AN ASSESSMENT OF SKILL GAP AMONG UNIVERSITY GRADUATES FOR EMPLOYABILITY AND PERFORMANCE

IN INDUSTRIES SITUATED IN GUJRAT- SIALKOT - GUJRANWALA INDUSTRIAL CLUSTER

Interim Report Presentation at Conference by Pakistan Strategy Support Program under the initiative of Annual Research Competitive Grants Program

Marriot Hotel, Islamabad

Feb 09, 2013

by

Dr. Faisal Mehmood Mirza and Dr. Atif Ali Jaffri

Department of Economics, University of Gujrat

Roadmap

• Research Issue

• Contribution of the study

• Research Objectives

• Methodology

• Preliminary Findings

• Conclusions

• Way Forward

“Pakistan is ranked 92 out of 133 countries in university-industry linkages index, much lower than the ranks of China and India, which are 23 and 46, respectively. Due to the weak university-industry-professional nexus in Pakistan, our youth is not able to acquire the skills sought by employers. This skill mismatch is a fundamental reason our enterprises and universities do not compete effectively in the global markets.”

NGF, Planning Commission of Pakistan

Research Issue

• Major cause of high rate of youth unemployment is the lack of relevant skills.

– Young people lack specific “21st century workplace skills” such as cooperation, communication, critical thinking, creativity, and a focus on the needs of the enterprise.

– Other factors responsible for youth unemployment include lack of entry level jobs, information, network and connections, and experience credentials.

ILO (2012)

Research Objectives

• Identification and ranking of skills considered important by employers while hiring fresh graduates.

• Assessment of the level of satisfaction of employers with the skills of fresh graduates.

• Determining the level of skill shortage among fresh graduates.• Identification of future skill requirements from job market.• Analyzing students’ perception about the required skills to get

employment and ranking of their individual skills against their perceived level of skills for employability.

• Communication of study findings with all stakeholders including Planning Commission, HEC, Industry, Punjab Government, and the research community.

Research Contribution

• Only a few recent sector specific studies estimate the skill gap between industry demand and the quality of graduates

• Current study has a wider horizon by estimating the skill gap across all the major industries situated in Gujrat-Sialkot-Gujranwala industrial cluster

• Along with the skill gap, we also estimate graduates’ perception gap and their employability gap

• To further enrich the analysis, we broaden the skill sets that many of the studies use for analyzing skill gap

Methodology

Stage 1:Employers’ Survey

– Employers were asked to rank the key employability skills at graduation level on a Likert Scale.

– Employers were asked to rate their satisfaction level with the fresh graduates on each of the ranked skills.

– The employers were also asked to rank the relative importance of each of the skills in future.

Stage 2: Students’ Survey

– Students were asked to rank their perception about the key employability skills demanded in the job market.

– Students also rated their level of possessed skills against their perception of required skills in the job market.

Methodology

Skill, Employability and Perception Gaps

Skill Gap: Employers’ Preference Score– Employers’ Assesment Score

Employability Gap: Students’ Perception Score – Students’ Own Assesment Score

Perception Gap: Employers’ Preference Score – Students’ Perception Score

Sample Selection

Straitified random sampling for the industrial and services sectors 100 respondents

Purposive sampling for universities and colleges in the region 150 respondents

Data Analysis technique

Factor analysis to group individual skills into small number of interpretable factors

– Analysis of correlation matrix: Bartlett’s test of Sphericity KMO test of

sampling adequacy– Factor extraction method: Principal axis factoring

– Factor retention method: Eigen values, Scree plot, percent of variance

extracted

– Rotation method: Oblique method

Preliminary Findings

Industry satisfaction Degree programs Curriculum3.27 3.74 3.15

Student satisfactionSatisfaction levels by industry and Students

Industry satisfaction with graduates

Student satisfaction with degree program

Student satisfaction with curriculum

Extremely satisfied 7.00 16.56 7.95Very satisfied 32.00 47.68 26.49

Somewhat satisfied 44.00 29.80 42.38Not very satisfied 15.00 5.30 19.21Not at all 2.00 0.66 3.97

Satisfaction Levels along the scaleExtremely satisfied 5

Very satisfied 4Somewhat Satisfied 3

Not very satisfied 2Not at all 1

Preliminary FindingsFactoring of Skills

Leadership skills Mean Professional skills Mean Communication skills

Mean Core employabil

ity skills

Mean Personal characteristi

cs

Mean

Efficiency 4.27 Cooperative 4.30 Technical skills related to subject

4.22 Motivation 4.31 Honesty 4.70

Ability to adopt to business environment

4.10 Ability to deal with pressure

4.13 Verbal Communication

4.04 Productivity 4.28 Reliability 4.56

Decision making skills

4.02 Creative skills 4.00 Written communication

3.94 Self Discipline

4.22 Punctuality 4.54

Ability to interpret business problems and develop appropriate

3.98 Enthusiastic 3.91 Reading Skills 3.93 Modesty 3.78 Hard Working 4.47

Ability to plan and organize

3.93 Balanced attitude to work and home life

3.83 Communication in English

3.56 Resourcefulness

3.77 Accuracy 4.35

Initiating 3.82 Entrepreneurship skills

3.50 Creativity 4.00

Ambitiousness 3.75 Sense of humor 3.45

Critical thinking 3.67

Average 3.94 3.87 3.94 4.07 4.44

Skill groups after factor analysis

Gap Analysis

Skill Gaps

Leadership Skills

Professional Skills

Communication Skills

Core Employability

Skills

Personal Characteristics

A.Employers’ Importance 3.94 3.87 3.94 4.07 4.44

B. Employers’ Satisfaction 3.27 3.42 3.47 3.37 3.61

C. Student's Perception 4.08 4.06 4.04 4.01 4.35D. Student's own assessment 3.89 3.95 3.89 3.94 4.09E. Students’ Future skills 4.15 4.15 4.24 4.22 4.5

Skill Gaps (A-B) 0.67 0.45 0.47 0.7 0.83

Perception Gap(A-C) -0.14 -0.18 -0.12 0.07 0.09

Employability Gap(C-D) 0.18 0.17 0.15 0.21 0.26

Future skill Gap( E-A) 0.21 0.28 0.3 0.14 0.07

Result Summary of Different Skill Gaps

Preliminary Conclusions

• Employers at large are not satisfied with the skill levels possessed by fresh graduates

• Soft skills are considered more important than professional skills

• Skill gap is maximum in the case of personal characteristics while professional skills exhibits minimum of the gap

• Perception gap indicates that the expectations of students regarding important skills for employability are in line with the demands of the industry

Preliminary Conclusions

• Employability gap suggests that students are more lacking in personal characteristics and core employability skills than professional and leadership skills

• Future skill gap suggests that students will need to focus more on communication and professional skills relative to core employability and leadership skills for securing employment in the job market

Addressing the policy gap Future Prospects

Thank You