement, fresh graduates only secured a little chance to be recruited. Another factor that limited graduates employability was high demand of specific soft skills requested by employers, among which were graduates with high quality of communication/interpersonal skills, foreign language proficiency, ICT/technical skills, high spirit of teamwork and specific personal attributes. Results concluded that graduate unemployment rate will continue to increase unless the Higher Education Institution (HEI) and the graduates are prepared to sharpen their soft skills according to market niche. It is suggested that the HEI work more closely with industries, professional bodies and society through the establishment of university-industry link cooperation that will become a catalyst for soft skills enhancement.

This paper reports the further testing of a research instrument to examine the expectations and self-perceptions of employability of business students at postgraduate level, building on previously reported research with undergraduates [Rothwell, A., Herbert, I., & Rothwell, F. (2008). Self perceived employability: Construction and initial validation of a scale for university students. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 73(1), 1–12]. On this occasion the scale was again found to have a good internal reliability coefficient (a = .84), and discriminant validity from university commitment. Forcing a four-factor solution found components relating to the university's reputation, individual self-confidence and proactivity, external labor market factors, and finally the individuals' engagement with study and academic performance. For this multi-cultural postgraduate sample, perceptions of employability were good, but within that they placed significant emphasis on the brand and reputation of the university. Results indicate the potential for further studies with refined scales, particularly the combined scale of employability and ambition.

Educational Leader (Pemimpin Pendidikan), 2018

Employability is perceived to be the capability to perform oneself adequately within the labour market. However, graduate's unemployment has always been highlighted as a critical issue in Malaysia. Therefore, this study aims to explore the employability level of potential Malaysian undergraduate students from Higher Educational Institution in Malaysia. This study used quantitative research approach where a questionnaire was used for data collection. A total of 425 final year undergraduate students from Faculty of Management and Faculty of Computing and Informatics participated in this study. Seven employability attributes namely academic, conscientiousness, leadership, critical thinking, teamwork, human and social capital, work and career resilience attributes were examined. Findings indicated that majority of the respondents obtained higher scores in teamwork, work and career resilience and conscientiousness attributes. On the other hand, the respondents were less confident in academic, leadership as well as human and social capital attributes. Findings also indicated that employability among undergraduate students are significantly different by students' academic achievement and student's disciplinary area but not gender. Therefore, curriculum review is important to ensure that the subjects offered in the higher educational institute are preparing the students with employability attributes. The study outcomes contribute to policy makers and academicians to understand the quality and the readiness of the potential undergraduate student who is soon going to enter the labor market for improvement purpose.

IRA-International Journal of Management & Social Sciences (ISSN 2455-2267)

To remain existing in this world needs ability to survive even Charles Darwin proposes Theory for survival of fittest. To remain fit in today's world is not only the physical abilities but to be engaged in any kind of profession through which one can earn his daily bread and butter. This need appears to be same for each class of society and job. Today this ability can be called as an Employability Skill. It is nothing to do with whether you want a job or want to run any business. For the today's students it is very essential to have these skills not only to bag in new employment opportunities but to retain and to grow on existing one also. Through this research paper authors want to set shoulder to wheel for comparing employability among students of management faculty under two of the leading state universities of Maharashtra i.e. North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon & Savitribai Phule Pune University with special reference to MBA students. This paper consist concept of employability, factors affecting employability and comparison of employability skills among MBA student under both the universities.

Bulletin of Education and Research, 2019

The study aimed to compare the level of self-perceived employability of public and private sector university graduates. It was a descriptive and cross sectional survey. Population of the study was university graduating students enrolled in final year/ semester. Multi-stage purposive sampling was used to collect data from ten universities; five public and five private universities were taken with eight matching departments. All students from selected department filled up the questionnaire. Each university (main campus) was taken as a sample. A total of 2411 graduating students were sample of the study. Self-developed 23 items Self-Perceived Employability (SPE) instrument was used to collect data with five point likert type scale. Independent sample t-test was applied for comparison of public and private sector graduates. Results showed positive self-perceived employability in graduating students. Private university students' self-perceived employability was higher than that of the public university students. But, students' perception of employability on the basis of department was significantly different. Self-perceived employability for male and female was the same. Two-year program graduates had higher self-perceived employability than those of the four-year degree program.