Graduate Employability: Industry Requirements and Responsibilities of Institutions of Higher Education.

Abstract

Research on employability skills has gained much attention as employers now are concerned about finding good workers who not only have basic academic skills but also higher order thinking skills like learning, reasoning, thinking creatively, decision making and problem solving. This study attempts to investigate the core skills required by the industry from the graduates. Through extensive literature review, the study identifies soft skills, problem solving skills, functional skills, leadership skills and academic reputation as the employability skills of graduates. For the purpose of the study, data have been collected with a structured questionnaire survey from the CEOs and HR managers of some selected companies in Bangladesh. Collected data have been analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique with smart PLS software 2.0M3. The findings reveal that the industry experts have placed utmost importance on the soft skills of the graduates followed by problem solving skills, leadership skills and functional skills. Thus, this study provides insights into the value of skills and their application from the perspective of the employers. The broader stakeholder understanding of employability skills can assist institutions of higher education to equip their graduates as per the demand of the industry. As this study has explored the skills of effective graduates from the opinions of industry experts, it provides the taxonomy of graduate skills from demand side view. The outcome of this study might pave the ways for the universities to develop new guidelines so as to make their teaching effective which consequently leads to the development of employability skills among the graduates