Employability Skills Perceived by Employers and Students
Chapter 1.0: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Problem Statements
GET (Graduate Employment and Training) reports suggest that most employers find it difficult to recruit suitable number of graduates who can communicate while working in a team, analyse problem or manage their individual learning of new skills (Holden and Jameson, 2002). One of the most direct causes to this problem is the scarcity of quality graduates in the labour market, the graduates are accused for not being able to suit the graduates’ labour market needs. Employers recognize the number of technical skills possessed by graduates but not that of the non-technical skills (some call it employability skills) as the employers realize that non-technical skills are not strongly embraced by graduates.
Ultimately, most of employers are looking for people who are proactive rather than reactive and want graduates who can use higher level skills such as analysis, critique, synthesis and multi layered communication to facilitate innovative teamwork in catalyzing the transformation of their organization (Harvey et al, 1997 cited in Holden and Jameson, 2002).
1.2 Research Objectives
1. To identify the skills that are claimed to be essential for employment by employers in 5 journals [ Nguyen et al (2005), Cassidy (2006), Quek (2005), Nabi (2003) and Stephens, Hamblin (2006)].
2. To identify the important employability skills perceived by students in only Nguyen et al. (2005) and Quek (2005).
Dealing with the complaints arising from employees highlighting the lack of employability skills among graduates, there is a need to find out what are the skills that actually required from
3. To gain an understanding on the labour market trend from 5 journals [ ( Quek (2005),
Nguyen et al (2005), Nabi (2003), Cassidy (2006) and Cranmer (2006) ].
Gaining an insight into the labour market trend can ignite awareness among students about the high demand for labour but low supply of quality labour. This can inspire
1.1 Problem Statements
GET (Graduate Employment and Training) reports suggest that most employers find it difficult to recruit suitable number of graduates who can communicate while working in a team, analyse problem or manage their individual learning of new skills (Holden and Jameson, 2002). One of the most direct causes to this problem is the scarcity of quality graduates in the labour market, the graduates are accused for not being able to suit the graduates’ labour market needs. Employers recognize the number of technical skills possessed by graduates but not that of the non-technical skills (some call it employability skills) as the employers realize that non-technical skills are not strongly embraced by graduates.
Ultimately, most of employers are looking for people who are proactive rather than reactive and want graduates who can use higher level skills such as analysis, critique, synthesis and multi layered communication to facilitate innovative teamwork in catalyzing the transformation of their organization (Harvey et al, 1997 cited in Holden and Jameson, 2002).
1.2 Research Objectives
1. To identify the skills that are claimed to be essential for employment by employers in 5 journals [ Nguyen et al (2005), Cassidy (2006), Quek (2005), Nabi (2003) and Stephens, Hamblin (2006)].
2. To identify the important employability skills perceived by students in only Nguyen et al. (2005) and Quek (2005).
Dealing with the complaints arising from employees highlighting the lack of employability skills among graduates, there is a need to find out what are the skills that actually required from
3. To gain an understanding on the labour market trend from 5 journals [ ( Quek (2005),
Nguyen et al (2005), Nabi (2003), Cassidy (2006) and Cranmer (2006) ].
Gaining an insight into the labour market trend can ignite awareness among students about the high demand for labour but low supply of quality labour. This can inspire