Towards a Framework for Integrating Employability Outcomes in the Quality Assurance Roadmap

Abstract

To a great extent, HEIs are responsible for the employability of their graduates. To fulfill this responsibility, they must help ensure their graduates possess the skills, competency, and other relevant attributes required for employment. Putting in place Quality Assurance mechanisms and linking HEIs’ Quality Assurance to employment indicators could set relevant factors in motion to help realize the HEIs’ aspirations and the graduates’ aims for employment. However, despite the implementation of Quality Assurance, HEIs still need to improve the employability of graduates. To address the above predicament, this study aimed to develop a framework that HEIs can use for integrating employability outcomes in HEIs’ Quality Assurance roadmap. In search of relevant factors and mechanisms linking quality assurance and employability towards developing a relevant framework, this paper found the following important factors to consider: employability as part of the institution’s mission, strategic and operational plans; available guidelines in place through relevant policies and programs; employment enablers integrated into the HEIs’ tri-focal function; engaging the key stakeholders in developing, planning, and implementing policies, programs, and activities; forming a dedicated unit to take charge of employability targets; providing relevant support services for students and alums; and conducting employment promotion activities considering local and global job market realities. On the whole, the graduates need to possess knowledge-skills-and values as near as possible to what the job needs and requires, either for local or international employment. Keywords: quality assurance, employment indicators, integrating quality assurance and employment indicators, quality assurance-employability link, quality assurance-employability framework