Employability skills of the graduates in faculty of applied sciences in Sri Lankan Universities

Abstract

The Research study was carried out with the aim of identify the employability skills development in graduates in Faculty ofApplied Sciences. To achieve the objectives a model of employability was introduced that can be used as a framework for working with undergraduates to develop their employability, identify the perception of employers concerning the employability skills of graduates, and graduates’ perception of the employability skills that they possessed. The model was developed based on existing research on employability skills and experience ofthe author. Inclusion ofthe various factors to the model was also discussed and justified using existing research work. The developed employability model consists of three principal variables namely; personal skills, core skills and process skills. For each principal variable, sub variables were identified and there were 16 sub variables in the model. Due to the time limitation instead of longitudinal research, the study employed a comparative study of two cross sectional samples of first year and final year undergraduates from four universities. Size ofthe sample was 670 undergraduates and 110 employers. The study adopted a survey method and data were collected through two sets of questionnaires with the aim of gauging undergraduates’ and employers’ perceptions on employability skills possession of applied science graduates. The Results of this study revealed by being at the university, graduates developed employability skills that are required to gain the employment. Furthermore, personal skills are developed most at the university and process skills were the least developed skills. The study disclosed the difference between employers and undergraduates’ perception for all 16 employability skills, where employer rated graduates much lower than that of undergraduates. The results ofthe study also suggested that with different age groups of employers the perception relating to the possession of employability skills of graduates tend to differ. It is recommended the developed model of employability to be applied for other graduates. Some recommendations and suggestions for future research were highlighted.