HomeAbstract of 6th-icbmfRelationship Between Perceived Employability and Employability Skills and Attributes of Business Graduates

Relationship Between Perceived Employability and Employability Skills and Attributes of Business Graduates

Proceedings of The 6th International Conference on Business, Management and Finance

Year: 2023

DOI:

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Relationship Between Perceived Employability and Employability Skills and Attributes of Business Graduates

Wise Mainga, Marlo Murphy-Braynen, Marcia Seymour Miles, Daniel Thompson, Bernadette Robins

 

 

 

ABSTRACT: 

Research has identified the importance of perceived employability in enhancing new graduates’ jobs search and in finding initial employment. Students with high perceived employability are likely to have high self-confidence and perseverance in job search, and that may lead to early initial employment post-graduation. Perceived employability affects how new graduating students approach competitive and congested labour markets and is seen as one of the most important predictor of a new graduate getting and retaining a job. However, no studies have examined the relationship between perceived employability and disaggregated employability skills and attributes. This study examines the above relationship, arguing that not all employability or soft skills have an equal impact on perceived employability. Our study identifies a specific group of employability skills and attributes that are seen to be significant predictors of Perceived employability. These are: graduating students’ multidisciplinary decision-making skills, self-efficacy, perseverance & proactivity, enhancing female students’ confidence in job search, and on universities widening their application of integrative pedagogies in their degree programmes. For new graduates, getting a job early is one of the most visible and important achievements of investing resources in university education. For universities that have adopted graduate employability as one of their missions, they are encouraged to foster the development of above-mentioned predictors of perceived employability in graduating business students.

keywords: Perceived employability, multi-disciplinary decision-making skills, self-efficacy, perseverance & proactivity, integrative pedagogies, business students