9th International Conference on Sri Lanka Studies Full Paper Number 029

Employer Needs and Graduate Skills: The Gap between Employer Expectations and Job Expectations of Sri Lankan University Graduates

Susima Weligamage Sununta Siengthai

Address for Correspondence School of Management , Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. Email: susimaw@hotmail.com

Paper submitted for the 9th International conference on Sri Lanka Studies, 28th 30th November 2003, Matara, Sri Lanka

Employer Needs and Graduate Skills: The Gap between Employer Expectations and Job Expectations of Sri Lankan University Graduates1
Susima Weligamage2,3 and Sununta Siengthai2

Abstract
Graduate Unemployment is considered an important social problem in Sri Lanka. Attempts by many governments in the past to bring a sound solution to the problem have failed. Today, the private sector is becoming the dominant player in the economy. However, it is widely observed that the current education and training system does not produce graduates to meet the private sector needs. This study was conducted with the objectives of identifying university graduates' job expectations, factors affecting their job expectations and identifying employers' needs from university graduates. The study attempts to find the nature of the gap between employers' expectations of skills and job expectations of graduates from Sri Lankan universities to make recommendations for stakeholders of the problem. Data for the study were gathered through structured interviews and surveys of selected sample of (better specify the exact number of responses from each sample category here) employers, unemployed graduates, employed graduates, current university students and university faculty members. Survey questions were designed to obtain information on perceptions and attitudes of sample respondents based on the determinants identified from the literature review. Findings reveal that possessions of university graduates of key skills sought by employers are lacking. Universities do not generate the required labor skills for the society and Undergraduates lack of knowledge about reality of the labour market situation. This skill mismatch leads to more number of unemployable graduates in the economy. Thus, all stakeholders: the government, the university system administrators, employers and graduates themselves must all endeavor to find a solution to this gap. 1. Introduction Sri Lanka is a developing nation with a population of 19 million and per-capita GNP of US$ 900. The structure of the economy in 1950 was dominated by agriculture. Liberalized policy regime introduced in 1977 contributed to the growth of the manufacturing sector and today, the countries exports comprise mainly of manufactured exports. The country also faces many economic problems such as increasing balance of payments deficit, unemployment and decreasing foreign reserves situation. Unemployment problem of the country has been addressed partly by the industrialization process that generated many opportunities for unskilled labor. However, graduate
Paper to be presented at the 9th International Conference on Sri Lankan Studies, 28th-30th November 2003, Matara, Sri Lanka.
2
3

School of Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand Corresponding author, E-mail susimaw@hotmail.com

unemployment in Sri Lanka has been a serious problem for nearly three decades. The problem of unemployment of graduates began in the latter part of the sixties and continues to this day despite the efforts of successive governments to address the problem. It is estimated that around 20,000 graduates are jobless today in Sri Lanka (Samarasinghe, 2003). Public sector was the conventional employer for the large majority of university graduates for many years. Since economic liberalization and subsequent structural adjustments, the sectors demand for graduates began to decline. Public service is experiencing resource constraints to generate employment due to lack of funding and lack of organizational planning while many government-owned business entities were privatized. Today, private sector is becoming the dominant player in the economy and expected to generate employment opportunities. The aim of this research is to investigate the nature of the gap between employer expectations of skills and job expectations of graduates from Sri Lankan universities. The specific objectives of the study are to identify job expectations of graduates and undergraduates; factors that affect their job expectations; employer needs and expectations; gap of expectations between the employers and graduates. Thus the research problem is to identify what graduates expect of their jobs, what skills they want to improve and how these expectations can be compared to the needs and expectations of the job markets.
1.1. Definitions
1.1.1.Employer Needs

Employers normally give their comments on the skills they are looking for in new employees. The following are some of the most common skills and their definitions expected from their new employees (Employers needs, Career services, 2002 Available online) 1. Time Management: The ability to manage several tasks at once, to set priorities and allocate time effectively in order to meet multiple deadlines. 2. Self-Understanding: The ability to know about strengths and personal characteristics. 3. Learning Skills: The ability to learn effectively from a wide range of sources including competencies such as learning what matters, organizing information and critical thinking. 4. Teamwork Skills: The ability to work effectively as a member of a team and to understand the dynamics that make teams successful. 5. Leadership Skills: The ability to lead, influence and motivate others. 6. Problem Solving: The ability to identify, prioritize and solve problems. The ability to ask the right questions, sort out the many facets of the problem and determine possible solutions. 7. Working with Diversity: The ability to respect and tolerate different points of view, values and philosophies of life and deal constructively with people who differ from yourself.

8. Career Planning: The ability to manage your career in a constantly changing world of work. 9. Understanding Workplace: The ability to grasp the underlying values of the workplace, its dynamics and expectations. 10. Risk Assessment Management: The ability to assess alternative courses of action in terms of their consequences and associated risks and to identify alternative ways to reduce inherent risk. 1.1.2. Skills University of Sydney (1997) believes that graduates should be more employable, more able to cope with change and more developed as people. In specific terms, graduates of any faculty, board of studies or college of the university should have following skills shown in the Table 1.
Table 1: Graduate Skills and Attributes Expected by the University of Sydney

Skills

Knowledge skills

Thinking skills

Graduates should (a) Have a body of knowledge in the field(s) studied; (b) Be able to apply theory to practice in familiar and unfamiliar situations; (c) Be able to identify, access, organize and communicate knowledge in both written and oral English; (d) Have an appreciation of the requirements and characteristics of scholarship and research; and (e) Have the ability to use appropriate technologies in furthering all of the above. (a) Be able to exercise critical judgment; (b) Be capable of rigorous and independent thinking; (c) Be able to account for their decisions; (d) Be realistic self evaluators; (e) Adopt a problem solving approach; and (f) Be creative and imaginative thinkers.

(a) The capacity for and a commitment to life-long learning; (b) The ability to plan and achieve goals in both personal and the professional spheres; (c) The ability to work with others. (a) Strive for tolerance and integrity; and Personal (b) Acknowledge their personal responsibility for: attributes their own value judgments; and (c) Their ethical behavior towards others. (a) Be able to use information technology for professional and personal development; and, where appropriate, be able to do following: (i) Collect, correlate, display, analyze and report observations; Practical skills (ii) Apply experimentally-obtained results to new situations; Personal skills

(iii) Test hypotheses experimentally; and (iv) Apply technical skills appropriate to their discipline. Source: Generic Attributes of Graduates of the University of Sydney (1997) Research paper Jerzy (2000) discussed student and employer expectations from higher education. The author points out that young people would like to position themselves in society and most of them think of the university studies as a good way to offer them good job opportunities. Sometimes they look for modern field of studies without analyzing job (employment) market prospect. On the other hand, universities are responsible in finding out answers for some key questions regarding the mission and the future strategy as well as the present status of their alumni. Questions considered as important by the authors are given below; while the importance given to qualities by students and employers according to their perceptions are given in Table 2. Questions for universities 1.What is the university mission? 2. Do they have the strategy for next 10, 20, 50 years? 3. What is the position of the university graduates? 4. Does the university possess the promotional strategies of their own graduates? 5. In which way the university graduates are perceived in the employment market? 6. Are graduates attractive employees for the potential employers? 7. What kind of activities do both students and employers expect? Table 2: Students and Employers Perception of the Important Qualities Students Perception Order Employers Perception Self-dependence 1 Honesty Initiative 2 Responsibility Responsibility 3 Motivation Motivation 4 Loyalty Wish to accept a challenge 5 Self-dependence Wish to learn and self-education (self6 Wish to learn and self-education (selfimprovement) improvement) Honesty 7 Initiative Inquiring disposition 8 Maturity Tolerance 9 Wish to accept a challenge Maturity 10 Inquiring disposition Loyalty 11 Tolerance Cultural sensibility 12 Cultural sensibility Patriotism 13 Patriotism Source: Jerzy (2000) Student and Employer Expectations Research Paper 1.2 International Perspectives on Employability Little (2003), with advice from ESECT and LTSN Generic Center colleagues, presented employability in an international perspective. The purpose aimed to learn lessons in the

context of current employability developments in the UK. It is based on information and data from a number of different countries. Employability may be understood in terms of old discussions that have become separated from modern thinking. For example, Barnett (1994, 2003) implied the employability and the promotion of key or core skills are similar a set of achievements, understanding and personal attributes that make individuals more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations. Commenting on current issues of graduate employment and work in France, Paul and Murdoch (2000) noted that recent studies have tended to concentrate on the latter focus. In the Netherlands, these same shifts in emphasis have become apparent in research findings in the last decade (Allen, Boezerooy, de Weert, van der Velden, 2000). It is revealed in the Euro-Japan Study that in mainland Europe the close linkages between field of study and subsequent specific occupation existed traditionally. However, there are now some signs that the emphasis may be shifting towards the role of more general knowledge, attitudes and social skills. Table 3 lists the ten most highly rated possessed competencies by the UK, European and Japanese graduates at the time of graduation.
Table 3: Top Ten Competences as Listed by European and Japanese Graduates

UK 1 Learning abilities 2 Working independently 3 Written communication skills 4 Working in a team 5 Working under pressure 6 Accuracy, attention to detail 7 Power of concentration 8 Oral communication skills

Europe 1 Learning abilities 2 Power of concentration 3 Working independently 4 Written communication skills 5 Loyalty, integrity 6 Field-specific theoretical knowledge 7 Getting personally involved 8 Critical thinking

Japan 1 Loyalty, integrity 2 Power of concentration 3 Adaptability 4 Getting personally involved 5 Learning abilities 6. Field-specific theoretical knowledge 7 Fitness for work 8 Initiative

9 Problem-solving ability 9 Adaptability 9 Tolerance 10 = Initiative, 10 Tolerance 10 Working in a team 10 = Adaptability 10 = Tolerance Source: Brenda Little et al, The international perspectives on employability A briefing paper. (2003) P.6 A study by Blasko (2002) looked at the pattern of possession of five key skills among graduates from seven countries. Skills considered in the study are, oral and written communication skills, computer skills, ability to work in a team, problem solving, learning

abilities/reflective thinking, and assessing ones own work. The average ratings by each country for these skills are shown in Table 4 (These ratings are graduates own average ratings, where 5 indicates to a great extent and 1 indicates not at all) Table 4: Key Skills Possessed by Country Skills Country Communication Computing skills 4.0 3.2 3.9 3.0 3.5 2.7 3.7 3.0 3.7 3.2 3.8 2.9 4.0 2.9 3.8 3.0 Team work 3.8 3.4 3.5 3.4 3.8 4.0 4.3 3.7 Improving own Problem performance solving 4.0 3.8 4.0 3.6 3.7 3.5 3.8 3.6 3.7 3.7 4.1 3.8 4.0 4.0 3.9 3.7

UK Austria France Germany Netherlands Norway Sweden Mean overall Source: Brenda Little et al, The international perspectives on employability A briefing paper. (2003) P.9 Computing skills are generally perceived as the least important skill to be acquired in the UK and in six other European countries. Communication skills and improving own performance were considered as the most important by respondents in all the countries.

2.Unversity Education and Labour Market conditions

2.1. University Education

The twelve conventional universities admit students into the undergraduate programs directly from the senior secondary schools and provide undergraduate education without levying fees. These universities may also conduct fee-levying courses such as bachelors degree programs for external students and postgraduate programs. The Open University offers a very wide variety of fees levying programs of study and the number of students registered currently stands approximately at 18,500. Education expenses has been financed and provided predominantly by the government. Available statistics indicate that the government expenditure on university education is 1.5 percent of government expenses and 0.5 percent of the Gross National Product (GNP). The same important higher educational data during 1998-2002 are shown in Table 5.
Table 5: Higher Educational Data

Number of Universities

1998 12

1999 12

2000 13

2001 13

2002 13

Number of University students New admissions to University Percentage of GNP- HE Percentage of Government Expenditure Student Teacher Ratio Graduate out put- First degree Source: University Grants Commission

38,594 10,779 0.54 1.92 12.1 7,834

41,584 11,309 0.48 1.74 13.49 8,232

48,296 11,805 0.46 1.59 14.1 9,374

48,061 11,962 0.50 1.66 14.5 8,896

48,666 12,144 N/A N/A 14.2 N/A

2.2.Challenges Facing University Education Sri Lanka university educational system has to be re-oriented to meet the challenges of future economic development. Knowledge, skills, and talent will be crucial factors for growth in the future, while innovation and willingness to change will be driving forces. The system needs to be re-structured, incorporate modern quality standard, improving access to modern teaching techniques and introduce market-oriented program. Also the expanding opportunities available, in line with labour market requirements. A high unemployment and underemployment rate among university graduates points to a mismatch between supply and demand conditions for graduate employment, reflecting a supply driven education system with relevance to labour market conditions. According to rapid technological change in the world, societies are getting integrated through a process of globalization and that societies are becoming increasingly knowledge- based. Still, there is a government monopoly in the higher educational system in Sri Lanka. Its another significant challenge for the future. Possibility for privatization is the main challenge for the education. Privatization in higher education can improve the whole system . It is also the big challenge for the public educational system (is this what you want to say here?) to compete with private universities and lead to more competitive educational system. Insufficient opportunities for higher education create serious economic, social and political problems and could also lead to social unrest among youth in the country. The relatively high enrolment in secondary education exerts intense pressure for the very limited places available in universities, which are almost entirely controlled by the government. In the absence of sufficient funds with the state to expand tertiary education opportunities in the country, the emergence of the private sector as a provider of higher educational opportunities have now become inevitable. Due to lack of opportunities within the country, a large number of students enrolled for various courses overseas at a very high cost. 2.3. Unemployment situation Sri Lankas unemployment has historically been a very sensitive issue. Sri Lanka' economy s has grown healthily at an average of 5 percent over the last two decades; economically active persons 9.1 percent are unemployed in 2002. Also the incidence of unemployment is relatively high among those in the age group 15 to 24 and low in older age groups. It is also highly concentrated among educated youth. The continuation of inadequate investments and the consequential low economic growth, which have resulted in an inability to create

sufficient job opportunities to all employment aspirants in the labour force, were the major reasons for the continuation of high unemployment. Unemployment among educated youth underlines the existing mismatch between the educational system and the demand for labour skills. Therefore, addressing hindrances relating to the labour demand side as well as the labour supply side is essential to reduce unemployment and underemployment on a sustainable basis. More than fifty percent (51.6%) of the unemployed persons have attained educational qualifications equivalent to G.C.E. (O/L) or above. The proportion of unemployed females with educational attainment G.C.E. (A/L) and above is considerably higher as compared with males. (The proportion is 16.6 percent for males and 40.8 for females) The highest proportion of unemployed persons is recorded under the level of education group, grade 5 - 9 in both sectors. Table 6 shows the unemployment rate by level of education and unemployment population by level of education in 2002 third quarter. It shows the majority (43%) of the unemployed persons have attained education only up to grade 9 as reported in the third quarter 2002. The number of unemployed persons with G.C.E (A/L) & above has increased from 130,724 to 181,192 during the period from year 2000 to third quarter 2002. This is a 39 percent increase. Of the 181,192 unemployed persons with G.C.E (A/L) and above, nearly 70 percent (126,000) are females. Table 6: Unemployment Rates by Level of Education Below Gr.5-9 G.C.E. G.C.E (A/L) Gr.5 (O/L) & Above Both 9.1 2.2 8.4 13.1 17.3 Male 7.1 2.4 7.4 9.9 10.6 Female 13.2 1.9 10.8 19.3 23.9 Source: Department of Census and Statistics (2003) Quarterly Report of the Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey There is graduate unemployment in Sri Lankan economy even when no more than three percent of an age cohort gains university level education. The latest news show among graduates below 25 years, 58 percent are unemployed, while among graduates aged 25-30, 35 percent are unemployed. According to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka survey, there are about 11,740 unemployed graduates in 1996. Also university grants commission information shows there are around 22,000 unemployed graduates in 2002. It is timely to ask questions such as: Why is the graduate unemployment so high? Is it because of the quality and economic or social relevance of the university programmes? It is time to search and find answers to such questions. Figure 3.7 shows the historical data for currently employed and unemployed persons by educational level (percentage) of G.C.E. (A/L) & above. Private sector plays its role as a main actor in the labour market through its generation of labour market demand for persons qualified in computer science, finance, management and marketing with a sound knowledge of English. Normally every year around 8000 graduate students completed their studies and enter to the competitive labour market. The central Sex Total

bank data shows the total number of graduate students and faculty-wise graduate students year 2001.The highest numbers of students are graduating from Faculty of Arts -oriental studies and Faculty of Management-commerce. Approximately 5,000 graduate students enter into the labour market from these two faculties.
2.5. Solution for Graduate Unemployment problem (1960- 2003)

Graduate unemployment problem is not a newly started problem in Sri Lanka and it was started early 1960s. In 1969, government was forced to launch graduate placement schemes and in 1969 the Graduate employment bureau was established to handle graduate placements. The Job Bank was launched in 1977 and all public sector vacancies were supposed to be filled entirely with those registered with the job bank. In 1990, the Government launched the unemployed graduate employment scheme (UGES); to place unemployment graduates in the private sector for training. In 1994, UGES Scheme was changed as Graduate Employment Training Scheme (GETS). Still unemployment among newly graduate students was much higher and the government failed to solve this problem. Currently one of main organization involved in this problem called Tharuna Aruna Institute. Tharuna Aruna was a key project launched by the government to assist unemployed graduates to find jobs and improve their practical skills. The scheme is funded by the government and is managed by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka, Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka and Ceylon National Chamber of Industries. 3. Research Methodology This research was conducted using the designed research framework and Primary and secondary data. As the study aims to identify a gap between the attitudes of two concerned groups, employers and prospective employees, samples of respondents were selected from these groups. As university faculty is responsible in preparing undergraduates for the job market, seeking their attitudes regarding the present situation is also needed. This study targets three main groups of individuals namely, 1. Employers recruiting graduates 2. Undergraduate students- who are willing to get jobs in the future 3. University faculty members- who are responsible for developing skilled graduates for the society. In addition, to get some additional knowledge for the research, information was gathered from unemployed graduates and currently employed graduates. This information has been useful to understand their views about the skills and expectations of university graduates. Mainly, this research focus on Management students and twelve out of 13 Sri Lankan universities offer courses in commerce and management. Four of these universities are newly established and absorbs lesser students than others. Three universities, Kelaniya, Sri Jayawardenapurea and Ruhuna account collectively for about 60% of students admitted to their programme. Twenty-five students were selected randomly from each of the three

selected universities. Total of 30 faculty members from these three universities were also selected. A group of recent graduates from these three universities who are either employed or presently unemployed were also included in the study. Employers who placed advertisements in the national press calling for recruitment were the target group for the employer category. Questionnaires were developed based on the knowledge gained from the past studies to gather perception of different groups on the expected attributes. Separate questionnaires were developed for each category under the study.
3.1. Key Variables

Based on the literature review, the two sets of variables presented in Table 7 were identified and included in the study. Table 7: Key Variables on Which Information Was Collected Expectations /Needs Attributes Knowledge Communication Scheduling Skills Leading Organizing Experience Decision-making Motivating Personal factors Problem solving Learning Social factors Understanding Arbitrating Other Forecasting Creative thinking Participating It is expected that structured questionnaires make it convenient for respondents to choose the most suitable answers. This also avoids generating a large amount of heterogeneous information. Measurements of the importance of expectations and needs were based on a scale from 1-5 with increasing values assigned to attribute/expectation with increasing importance. Also questions included ranking of attributes and perception on statements. Questions elated to the curriculum of undergraduate degree program were also included. From the literature review, the conceptual framework for this study has been formulated. Understanding the gap between employers needs and graduate expectation is the main focus on this study. Module shows the four parties involving in this situation as employers (company), universities, and government and undergraduate students. Some factors have been considered for developing this module. These factors are related to the employer needs expectations and also graduate skills. The framework developed in this study aims at four stages. The first stage is to identify job expectations of students, to identify their skills, to identify the factors affecting their employment. The second stage is to identify the employer needs and their expectation from graduates. In the third stage is to identify the gap between first and second stage. The final stage is to give the recommendations for improving university curriculum and developing graduate skills to match the gap.

On the basis of the information gathered from the field research, analysis was conducted to summarize the opinions of respondents on the issues a consideration and describe the situation in employers expectations and skills that they find as lacking of current graduates to satisfy these needs. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for windows was used to do statistical calculation and data analysis and detailed analysis also been use the data analysis. 3.2. Limitations The study investigates a problem related to the macro-economy. There are thirteen universities situated around Sri Lanka and each university has about at least six faculties. Due to the time consideration and costs of field investigations, the study was conducted in management faculties of three universities. Students in all universities show similar socioeconomic background, as the admissions criteria are the same for all. However, students selected are from management faculties and hence the findings are more relevant to the perspectives of students studying in management faculties. Another limitation of the study is that limited number of employers agreed to participate in the interviews. Corporate sector in Sri Lanka are generally unwilling to reveal information to outsiders. Many employers declined to participate in the study on the ground of lack of available time to participate in the interviews. 4.Survey Findings
4.1. Working Organizations

Questions were designed to get information about the present working organizations of employed graduates or the nature of organization expects to work in the future of the undergraduates. Information on the sector and the type of organizations were derived. Unemployed graduates were asked the question based on the kind of organization to which they have applied for after graduating. Types of organizations included were the private sector, government sector and international organization. Findings are shown in Table 11. According to the Table 8, 72 percent of employed graduates currently work in private sector organizations and the rest of them work in the government sector. Majority of the undergraduate students expect to work in the private sector organizations after their graduation. 45 percent of students expect to work in the government sector while only 2.7 percent of the students expect to work in international organization. All unemployed graduates have applied for jobs in the government sector, 91.3 percent applied for private sector jobs while only one respondent among unemployed graduates had applied for a job in an international organization. Table 8: Type of Working /Preferred Organization Type of Organization Private Government International

Category Employed Graduate Undergraduate Student Unemployed Graduates % applied for Source: Survey data

72.2 52.0 91.3

27.8 45.3 100.0

0 2.7 4.3

4.2. Salary Expectation Information on monthly salary expectation of each respondent was gathered through a multiple-choice question. Six salary classes were defined according to the salaries available in the market. Employed graduates were asked about their current salary and the expected salary. Unemployed graduates and undergraduates were asked to state the future salary that they would expect from their employers. Findings are shown in Table 9. Table 9: Salary Earning and Expectations Salary Employers Employed Employed Category Graduate Graduate Graduate CurrencySalary Salary Salary Sri Lankan RS Payment Earning % Expectation % Per Month % Over 50,000 25,000-50,000 15,000-25,000 7 5 44 10,000-15,000 53 39 56 5,000 -10,000 40 56 Less than 5,000 Source: Survey Data Undergraduate Unemployed Salary Graduate Expectation % Salary Expectation % 7 16 44 13 25 65 8 22 -

Fifty six percent of employed graduates are currently getting monthly salaries in the range of Rs. 5,000 10,000, while 39 percent is getting salaries in the range of Rs. 10,000 15,000. Only 5 percent of employed graduate are getting salaries over Rs. 15,000 while none of the graduates in the sample is getting salaries over Rs. 25,000. Majority of the graduates are however, not satisfied with the present salary they are drawing. All employed graduates except the one in the salary band of 15,000-25,000 indicated that they should move one level up in the salary band structure proposed in the survey. Salary expectation of unemployed graduates also shows similarities with the pattern expressed by employed graduate expectations. Fifty-six percent of unemployed graduate expecting monthly salaries in the range of Rs 10,000-15,000 from their future job and 34 percent of them expecting monthly salaries from Rs. 15,000- 25,000. Undergraduate student salary expectation is somewhat different from graduates. Forty-four percent of them are expecting monthly salaries of Rs. 15,000- 25,000. This is comparable to the minimum salary expected by graduates. Twenty-three percent of them are expecting over 25,000 Rs per month from the job.

Information on monthly salary paid by the companies was gathered through a multiplechoice question. Six salary categories were defined according to the salaries available in the market. Employers were asked to state the salary that normally they paid for their employees. The modal salary paid is in the Rs. 15,000-25,000 category. This is one level below the modal expectation of undergraduates but tallied with that of employed graduates and unemployed graduates. This shows that employed graduates and unemployed graduates are aware of what is happening in the market 4.3. Survey Data Analysis
4.3.1 Importance of Different Factors Expected from Employment

Respondents expressed the importance of nine selected factors that they expect from a job. Mean values expressed by study group for each factor and rank of importance of each factor according to the opinion of each study group is given in Table10.These ranks were used to test the statistical significance of the opinion of different groups.
Table 10: Mean Values and Rank Assigned on the Importance Of Different Factors

Factor

Employed graduates Mean Rank 9.0 6.0 8.0 7.0 1.0 4.0 5.0 2.0 3.0

Sample groups Unemployed graduates Mean Rank 4.478 4.435 4.478 4.217 1.783 3.304 3.783 2.826 2.957 8.5 7.0 8.5 6.0 1.0 4.0 5.0 2.0 3.0

Undergraduates Mean 4.533 3.853 4.373 4.347 2.813 4.427 4.427 3.933 3.893 Rank 9.0 2.0 6.0 5.0 1.0 7.5 7.5 4.0 3.0

Advance Knowledge 4.556 Good reputation 4.111 Career opportunity 4.389 High salary 4.167 Leisure 2.111 Job security 3.722 Good working condition 4.056 Friendly Bosses 2.278 Fair treatment 2.778 1= Least Important, 9 = Most Important

All three groups consider leisure as the least important factor that retains them in the job. Advanced knowledge is a determinant for all three groups. For several others, three groups have given a somewhat different importance. Employed Graduates and unemployed graduates consider career opportunity, high salary and good reputation in the job as important factors that make them to be in the job. These two groups consider friendly bosses and fair treatment as less important factors. The above table showed the Undergraduate expectations different from the employed and unemployed graduate expectations. Undergraduates consider job security and good working conditions also as important factors that retain them in the job. It means that they consider

mostly stability of jobs and job security. Also, they do not consider good reputation as an important factor as graduates do. 4.3.4 Reason for Securing the Job Question on the reasons for securing the job basically focused on five-sample groups and questions were designed to know about five samples different views about securing the job in the future. For employed graduates, questions were designed to know about important factors for securing a job, undergraduate view of important factors that they think they can get a good job in the future, unemployed graduate view of which factors that they lack to get the job, faculty members view of important factors, their undergraduates should have to get the job in the future and employers view on important expectations from their employees. These factors were divided into five main groups as experience, knowledge, skills, personal factors and social factors. According to mean values expressed by study group for each factor, rank are presented in Table 11. Table 11: Rank on the Factors for Securing the Job Sample Groups
Employed Graduates Unemployed Graduates

Factor

Experience Professional 6 14 13 9.5 4 Experience Practical experience 10 12.5 12 6 9 Knowledge General Knowledge 12 9.5 6 7.5 13 Specialized 7 9.5 7 7.5 7.5 Knowledge Education background 14 7 14 9.5 7.5 Skills Computer skills 8 12.5 11 11 10.5 Language Skills 9 11 10 12 10.5 Communication Skills 11 8 9 13 14 Personal Factors Personality 13 4 8 14 12 Age 4 6 4 5 6 Health 3 2 5 4 5 Gender 2 1 1 2.5 1 Marital status 1 3 2 2.5 2 Social Factors Good relationship 5 5 3 1 3 (Family Background) 1 = Least Important Factor, 14= Most Important Factor The five groups views show difference according to each groups factor ranking. Employed graduates and undergraduates consider most important factor for securing the job as educational background. Unemployed graduate view was that the most important factor and

Under Graduates

Faculty Members

Employers

reason for their being unemployed is that they lack of the professional experience. Faculty members consider personality as the most important factor to secure the job in future for their students. This is viewed from employees side and employers most important expected factor is communication skills. All the five groups considered the social factors other than personality as the least important factors to secure the job in the future and no more effect from these factors to get the job in the market. Employers, employed graduate and faculties rank personality as higher rank while undergraduate, unemployed graduate didnt consider personality as important. This finding shows the gap between employer expectation and future employees perception. This consideration of personality as an important factor and its not being recognized by unemployed graduates and undergraduates lead to important findings. As undergraduates are in an important stage of their personality development and neglect of such important aspect may seriously affect their future. On the other hand, unemployed graduates who do not give personality a consideration may represent a sub-set of undergraduates who did not recognize the importance of developing their personality during their early days of career. Employers prospective on six most important expectation factors they considered when recurring the graduate ranked as communication skills, General knowledge, personality, computer skills, language skills and practical experience. They considered educational background after those six factors. Unemployed graduates considered the main factors for their unemployment as lack of professional experience, practical experience and computer skills, general knowledge and special knowledge. Employers do not consider professional experience or special knowledge from the graduates. It should be noted that the general knowledge acquisition is a personal strategy of any individual. It is acquired through the resources of the immediate environment and through their time investment. However, there can be differences of the immediate environments and time commitments to other activities that drive an individual away from gaining the optimal quantity of general knowledge. Employed graduates ranking is similar to those of employers. They considered most important factors to get the job as personality, general knowledge, computer skill, language knowledge, practical experience and communication skills with the educational background. It shows about employees having much understanding about their employers needs. From the faculty members view computer skills, language skills, communication skills and educational background are the most important factors for graduates to secure the job in the future. 4.3.5 Relevance of Present Programs for Future Job Situation Undergraduates and faculty members perception and ideas about what they can gain from present program are expressed in term of the importance of 13 selected factors. Mean values expressed by the groups for each factor and rank of importance of each factor according to the opinion of each study group is given in Table 12.

Undergraduates mention important factors they considered as professional experience, practical experience, language skills, computer skills and communication skills as securing the job in the future. They strongly agree that they can gain theoretical knowledge and good education from the present university program and somewhat agree on language proficiency and general knowledge. They agree they cannot gain more computer knowledge, practical experience and professional experience from the present system. Faculty members also consider undergraduate can gain more theoretical knowledge, good education, language proficiency and specialized knowledge from the university. Undergraduate can gain less practical experience and computer knowledge. Table 12: Mean Value and Rank for Relevance of Present Programs for Future Job Situation Sample Groups Undergraduates Faculty Members Factor Mean Value Rank Mean Rank Value Theoretical knowledge 4.587 13 4.733 13 Professional experience 1.653 3 2.000 2 Practical experience 1.507 1.5 2.300 3 General knowledge 2.720 8 2.967 5 Computer skills 2.707 7 3.000 6 Specialized knowledge 2.773 9 3.267 8 Language proficiency 3.067 10 3.333 9 Research skills 3.213 11 3.433 11 Other experience 2.520 5 2.733 4 Education background 4.373 12 4.100 12 Company projects 1.507 1.5 1.667 1 Communication skills 2.627 6 3.167 7 Presentation skills 2.280 4 3.367 10 1= Least, 13=Most Asking other factors they can gain from the present system, both groups mentioned that they could gain research skills from the university. Both undergraduate and faculty members' view on doing the company project during the present program takes low rank. It shows the relationship between companies and university is in a less viable relationship and student missing the chance to deal with companies to do the company project and understanding the practical problem solving situations. Communication and presentation skills also were low in importance. Time availability of specific skills development in the universities, undergraduate and faculty members express the importance of selected skills as IT skills, presentation skills, practical experience, field survey, small research and company visit. Both groups'perception is similar and groups mentioned less time availability for gaining practical experience, field surveys and company visit. Respondents expressed the time availability for computer skills development less than two hours per week.

4.3.6 Specific Skills and Training Respondents expressed the importance of skills and attribute requirement for the graduate in the current labour market and help them to get the job easily. The questionnaire is designed to investigate on the undergraduates, employed graduates, unemployed graduates and faculty members perception about training needs for specific attributes and skills. Also considered are the employers expectations of skills and attributes from the university graduates and their perception about graduate skills. According to mean value expressed by study group for each skill, rank of importance of each factor according to the opinion of each study group is given in Table 13. Table 13: Rank Assigned on the Specific Skills and Training Sample Groups Employed Unemployed Under Faculty Factor Communication 12 5.5 Leading 7 3.5 Decision-making 1 10.5 Participating 3 7 Forecasting 5 1.5 Motivating 9.5 8.5 Problem solving 3 8.5 Scheduling 7 13 Organizing 3 5.5 Learning 11 10.5 Understanding 9.5 3.5 Arbitrating 7 1.5 Creative thinking 13 12 1=Strongly Disagree, 13= Strongly Agree
Graduates Graduates Graduates

1 6.5 9.5 3.5 2 5 11 12 3.5 8 9.5 13 6.5

Members

Employers

1 11.5 8.5 10 3 7 2 5 4 13 11.5 6 8.5

1 5.5 2 3.5 7 9 3.5 10.5 10.5 10.5 12.5 5.5 8

Employers view that graduates lack of communication skills, leading skills, participating skills, decision-making skills, problem solving skills, forecasting and creative thinking. They are, however, satisfied with the graduates understanding, organizing, learning, scheduling and motivating skills. Training is very important for the success in future job market and most of them strongly agree to develop the skills. Data showed the graduate and the faculty views on training of graduates in each attribute and it shows differences from graduate expectation for training needs. Comparing the three groups, as employees, undergraduates and unemployed graduates perception of training needs to develop their skill to fulfill the employers needs which are different from one to another. Employed graduates have the opinion that undergraduates need training to develop communication skills, creative thinking, learning, motivation and understanding skills. They

did not expect training for the undergraduate levels in decision-making, participating, forecasting, problem solving and leading. Unemployed graduates consider need of undergraduates to train in decision-making, problem solving, scheduling, learning and creative thinking attributes. They consider forecasting, understanding, leading, and organizing and communication skills as less training requirement factors. Undergraduates prefer to be trained in decision making, problem solving, scheduling, and understanding to develop the skills. Undergraduates do not much consider training in communication, leading, forecasting and organizing. Faculty members view the need for the training of undergraduates on leading, decision-making, participating, understanding and learning. 4.4. Comparison of Groups Expectations 4.4.1 Gap between Employer Expectations and Employee Expectations The main objective of this research was to find out the gap between employers needs expectations and employees job expectations. Table 14 shows related factors and gap between groups ideas about factors affecting the securing of the job, assessment of university curriculum and training needs expectations. The table mainly is divided into two parts as employer side (demand) and employee (supply) side. In the employee side, employed graduates, unemployed graduates and undergraduates are included. Results from faculty members are also included into employee side to compare with employers expectation. Groups assess the relevant of the applicability, flexibility current knowledge, diversity, teaching methods, amount of reading materials, quality of staff and facilities in a curriculum of an undergraduate degree program. Employed graduates, unemployed graduates and undergraduates and employers assessments of university curriculum are similar. Facultys assessment is not similar to employers assessment for university curriculum.

Table 14: Employer- Employee Expectation Gap Employed Unemployed UnderGraduates Graduates Graduates Related factors (1) Factors for Securing a Job.
Employer Side

Faculty (1) Factors for Securing a Job.

(2) Assessments (2) Assessments (2) Assessments (2) Assessments of university of university of university of university Curriculum Curriculum Curriculum Curriculum

(3) University Graduate Skills Development

Gap factors (3) University Graduate Skills Development (1) Factors for Securing a Job.

(3) University Graduate Skills Development (1) Factors for Securing a Job.

(3) University Graduate Skills Development

Factors influencing the ability to secure a job are divided into five main groups as experience, knowledge, skills, personal factors and social factors. Employers consider those factors when recruiting the graduate employees. Employed graduates have knowledge about employers expectation factors and also faculty members are knowledgeable about those factors and they know possible factors that their undergraduates can get good job in the future. There is a gap between employer expecting factors from employees and unemployed graduates, undergraduates expectation factor from their future job. Both unemployed graduates and undergraduates have no knowledge about employers expectations. Gaps exist between employers and the participants on the employee side on the skills development of university graduates. Employers considered skills as the most important for recruiting graduates. New labor market mainly focuses on skillful and flexible graduate employees. This gap between all the groups expectations for undergraduate training factors is important. Employers considered graduates as lack of communication skills, leading skills, participating skills, decision-making skills, problem solving skills, forecasting and creative thinking. Employers want graduate to improve above-mentioned skills. Employees expectations for developing graduate skills was different from the employers recommended training factors. There is a mismatch about graduate skills needs and employer expectations. Since the particular question is of agreement disagreement type, the results can be interpreted by using the average of the answers given. (See Table 15)

Table 15: Gap in Demand and Supply of Specific Skills: Supply Side
Factor

Communication Leading Decision-

Employed Graduates

5 4 4

Unemployed Graduates

4 4 4

Under Graduates

4 4 4

Faculty Members

Employers

Demand 2 2 2

3 4 4

making Participating Forecasting Motivating Problem solving Scheduling Organizing Learning Understanding Arbitrating Creative thinking Average

4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5
4

4 4 4 4 5 4 4 4 4 4
4

4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 4
4

4 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 3 4
3

2 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 2
2

Accordingly, employed graduates, undergraduates and unemployed graduates agree that they have the desirable attributes. Faculty members had a moderate view while employers disagreed generally on the opinion of Sri Lankan graduates having the mentioned attributes. Furthermore, all five groups varied in their ranking of importance. This suggests the gap between the employers and those who are expected to have those skills and attributes and also the indifference on the part of the faculty members who are responsible for educating and training graduates. 5. Conclusion The aim of this research was to find out the gap between employers expectations of skills and job expectations of graduates from Sri Lankan universities and to make recommendations for improving the existing university curriculum to match real employer needs. The respondents feedbacks from the survey help identify differences of ideas from the employers of graduates, employees and the university faculty members. According to the results of the study, it can be concluded that there is a gap between job expectations of graduates and employer expectations. There are number of reasons for this situation. Gaps mainly exist in training graduates in the areas of communication, leading, decision-making, participating, arbitrating and problem solving. There are also possible improvements in motivating, learning, organizing, scheduling and understanding. The main reason affecting this gap can be considered as inflexibility and unwillingness of the education and training system. There is no adaptation to fill the needs of the labor market and economy. 6. Recommendations: In view of the above analysis and conclusion, all stakeholders, namely, the government, the university system, employers and graduates themselves must all endeavor to find a solution to the graduate unemployment problem and my recommendations are as follows: Recommendations for the Government

Further develop teaching facilities and equipment. Establish the professional consulting network for students and organize as well as disseminate the job market information and information about training programs. Organize the training programs for university instructors, in collaboration with some companies and it will help teaching staff gain more experience and improvement of the teaching content in the class. Establish the relationship such as exchange programs with foreign universities in order to send teaching staff abroad, to improve and update their knowledge and increasing quality of staff. Company Graduate Employer Job Profile Guide Book

Preparation of Companys Graduate Employer Job Profile Guide Book annually will be useful for both employers and employees. Selecting the Major companies in the country, the guide book has to include the job opportunity, requirements, skills they needs, company profiles, how to apply and other important factors in each company. This guide should be distributed to the final year students at least 3 months before their graduation. Student will have a clear idea about company needs and selection criteria. The preparation of the guide book should be done by an independent entity with good links with the business community. Private companies responsibility is to prepare annually how many people are they going to be recruited for their company and give the requirement to guide the potential applicants. Analyze the Employment Market

Understand the real demand for labour of sectors in the economy and prepare the analysis of the employment requirement each year in each sector to get the clear idea about real labour demand. According to this analysis students have more chance to understand about their selection areas and future job security before the university entrance exam. Establish the government team to analyze the real labour needs and educate graduate students about sectors demanding for labor in the economy. Recommendations for employers On-Campus Recruitment

Still the most of the graduates are using the traditional job application procedure. Most of the students apply for the job after completing their graduation. Most of the employers view is not positive for recruiting graduate employees and no competition among companies to catch the best students for their organization. Companies should change their attitudes regarding graduates lacking of skills and employers want to be flexible to find the best graduates. Company Presentations

Organize information sessions provide by recruiters so that students have an opportunity to evaluate and learn more about the companies interviewing on campus.

Recommendations for Universities Entrepreneurship Development

During the undergraduate study time, university should arrange training program for students who have entrepreneurial ability. How students can enter self-employment and/ or how they can start their business after graduation. Universities want to develop the program during the periods of study in university and arrange the activities during the period of study. Firstly, information should be made available to increase the enterprising awareness and widened career aspirations of graduates. Secondly, build confidence and develop skills of enterprising graduates and finally encourage entrepreneurial graduates to progress into self-employment and business start up. Organizing Career Fairs

Three months before the graduation from the university, the final year students of the university can organize the career fair with the support of companies. Undergraduates can understand the real business culture and get a real insight into the organization. Undergraduates can really and quickly discover the difference between employers; culture and their values. After the fair, academic can communicate with employers and identify the students weakness, strength, lack of skills, requirement of improvement and development. Organizing Business-related Lecture Series and Company Visits Most students view private sector job as being less secure than the government sector job. Practically, private sector job has more opportunities for career advancement for the graduates than in the government sector. Organizing business-related lecture series for final year students inviting company managers to present their profile and show how graduates can be successful if joined their business. Also university can arrange the company visit each year. There also can be special lectures about interpersonal skills, negotiation, team building and communication. Leadership & Professional Development Program

Leadership & Professional Development program will be designed to help undergraduate to understand the nature of leadership, how to work effectively in groups and how to plan their professional careers. The course should cover the leadership knowledge and skills, communication, negotiation, team processes, problem solving, conflict resolution, decisionmaking and career development. Curriculum and Practical Training All students should be required to have a structured period of employment experience before graduating. They should learn how to apply the theoretical knowledge they gain and how to act or behave in the organization. 6.3. Recommendations for University Students

Attitudinal Changes

Changing the attitudes regarding expectation for higher salary and higher position from the employers are needed. Changing attitude regarding instability of private sector job and more stability on government job is also needed. Personal development Acquire necessary skills by investment more in training themselves. Keep oneself updated with the labour market requirements and evaluation about company needs and specialization field. Practice and apply effectively, the knowledge acquired in the university. Improve communication skills

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