The human capital and human capability models: Showing the connection between graduation and employment

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to examine the human capital and human capability models in order to show the connection between graduation and employment. There appear to be topical issues in Zimbabwean electronic and print media regarding the complaint of the mismatch between the students’ training and the product of graduates, which may lead to the failure to meet the industry’s needs. The mismatch between the university curriculum and national developmental needs results in the production of graduates who have to be trained in order to be employable in industry, and this little linkage led me to write this paper. A qualitative interpretive study of the examination of the gap between graduation and employability was used after identifying a small-scale case study with twenty (20) managers and university students that were purposefully sampled and then interviewed. The results of the interviews were presented in tables and graphs, then analyzed and interpreted. The findings of the results revealed that Zimbabwean businesses are suffering from the influx of recent graduates who lack the market-required scientific, technological, social, problem-solving, and creative abilities. The involvement of different stakeholders in higher education institutions, including the government, universities, and industries, should lead to the production of education and economic policy’s new language, posture, position, and direction that Zimbabwe could take to stabilize the economy. A new stable season where values are corrected and projected towards economic recovery, industrialization of the economy, and the creation of employment can be realized.