Graduates Competence Assessment on Employability Skills: Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling

Abstract

This article examines the necessary skills that students need as they graduate and enter the labor market, such as effective communication, relationship building and teamwork, leadership and management, and creative and critical thinking, among others. Some debate exists over the level at which college students develop their employability skills and the degree to which higher education institutions are effective at preparing their students to meet labor market requirements. Therefore, to offer additional insights into the debate, this study investigates the perceptions of College of Business Administration (CBA) students in the United States of their employability skills and how they developed those skills. Using a Likert-scale survey, 303 student-participants self-reported their skill levels in different employability skill competency areas. Confirmatory factor analysis was one of the structural equation modeling techniques used to explore and measure the skills that undergraduate students needed for employment. In the United States, higher education has become more expensive and students are graduating with considerable debt. Therefore, higher education institutions must be willing to address the issue of employability after graduation and find new and improved ways to develop their students’ ES, such that abilities to conceptualize that had the strongest influence on employment.