Graduate Employability

Competencies For Fresh Graduates’ Success At Work

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Overview

Recently, the term “employability” has been highly emphasized by higher education stakeholders, national policymakers, of course, students and employers. In general, employability is one of the valuable individual resources that can be trained to help people themselves facing a constantly changing labor market characterized by unpredictability and insecurity [1]. It is also equivalent to the ability of a single worker to secure his job within a predefined period. Normally the people who got the jobs quickly and easily are the ones who have equipped with a set of skills asked by the market.

According to other scholars and researchers, the term “employability” is defined as:

1. A skill set that shows your personal image, interpersonal skills, and attitudes [2].
2. The capability to move self-sufficiently within the labor market to realize the potentiality through sustainable employment [3].
3. The ability of a graduate to get a satisfying job [4].
4. The tendency of graduates to exhibit the traits that employers expect their organization will need to function effectively in the future [5].
5. The relevance of knowledge, skills, and abilities acquired through training to labor market/occupational requirements [6].
6. A set of achievements — skills, understandings, and personal attributes that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community, and the economy [7].

Scholars and researchers define the term “employability” differently due to different opinions on the criteria for the graduates to get hired and employed. Some of them emphasized skills, whereas some of them put the focus on attributes. In short, the term “employability” generally means the capability, ability, success, chance, adaptability, or competency of an individual to be employed.

The factors that influence the result of employment include individual characteristics, labor market behavior, and organization type. The figure below shows a more detailed explanation of each factor.

The factors that affect employability [8].

Challenges

To ensure fresh graduates are employed after 6 months of their graduation, higher education stakeholders are currently facing challenges in fulfilling the industrial talent requirements. The challenges normally occurred due to [9]:

1. The fast-paced changes in the industrial environment

The skillsets asked by the industries are changing from time to time due to the fast-paced creation and implementation of technology all around the world. According to Horváth in the year 2017 [10], he said that there is no guarantee of getting a fresh graduate to be employed even the fresh graduate has successfully acquired all the skills learned in school. The economic gaps and inequalities are increased, forcing the individuals to pay more attention to their own agenda instead of blindly following their employers.

2. The switch in perception regarding education and career

The myth of “the university to the only way to get a job” has been going for a long time, specifically since the 80s. According to stats in January 2019, 27% of recent university graduates who were looking for full-time employment were yet to find it. It was definitely higher compared to 22% of VET students and just 9% of trade apprentices [11]. Today’s education is likely serving as a center for knowledge transfer and it is nothing to do with job security. Today, the individual has to be much more aggressive in acquiring real knowledge through multiple methods besides just obtaining theory from the books and lecturers.

3. The mismatch of qualifications with employers’ needs

The survey done by the Malaysian National Bank argued that there was an increase in graduate unemployment due to a mismatch of graduates' skills with the requirements of the employers [12]. Compared to foreign education institutes, local education institute is ranking institutes term of the degree of mismatch of qualifications with employers’ needs [13][14]. In general, employers are finding it difficult to recruit potential workers who have employability or job readiness skills that help them fit into and remain in the working environment [15].

4. The lack of students’ exposure to the real job market

In Malaysia, several higher education institutions do not prepare their students well in dealing with the future real working environment. 60.14% of current students and 88.71% of graduate students feel that the lack of students’ exposure to the working environment leads to unemployment [16]. Most of them feel that the current curriculum does not provide a chance to allow them in understanding more about the job prospect and future environment.

5. The education methodology is teacher-centred

Barr and Tagg mentioned that the teacher-centered pathway generally aims to transfer or deliver knowledge to students, whereas a student-centered approach or student learning paradigm is focusing more on the creation of environments and experiences that can lead students to discover and construct knowledge through themselves [17].

Employability Skills

The skills required by an individual to be employed are known as “employability skills”. Employability skills can be further categorized into three main domains: basic skills, personal attributes, and intellectual abilities. The framework was listed by the Business Council of Australia Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the year 2001 by D. Curtis [18].

The categories of employability skills

Basic skills normally include:

1. Understand, listen and speak clearly and directly
2. Understand written documents and write clearly
3. Understand tables and figures, interpret graphs, and calculate

Intelligence abilities typically include:

1. Decision making
2. problem-solving
3. Innovation
4. Creation.

Personal attributes usually include:

1. Acknowledge the need to learn to accommodate change
2. Open to new ideas and techniques
3. Invest time and effort in learning new skills.

The employability skills mentioned above are definitely required a switch as they were proposed 20 years back. In the year 2020, the Oregon Workforce and Talent Development Board (WTDB) came out with a WTDB report stating the skillset required for each particular field. The following is a part of the report [19].

1. Manufacturing

• Self-Awareness (Self Understanding)
• Collaboration (Team Player)
• Digital Fluency (Good with Technology)
• Resiliency (Plans for Success and Bounces Back from Failure)
• Analysis/Solution Mindset (Problem Solver)
• Entrepreneurial Mindset (Go-Getter)
• Adaptability/Flexibility (Open to Change)
• Communication (Good Communicator)
• Empathy (Sensitive to Others’ Feelings)
• Social Diversity/Awareness (Sensitivity to Differences in Backgrounds and Beliefs)

2. Technology, AI, and automation

• Creativity
• Persuasion and negotiation
• Adaptability: dealing positively with change and ambiguity
• Time management
• Problem-solving
• Ethical judgment and decision making

3. Labor

• Good communication
• Problem-solving
• Adaptability

4. Health care

• Adaptability
• Collaboration
• Empathy
• Effective communication
• Dependability
• Critical thinking
• Reliability

Referring to the list above, it shows that the skills of communication, adaptability, and problem solving are always essential regardless of generation.

Conclusion

The employability challenges will always exist as the working environment is varying from time to time. For example, when the pandemic came, it hit the occurrence of physical lectures affecting students all around the world. All the stakeholders were forced to respond accordingly. It shows the importance of having the skills of adaptability and flexibility.

References

1. Di Fabio A. (2017) A Review of Empirical Studies on Employability and Measures of Employability. In: Maree K. (eds) Psychology of Career Adaptability, Employability and Resilience. Springer, Cham.
2. Lankard, B. A. (1990). Employability — the fifth basic skill.ERIC Digest №104. Columbus: Center on Education and training for Employment. The Ohio State University.
3. Hillage J, Pollard E (1998). Employability: developing a framework for policy analysis. Research Report RR85, Department for Education and Employment.
4. Harvey, L. (2001). Defining and measuring employability. Quality in Higher Education, 7(2), 97–109.
5. Harvey, L., Locke, W. and Morey, A. (2002). EnhancingEmployability, Recognising Diversity. London, Universities UK.
6. European Association of Conservatoires (AEC) (2004), AEC Meeting for International Relations Coordinators, Tallinn September 10–11, 2004.
7. Yorke, Mantz. (2004). Employability in Higher Education”: What it is what it is not. Enhancing Student Employability Co-ordination Scheme (ESECT). The Higher EducationAcademy, Learning and Employability, Series 1. York: LTSN.
8. Nooriah Yusof and Zakiyah Jamaluddin (2015). Graduate employability and preparedness: A case study of University of Malaysia Perlis (UNIMAP), Malaysia. GEOGRAFIA OnlineTM Malaysian Journal of Society and Space. 11 (11), 129–143.
9. Bhola and Dhanawade (2013). Higher Education and Employability — A Review. SSRN Electronic Journal. Pg 45–54.
10. Horváth (2017). Recent Issues of Employability and Career Management. Opus et Education. 4(2), 207–216.
11. Austrial Government (2020). Five myths about higher education. Retrieved at https://www.jobjumpstart.gov.au as of 29 April 2021.
12. National Malaysian Bank Report, Malaysia, (2002). p. 39.
13. Asma A, Lim L (2000). Cultural dimensions of Anglos, Australians and Malaysians. Malays. Manag. Rev., 36(2): 1–17.
14. Yogeswaran (2005). Regional Conference on Investment Climate and competitiveness in East Asia, Economic Plan Unit Malaysia, pp. 31–41.
15. Robinson, J. P. (2002). What is employability skills. The Workplace Fact Sheet. Alabama Cooperative Extension Services, 1(3).
16. K. Ramakrishnan and N. Yasin (2012), “Employment issues among Malaysian information and communication technology (ICT) graduates: A case study,” African Journal of Business Management, vol. 6, no. 16, 2012.
17. Barr RB &Tagg J (1995). From teaching to learning: a new paradigm for undergraduate education. Change, 27(6): 12–25.
18. D. Curtis & P. McKenzie (2001). Employability Skills For Australian Industry: Litertarute review And Framework Development. Business Council of Australia Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
19. Oregon Workforce and Talent Development Board (2020). WTDB Report: Essential Employability Skills, Needed Now More Than Ever. Retrieved from https://www.oregon.gov as at 29 April 2021.