Redefining Attributes of the Graduate Profile: A Study on the Industry Perspective.

Abstract

The twenty first century is treated as a knowledge era and universities have developed each academic programme and discipline to educate students with a sound knowledge adhering to tlið€€š global standards in the relevant field of study. Although knowledge is the primary key element, graduate attributes and soft skills have been paid a higher interest for the demanding of graduates in case of seeking employment opportunities and strengthening the career. Therefore, graduate profiles have been developed for each academic discipline inculcating graduate attributes and soft skills. In the process of graduate profile development, academic matters are kept the highest weight on the majority of academic programmes including discipline-specific skills traditionally included in university curricular to address the specific occupational requirements originated in specific domains, disciplines or subject matter areas. However, some academic disciplines such as management discipline gain inputs from the industry to develop the graduate profiles including attributes and soft skills focusing on the industry perspective. Currently, graduates in the disciplines of management, social science, physical science, and agriculture face a huge challenge in seeking employment opportunities especially in the private sector where the dynamic culture is interested in recruiting energetic graduates who play outstanding performance and possess soft skills. Therefore, identifying industry expectations has become an essential element today for the purpose of producing employable graduates. Accordingly, this study was conducted to examine the attributes that graduates should be equipped in the industry perspective. The data were collected from 76 industry experts including chairmen, managing directors, HR directors, human resource managers, general managers, and senior executives in relation to the key attributes that graduates should be equipped to perform well in the private sector organizations. Mainly, six dimensions; knowledge, professional, values, optimism, creativity and proactivity were identified as key dimensions of the attributes having a focused group discussion with thirty industry representatives. Next, the data were collected using a structured questionnaire in two perspectives such as the current perceived level of attributes as performed by recruited graduates and the desired level. Independent sample t test analysis was employed to evaluate the results of the study. The results depict a significant difference between the attributes of current level and the desired level. As the major outcome of the study, a graduate profile in defining from the industry perspective is presented with six dimensions and related attributes which can be considered to inculcate for academic programmes making required adjustments into the relevant disciplines.