Graduates’ Competencies and Employability: A Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Higher education is one of the institutions that have been widely recognized as major contributors to sustainable economic growth. In the global world today, changes occur frequently from time to time, and it has become more difficult to keep up with current trends. Through the process of educational studies from higher educational universities, people’s knowledge is increasing, and they have to make the right decision in choosing the careers that are most suitable for them. Employability skills play an important role in order to ensure that they will be acceptable in the job market. Employability skills can be defined as those basic skills required for getting, keeping, and doing well on a job or task in which they responsible for. Generally, employability skills are needed by students to prepare themselves to meet the needs of job market requirements after their graduation. It is essential for any program of study at higher educational institutions to evaluate its curriculum regularly to ensure that its content remains relevant, is of high quality, and responds to the demand of the job market. Therefore, the purpose of this study is twofold: first, to determine the relationship between graduates’ competencies and their employment and second, to propose a conceptual framework underlying the interrelationship between graduates’ competencies and their employment. A structured literature review methodology was adopted, and a conceptual model was developed for further exploration of the topic

Keywords

• graduates’ employability
• graduates’ competencies
• employability
• job satisfaction
• graduates