Perception of Employability Skills of HRM Graduates From Employers’ and Graduates’ Perspective

Abstract

Area of the Study The portion of unemployment of HRM graduates which can be due to the mismatch of perception between employers’ and graduates’ regarding employability skills in the field of Human Resources Management in Sri Lanka. Problem of the Study The purpose of this paper is to study the perception of employers’ as well as HRM graduates’ towards employability skills required by HRM graduates in the manufacturing and service industries.. Method of the Study A sum of two samples were selected for this comparative investigation namely, graduates and employers. For the study 45 graduates and 25 employers were obtained as the two samples. Two self-administered survey questionnaires were developed targeting the two groups. Descriptive statistics were used for the data analysis. Findings of the Study The findings reveal that there are differences in the perception between employers and undergraduates for certain employability skills where as for others no difference can be identified. In addition for some employability skills there is a skill gap where the employers’ level of expectation is higher than the level of skills possessed by the graduates. Conclusion of the Study As the findings reveal that there is considerable skill gap pertaining to undergraduates with regard to most important employability skills due attention must be paid by the relevant parties in order to cultivate the employability skills before entering to the labour market. The findings of the present study will contribute to eliminate not only unemployment but also underemployment of HRM graduates.