International Journal of Management (IJM), ISSN 0976 – 6502(Print), ISSN 0976 - 6510(Online),

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Volume 5, Issue 7, July (2014), pp.JOURNAL
73-80 © IAEME OF MANAGEMENT (IJM)

ISSN 0976-6502 (Print)

ISSN 0976-6510 (Online) IJM
Volume 5, Issue 7, July (2014), pp. 73-80
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EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

SamsonPackianathan1, Rajagopal Narayanan2

Research scholar of Karunya University Business School,
Karunya Nagar; Karunya University; Coimbatore -641 114; Tamilnadu; India
Associate Professor, Karunya University Business School
Karunya Nagar; Karunya University; Coimbatore -641 114; Tamilnadu; India

ABSTRACT

The role of higher educational institutions in promoting employability skills to their graduates
is getting momentum. The competition in the labour market is even tougher for management
graduates, owing to the widespread career options open to them. These skill deficiencies often
referred to as graduate competency gap has been the empirical footage of many researches done
globally and in India. This article attempts to provide a conceptual framework on employability
skills of business graduates based on in-depth reviews. Reviews for a period of 20 years between
1994 and 2013 have been assimilated and categorized into two propositions. They are (i) Business
graduates require specific employability skills; (2) Curricular changes enhance employability skills
of business school graduates. Based on these propositions, a conceptual framework on employability
skill has been developed.

Keywords: Employability Skills, Business Graduates.

INTRODUCTION

A large number of business graduates land up in varied work arenas and retrospectively stare
at the missing link between their collegiate education and work expectations. Literature highlights
these dispositions as difficulty in practicing effective communication (written, oral), inability to work
in teams, problems in applying theory to real-world situations and lack of understanding the
requirements of the employers (Bianca, K and Peter, F. 2005). Graduate deficiencies referred to as
graduate-competency gap has been addressed universally and a few dispositions from the global
stand point are showcased.
According to Jackson (2010), businesses should articulate what they need and want from
graduates, and graduates should be aware of what they are learning and its use in the workplace.
Graduates from MBA program testify that the relationship between employability and employment is

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International Journal of Management (IJM), ISSN 0976 – 6502(Print), ISSN 0976 - 6510(Online),
Volume 5, Issue 7, July (2014), pp. 73-80 © IAEME

far from straight forward (Wilton 2011). Research also articulates that business studies have a
positive effect on skills, employability and compensation and moderate effect on career advancement
(Dimitrios and Kristina, 2006). When supervisors / managers were asked to rate their perceptions on
graduate-skill gap, they claim that graduates are proficient in non-technical skills and deficient in
essential managerial skill set (Jackson and Chapman, 2011). Pedagogy is the source which is targeted
for bridging this graduate skill gap and they are advised to reflect and articulate required
competencies in recruitment situations (Jackson, 2010). James (2013) sums up these factors and
urges researchers to re-direct their efforts to investigations which focus on provision of graduate
skills which is based on demand, development and deployment.
Exploring the business graduates’ employability skill in the Indian perspective, exposes
research generated content which requires exemplification in the pursuit of generating solutions to
the existing trend. Shrivastava (2013) claims that developing soft skills is no more a matter of choice
rather it is essential for efficient work performance, growth and success at an international platform.
Jog (2013) synonymizes the same by stating that there is a definite mismatch of skills that are
required in the real world of work compared to mainstream education. The answers to these
empirical situations is summarized by Noronha (2011) who recommends that business schools must
meet the challenge to deliver management education and knowledge that is relevant in both global
and local settings. There is a need to improve the skilled based training in business education.

OBJECTIVE

The major objectives of the study are:

• To develop propositions related to employability skills of business graduates

• To identify the factors related to employability skills of business graduates
• To develop a conceptual framework on employability skills of business graduates

METHODOLOGY

Systematic review was done to ascertain the existing literature on the competencies required
by business graduates to market themselves to the recruiters and to sustain their employability. A
total of 57 research work for a span of 20 years (1994 and 2013) was assimilated and were classified
into two propositions. These proportions are:

• Business graduates require specific employability skills

• Curricular Changes Enhance Employability skills of Business graduates

These propositions give clear indications about factors related to employability skills, and
based on that a conceptual framework has been developed.

DISCUSSION ON PROPOSITIONS

Proposition I: Business School Graduates require specific employability skills

Business graduates are placed in varied employment capacities and the norm of the day is for
them to possess certain competencies which will help them to transit from a graduate to an
employee. The competencies often cited as important for the employment of business graduatesare
written communication, oral communication, investigating and analyzing skills, planning and
organizing skills, negotiating and persuading skills, cooperation, leadership, and numeracy.
Literature points out that these competencies have been repeatedly magnified by employers,

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International Journal of Management (IJM), ISSN 0976 – 6502(Print), ISSN 0976 - 6510(Online),
Volume 5, Issue 7, July (2014), pp. 73-80 © IAEME

business leaders and educationist to empower employability among business graduates. Literature
review in this regard is highlighted Table 1.

Table 1: Selected Studies related to Employability Skills

S.No Author, Year Key Findings
Written Communication
1. Bhatia and Hynes, Highly rated course topics by graduate business students are making presentations, writing
1996 memos and letters, listening and interpersonal communication, impromptu speaking, and
business report formats.
2. Martyn, New The “ability to communicate accurately, clearly and at a professional level” is cited as one
Zealand Herald, of the top three skills repeatedly asked for by employers
2005
3. Jackson, 2010 From a lecturer’s perspective, advances in the age of technology have caused a worrying
decline in the graduate’s written word; exacerbated by the everyday use of abbreviated
English in texts and emails.
Oral Communication
4. Maes, Weldy and Findings of this study show that oral communication is the most important competency for
Icenogle, 1997 college graduates entering workforce and that the oral skill most important for entry level
graduate are following: instruction, listening, conversing and giving feedback.
5. CIHE, 2008 Employers considered good communication skills to be important yet many were
unsatisfied with graduates’ abilities in expressing themselves
Investigating and Analyzing Skills
6. “Q&A”, 1996, as “Business schools should really be teaching critical thinking more than anything else”
cited in Braun,
2004, p. 232
7. Awayiga, Onumah Analytical/critical thinking was rated as the most important professional skill by both the
and Tsameny, 2010 employers and the graduates.
8. Gokuladas, 2010 Verbal reasoning, logical reasoning and soft skills was a stronger predictor of
employability than grade obtained in technical education
Planning and Organizing
9. Mallick and Academicians and Practitioners claim that a priority for improvement in marketing
Chaudhury, 2000 education is to teach the graduates the ability to ‘set priority’
10. CIHE, 2008 Planning and organizing was considered the 6th most important skill when recruiting
graduates
Negotiating and Persuading
11. Curry et al., 2003 Of 24 transferable skills, negotiation was identified by Irish employers as the skill they
were least satisfied with in recent graduates
12. IOD, 2007 Influencing and negotiation skills were some of the skills experiencing the most significant
gap between required and satisfaction ratings of surveyed UK employers
Cooperating
13. FSSC, 2007 Interpersonal skills was identified as a key area for improvement in business graduates in
the UK
14. Chaturvedi, Yadav The authors conclude that, when it comes to being a good manager or leader, you must
and Bajpai, 2011 master the hard skills of your specific job as well as the soft skills of interpersonal relations
Leadership
15. Brownell and The authors argued that competency based education provides the “most effective means
Chung, 2001 for preparing graduate business students to become leaders in a truly global market place”
16. Benjamin and The researchers elaborated that leadership development is often cited as an important
Reilly, 2011 organizational priority.
Numeracy
17. IOD, 2007 Numeracy was ranked as the 6th most important employability skill in recent graduates.
18. Rizvi, India comprises of financial institutions, banks, insurance companies and various non-
Teckchandany, and banking finance companies which offer immense opportunities to management graduates
Ahuja, 2013 looking for specialized jobs in finance area. Some of the skill sets required for such jobs
include analytical ability and quantitative skills.

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International Journal of Management (IJM), ISSN 0976 – 6502(Print), ISSN 0976 - 6510(Online),
Volume 5, Issue 7, July (2014), pp. 73-80 © IAEME

Proposition II: Curricular Changes Enhance Employability Skills of Business Graduates

Researchers urge the need to infuse essential competencies in the educational arena to make
business graduates employable and useful to society. The implications in most of the above stated
abstracts are for curricular changes which foster employability skills. Major research findings on
integrative curricular changes from the global and national front are briefed in Table 2.

Table 2: Selected Studies related to curricular change and employability

S. Author, Year Key Findings
No
1. Kagaari, 2007 This paper calls for involvement of stakeholders in design,
implementation and evaluation of the university curriculum.
2. Mason, 2009 He found that structured work experience and employer involvement in
degree course design and delivery have clear positive effects on the
ability of graduates to secure employment
3. Wellman, 2010 They suggest a need for "pruning" of the theory syllabus and the
creation of a "toolbox" of practical methods and techniques is required
to resolve the gap between theory and practice
4. Pandiyan, 2011 A flexible MBA program is suggested to accommodate the needs of
changing industrial scenario, keeping in mind only a program which
allows constant assessment and re-evaluation with scope for
modification will help achieve meeting the changing demands of the
industries.
5. Joyner and They conclude that emotional intelligence (EI) is gaining ground in
Mann, 2011 academic settings
6. Chynoweth, Internship programs improves the employability of new graduates
2012
7. Crayford, 2012 There is a need for personal development, employability skills and
attributes of an entrepreneurial mind-set among graduates for the post
2011 workplace
8. Joshi, 2012 There is a need to introduce a new Experiential Learning Pedagogy
9. Shrivastava, Read, revise and restructure the India education system and joint
2013 initiatives by the industry, academia & government to wash out the
talent gap

A Conceptual Framework of Employability Skills of Business Graduates

The framework takes its root from Systems Theory Framework (STF) of career development
and counseling (Patton, W & Mc Mahon, M. 2006). This theory was founded primarily for career
counseling and is based on the philosophy of traditional predictive theories and more recent
constructivist career counseling approaches (McMahon & Patton, 2002; McMahon, Patton &
Watson, 2003; 2004; McMahon, Watson, & Patton, 2005). This framework functions as a link
between theory and practice, which is the core need behind graduate competency gap.
The reviews summarized in table 1 and 2 provide sufficient information about the required
skills of business graduate and the curricular changes which could enhance employability. It is also
needed to be understood that the required skills vary according to personal characteristics (age,
gender, religion, family background, personality trait, educational background, previous job
experience and future job preference). In Figure 1, the propositions are magnified and are connected
by ‘bolded arrows’ to the employability of business graduates, due to their strong evidence based
foundation. The influence of personal characteristics in the development of employability skills is
illustrated in Figure 1 with ‘dotted arrows’ as it is a grey area to reckon with.
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International Journal of Management (IJM), ISSN 0976 – 6502(Print), ISSN 0976 - 6510(Online),
Volume 5, Issue 7, July (2014), pp. 73-80 © IAEME

PERSONAL
CHARACTERISTICS
PROPOSITION I Age
Employability Skills Gender
Written Communication Religion
Verbal Communication Family background
Investigating and Analyzing Personality trait
Planning and Organizing Educational background
Negotiating and Persuading Previous job experience
Co-operating Future job preference
Leadership
Numeracy
Employability of Business
Graduates
PROPOSITION II
Curricular Changes and
Employability
Stake holder involvement in
curriculum planning
Experential learning pedagogy
Flexible curriculum
Soft skill training
Mock interviews

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework on Employability skill

CONCLUSION

This model can be used as a tool that helps the business graduates to: - (1) self-assess their
capabilities, potentials and strengths; (2) self-initiate in acquiring skills which is required for their
expected job performance; and (3) constantly self-realize their achievement in the ever-evolving
education-employment arenas. Assessing these behaviors will foster self-confidence among business
graduates which will enhance their chances of employment. The focus for the business schools is to
provide effective and efficient graduates equipped with the skill-set required by the the job market.
This requires them to be up-to-date with current literature and also forces them to perform empirical
surveys on novel pedagogical methodologies. The burden is heavy on the educationist and they need
to modulate themselves to perform what they have been called for. A summary from the research
work of Rao (2011) amplifies the multifaceted approach to be undertaken by the nurturing
institutions. Rao (2011) presented factors which enhances employability from the preview of
curriculum, teacher and student experiences. He purports that curriculum should be mapped with the
current market demand. Teachers should be well aware of market conditions and potential of their
students, and know, how to enhance those potentials. Students should be exposed to quality work-
integrated learning, cooperative learning, and mentoring programs. Business leaders and recruitment
agencies are called to be stake holders and contribute to the revisions required in the curricular
content and teaching-learning methodologies.

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International Journal of Management (IJM), ISSN 0976 – 6502(Print), ISSN 0976 - 6510(Online),
Volume 5, Issue 7, July (2014), pp. 73-80 © IAEME

In short, both education and employment are life-long processes, which require mediating
and modulating to suit the recruiters’ requirement. Effective collaboration between the teaching
institution and changing labour market, will spring forth a work force which will be a priceless gift to
the society, contributing to the economic growth of a nation.

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