FACTORS INFLUENCING SUCCESSFUL EMPLOYABILITY OF ARTS GRADUATES

Abstract

Graduate unemployment has been a serious problem faced by successive Sri Lankan governments for many years. Although the qualified group of the state universities represents the excellent portion of GCE (General Certificate of Education) Advanced Level passed students, they face enormous problems in getting into employment. Producing quality graduates with skills demanded by the job market has been a challenge especially to the faculties which offer degrees in arts subjects. This study focuses on identifying the influencing factors on employability of BA graduates.. The factors considered were: Medium of instructions in the degree course, Class obtained and IT skills. The waiting time of graduates for the first job, Initial salary and Unemployment were taken as the indicators of employability. Non-parametric statistical tools including: Mann-Whitney U-test, Kruskal-Wallis test and Chi-squared test were used for testing the hypothesis concerning the relationship between employability and the factors selected. The research found that the medium of degree and IT skills are the main factors affecting employability of Arts graduates. The final grade of the Degree determines the ability of the graduates to demand high salaries. Additionally, a large percentages of respondents suggested that industrial training (45%), additional English modules (37%), and IT modules (31%) would improve the quality of these graduates.