Abstract
Unemployment is a major problem Sri Lanka is facing over the years. Although 22,000 graduates pass out every year from state and private universities, there is always a gap between what employers expect in a graduate and what the graduate could offer to the employer. This research focus on the employability of the IT graduates passing out from state and private universities, with specific reference to their personal characteristics and personal branding. Personal branding is a major concern with respect to the recruitment of any graduate. IT graduates especially are expected to have certain personal characteristics which determine their personal branding and influence their employability. The main objective of this research is to determine the impact of the personal characteristics such as personal identity, personal image and personal positioning on employability of IT graduates and to analyze their mediation effect with the personal branding. Further, an attempt is made to determine whether the personal branding and employability of IT graduates significantly differ based on the university type (state and private). The research mainly focuses on quantitative analysis by piloting a questionnaire to 300 IT graduates following a hypothetical deductive method. The findings through the quantitative data are followed up based on qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews with HR and Recruitment Managers of IT companies. Findings of this research revealed that personal characteristics have a strong impact on the employability of an IT graduate and this relationship is mediated by personal branding. Further, IT graduates passing out from private sector universities have stronger personal characteristics and personal branding compared to the graduates passing out from state sector universities. Thus, they are more employable compared to IT graduates passing out from state sector universities in Sri Lanka.
Highlights
As economic growth in Sri Lanka has been amongst the fastest in South Asia in recent years, several employment opportunities emerge regularly and the demand for professionals has risen
The results show that the coefficient of determination (R2) is 0.640 (Adjusted R square = 0.636). It shows that 63% of the variation in employability is explained through variations in the personal characteristics of the IT graduates
Based on the literature it was found personal identity, personal image and personal positioning have an impact on employability and personal branding connects these personal characteristics with the employability of an IT graduate
Summary
As economic growth in Sri Lanka has been amongst the fastest in South Asia in recent years, several employment opportunities emerge regularly and the demand for professionals has risen. The current primary and secondary education enrolment rates of Sri Lanka are 98% and 97% respectively, which are quite high for a developing economy (Kapurubandara, 2016). There are 18 state universities in Sri Lanka with an annual intake of about 22,000 students per year and the annual graduate output is around 20,000 per annum. The graduates passing out from the state Universities is in the rising level, still the unemployment rate of Sri Lanka is alarming (Dissanayake, 2014). Enough jobs are created for university graduates, the challenge for the employers is finding the right workers as most graduates lack soft skills and workforce skills (Dissanayake, 2014). The question arises as to why such a situation transpired
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