scholarly journals The Employability Skills Performance of Business Graduates in Malaysia: Do Employers, Graduates and Academicians Speak the Same Language?

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
Erni Tanius ◽  
Husna bt Johari ◽  
Astri Yulia ◽  
Heng Chin Siong ◽  
Khairul Hanim Pazim
2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 354-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhad Khurshid Abbasi ◽  
Amjad Ali ◽  
Naila Bibi

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the gap between skills expected by managers and skills possessed by business graduates employed by banking industry. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire-based survey was conducted with bank officers under whom fresh business graduates were working. They were asked to indicate the importance of 12 employability skills in the industry and to rate business graduates working under them against these skills. Results are achieved by applying paired samples and independent samples t-tests on data collected from 121 bank officers. Findings Results prove that overall employability skills of the graduates are lesser than expected by the managers. Significant skill gaps were found for listening, problem solving, communication, leadership, interpersonal, analytical, self-management, numeracy and critical thinking. Results also reveal that problem-solving skill of male graduates is superior that that of females. Practical implications The study makes business graduates clear in what skills they are to learn and how it relates to the expectations of managers in banking industry. It helps business schools to revise and improve curriculum of some specialized banking programs according to the needs of the industry. Originality/value This is the first study that investigates the skills required by the banking industry out of business graduates. It also identifies the skill gaps for fresh business graduates from managerial perspective in banking industry of Pakistan.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noor Al-Shehab ◽  
Mukhtar AL-Hashimi ◽  
Araby Madbouly ◽  
Sameh Reyad ◽  
Allam Hamdan

PurposeManagers claim that fresh graduates are unequipped to meet market demands. The aim of this study is to investigate the perception of employers in retail Islamic banks of Bahrain on newly graduated business students. The Singaporean Model of Employability Skills was implemented, to ascertain the mean ratings of employability skills in terms of their importance and the competency of business graduates.Design/methodology/approachThis deductive research approach initiated with a literature review that identifies research gap and a model that was tested via a self-administration adopted survey by collected data from 220 senior employees at retail Islamic banks of BahrainFindingsThe systematic of convenience sampling technique was used in selecting 161 samples and the researcher received only 85 completed questionnaire forms. Findings initiate that employers appreciated the importance of teamwork, risk management and decision-making skills. Their main recommendation was that employers should establish a durable bond with universities to enhance employability skills.Originality/valueBecause the researcher gathered all data from employers of different Islamic banks in Bahrain, this sector in addition will get the advantage of the results that banks will formulate their strategic plans accordingly to tackle the business graduates’ weaknesses. Likewise, universities and researchers might be motivated to look into new innovative methods that assist graduates to accommodate with market conditions.


2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Jackson

AbstractAustralian business graduates are deemed by industry as not being ‘job ready’ (BCA 2006; BIHECC 2007), lacking the skills required to successfully apply disciplinary knowledge and add value to our globalised, knowledge economy. There exists a lack of empirical evidence and professional input for business schools on profiling the attributes valued by industry. This is especially true for those majoring in management who are consistently overshadowed by their more commercially attractive postgraduate counterparts. In a bid to satisfy industry demands, the most common response among Australian business schools are the development of employability skills and enhanced involvement of industry professionals in curricula content and design, both subject to potential failings and criticism. This review of business school efforts to bridge the skills gap also examines the role, function and impact of undergraduate management education, a research area significantly overlooked in recent years.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy Shu-Ling Chen ◽  
Stephen Cahoon ◽  
Hilary Pateman ◽  
Prashant Bhaskar ◽  
Grace Wang ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rami M. Ayoubi ◽  
Kahla Alzarif ◽  
Bayan Khalifa

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare the desired employability skills of business graduates in Syria from the perspective of both higher education policymakers and employers in the private sector. Design/methodology/approach Interviews were conducted with 12 higher education policymakers and managers from the business sector. Content analysis was utilized to analyse the content of the interviews and the strategic priorities of the higher education sector in Syria. Findings Results revealed that although higher education policymakers focus more on societal, public and thinking skills for business graduates, the business sector focusses more on individual, private and practical skills. Accordingly, a comparative tool that aligns the two perspectives was developed in the study. The tool, based on the contradicting employability skills, identified four types of business graduates: leader, collective, technical and trainee. Research limitations/implications The study is limited by data collected before the current political instability in Syria in 2012. The data were collected only from official documents and interviews with policymakers and employers. Students were not part of the study. Practical implications The managerial tool developed at the end of the study will help both policymakers and the private sector to statistically allocate business graduates for better planning. The study provides recommendations to the different stakeholders in the higher education sector in Syria. Originality/value Although the majority of the previous literature raises the voices of the business sector, this study is one of the first studies that aligns the discrepant perspectives of the higher education and business sectors. The managerial tool developed in the study is original and usable by policymakers and the business sector, and it is subject to further development.


Job seekers have to face intense competition to get the expected job in the current job market of Bangladesh. A plethora of job seekers especially business graduates are coming to the job markets having MBA degrees but fails or takes longer time to get expected jobs since employability skills are the prime requirement for every contemporary organization. The study aims to investigate the weaknesses in the employability skills of business graduates in Bangladesh and suggest some effective measures to curtail those weaknesses. A self-administered survey instrument developed, some items deleted after analysis, and some items revised to get a concrete one. This questionnaire sent to 300 students who already graduated with an MBA degree and are trying to get expected jobs. Among them, 280 usable responses collected and used as the sample in this study. The ranking method and proportion analysis used for analyzing the collected data. The findings revealed that the business graduates of Bangladesh possessed significant lacking employability skills as inadequate team-working skills, lack of communication and interpersonal skills, unable to learn and adapt to the environment, lack of negotiation skills, and shortage of organizing skills. Moreover, this study suggested some measures like providing proper training, arranging case competitions and job fairs, the mitigating gap between the schooling system and market demands, re-arranging the business curriculum, and so on for taking consideration by concerned authorities to solve the identified weaknesses.


2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Jackson

AbstractAustralian business graduates are deemed by industry as not being ‘job ready’ (BCA 2006; BIHECC 2007), lacking the skills required to successfully apply disciplinary knowledge and add value to our globalised, knowledge economy. There exists a lack of empirical evidence and professional input for business schools on profiling the attributes valued by industry. This is especially true for those majoring in management who are consistently overshadowed by their more commercially attractive postgraduate counterparts. In a bid to satisfy industry demands, the most common response among Australian business schools are the development of employability skills and enhanced involvement of industry professionals in curricula content and design, both subject to potential failings and criticism. This review of business school efforts to bridge the skills gap also examines the role, function and impact of undergraduate management education, a research area significantly overlooked in recent years.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 294-299
Author(s):  
R Mary Metilda ◽  
Neena P.C.

This paper analyzes the perceptions of the employer on how job fit is fresh business school graduates in the Indian business scenario. The responses of employers on skills considered in the recruitment of management graduates, matching to their business profile as well as job profiles, were compared with the actual skill set of fresh MBAs inducted from the higher education sector. This study also investigated the level of importance of skills required by a new business graduate from the employer’s expectations of different sectors. A ‘skill gap’ between actual and expected was identified from these findings and its impact will be an eye opener for Business education programs. This is a working paper based on classification of employability skills based on Holland’s Job-fit theory. The study reveals that there is substantial dissatisfaction with the quality of business graduates in the practical level. The survey said 86 percent of employers concurred that MBA-hires doesn’t create much value for their companies in their first few years of their career stage. This confirms the finding that the skill set of fresh managers is inadequate. There will be drastic changes in the Job market and the need of the skill sets may vary again and again. The results of this study make a valuable contribution to the field of career development/guidance, individual students of business studies, employers, and higher education institutions.Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 3, Issue-4: 294-299


Author(s):  
Mukhtar Alhashimi ◽  
Anjum Razzaque

Managers claim that fresh graduates are unequipped to meet market demands. This chapter investigates the perception of employers in retail Islamic banks of Bahrain on newly graduated business students. The Singaporean Model of Employability Skills was implemented to ascertain the mean ratings of employability skills in terms of their importance, and the competency of business graduates. This deductive research approach initiated with a literature review that identifies research gap and a model which was tested via a self-administration adopted survey by collected data from 220 senior employees at retail Islamic banks of Bahrain. The systematic of convenience sampling technique was used in selecting 161 samples and the researcher received only 85 completed questionnaire forms. Findings initiate that employers appreciated the importance of teamwork, risk management, and decision-making skills. Their main recommendation was that employers should establish a durable bond with universities to enhance employability skills.


Author(s):  
K. M. V. Sachitra ◽  
U. A. Kumara

Aims: The purpose of this study is to examine the nature of employability of the graduates receiving external management degrees in the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Study Design:  The study used past three years’ data gathered at the Convocation days held in year 2015, 2016 and 2017. It included graduates’ demographic characteristics, employability and the nature of jobs engaged. Results: The study provided quantitative results about the employability of external degree holders and the results showed that the employability rate of external degree holders was relatively high compared with the employability rate of the management graduate in Sri Lanka at the date of convocation. On the basis of findings, the study proves that business graduates possess average levels of employability skills in terms of technology and communication skills. Conclusion: Although the results exemplify the initial step towards a description of employability of external degree holders, they shed light in terms of future development of the management external degree programmes. Presently, Sri Lanka meets the management employment expected, but in the future, management graduates need to realize that education is not all about to attain good marks but to explore and develop personal capabilities.


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