UNLOCKING EMPLOYABILITY OF UNIVERSITY GRADUATES
RAMESH RAO *
Department of Research & Innovation of Teaching Professionalism, Institut Pendidikan, Guru Kampus Ilmu Khas, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia.
ROHANA JANI
Department of Applied Statistics, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
A yardstick used to measure tertiary education is employability of its graduates. However the unemployment of graduates, notably caused by lack of employability skills is raising concern among the education providers. In this study, using data from tracer study, a total of 1629 graduates from the field of were used to identify the employability skills sought after by employees. Using a binary logit probability model, eight variables representing the employability skills of graduates were used in the probability model. They are academic qualification, proficiency in the English language, willingness to take challenges, exposure to general knowledge, sensitive towards current affairs and willingness to work overseas. The distinction of this study lies in the homogeneity of the graduates. The role of job experience in getting employed is overcome, by taking only graduates who are seeking employment for the first time and had no job experience. The findings indicate academic qualification and language proficiency are still given prominence by employees.
Keywords: Human capital, skills, occupational choice, job, occupational, discrete regression and qualitative choice models