Study of Employers’ Insights of the Employability Skills and Level of Satisfaction of Sri Lankan ICT Undergraduates

Abstract

The lack of cognizance and skills amongst graduates has been described as one of the reasons why graduates struggle to find employment after the graduation. Whilst some are good in their technical skills, most have been found destitute of in their soft skills. There was major concern from the employers about the local graduates that albeit they are verbally expressed to be well equipped with pertinent technical skills, they still lack paramount soft skills like communication, language, critical and ingenious skills, leadership, etc. Several researchers in edification have discussed the ineffectiveness of the current inculcated system in equipping the graduates with germane employability skills as required by their potential employers. No one has touched the Sri Lankan ICT Education sector. Major Objectives of this study are to explore the employers’ insights of the employability skills that technical Undergraduates need to encompass, as well as evaluating the employers’ level of gratification with the ICT Undergraduates employability skills. Population of the study comprises of employers that accepted the University’s Undergraduates for six months of industrial training in their organizations. The study originate that the uppermost five skills extremely regarded by the employers are a accumulation of three soft skills and two hard skills. Ranked most paramount is the competency to undertake quandary identification, apply quandary-solving, formulation and solutions as the most consequential skills that employers needed in engineering and ICT Undergraduates. In terms of the caliber of contentment, the employers denoted that they are generally gratified with the university Undergraduates’ level of employability skills. The adeptness that they are most gratified with is the competency to perpetuate learning independently in the acquisition of incipient cognizance, skills and technologies. This study offers three implications to take strategic steps for universities. First, equal attention should be prearranged to both technical and soft skills. Second, there is an exigent desideratum for universities to quantify perpetually employers’ level of contentment with regard to the excellence of graduates that universities are conferring. Third, universities must ascertain that they have continuous assignation with the industry in directing them to be able to perceive transmutations in industry expeditiously