Importance of Employability Skills for Graduates

The study emphasizes that employability skills are essential for graduates to get selected for employment and for employees to succeed in their career. It also highlights the importance of selecting candidates based on possession of employability skills to enhance the performance of a company. The document references various studies and articles that support the significance of employability skills, making it a valuable resource for students and professionals alike.

Academic and employability
skills

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Main body .......................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Employability skills may be defined as a set of all those skills and attributes that are
highly valued by the employers at the workplace as they determine the efficiency of the
performance of employees towards the attainment of the objectives of the company.
Employability skills are also known as soft skills because they are responsible for making a
person employable. Employability skills are general in nature that is they are related to all the job
roles rather than a specific job. These skills include skills such as communication, team work and
interpersonal skills. These skills are essential to be possessed by employees for enhancement of
the capabilities and performance for future job prospects as well as from the perspective of
employers searching for recruiting new candidates.
Main body
Employability skills are very essential to be developed in order to get employed in the
recent times. Employability skills that are already possessed are positive thinking and critical
thinking skills. Positive thinking even helps in surviving in the worst circumstances and
developing healthy environment at the workplace. While the critical thinking helps in resolving
the problem efficiently. Apart from these, there are various other skills that need to be developed
and these are effective communication, teamwork and self-management.
Employability skills are the core skills or traits that are required in every job and in every
industry(Abas and Imam, 2016). It may be defined as those skills that provide a link between the
academic studies and the employment of graduates. These are those skills and capabilities that
enhances the chance of graduates to be gain the job opportunities and be successful in the future
at their chosen organisation. In present times, it is highly recommended to have Possession of
employability skills these skills are not specific to a particular job, these are general and in the
current globalised world candidates usually do not prefer working under one employer at all the
time rather they believe in shifting their jobs based on their priorities and preferences. Thus,
these skills will help them in all kinds of job they would be searching for in near future and
hence for this purpose efforts should be made on the part of graduates to develop these skills.
Apart from that, if the communication and team-work skills are possessed by the graduates then
they would be in an added advantage to survive in this competitive environment where there is
lack of employment opportunities. Every graduate should make immense emphasis on
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development of these skills in order to succeed in carrier because every employer favours
candidates possessing these skills.
Now-a-days employers not only search for those applicants who have qualification and
experience but also have employability skills. Those applicants who possess employability skills
shine in the bunch of applicants and have greater chances of being selected then others(Collet,
Hine and Du Plessis, 2015). It is not only important to possess employability skills for candidate
to get selected for job but then even require it for the purpose of becoming successful in their
carrier. No person can grow and sustain for long in this competitive world if he/she lacks in these
skills. If the person lacks these skills then he/she would be easily swayed by its competitors and
their position would be taken over by other. Hence, in order to get selected for job and rise in the
carrier, these skills should be developed over time as they increase the chances of being selected
as well as succeeding in the carrier. It is a known fact that a person can succeed in his/her carrier
if and only if he/she keeps the employer happy and satisfied and an individual can only keep its
employer happy and satisfied by performing better and this is only possible if the candidate has
possession of employability skills.
Every graduate that is looking for an employment opportunity should make sure that
he/she possesses employability skills because these skills are the building blocks of an
individual's carrier. In recent times, it is usually found that graduates that are already in
employment lack these skills and this is the main reason behind there inefficient performance
towards the attainment of business objectives. Hence, in order to overcome this problem now-a-
days employers make sure that they recruit only those candidates that posses employability
skills. Job vacancies are filled by only those candidates which possess these skills because the
candidates who lack these skills are employed then it will lead to increase in cost and time of the
employer(El Mansour and Dean, 2016). Time and cost of the employer is increased because the
employer has to arrange training programs for the employees who lack employability skills.
It is very important for the graduates to develop these skills as soon as possible in order
to get the job in this competitive world. In this globalised world; there is high unemployment in
all the industries. Thus, employers have wide choice of applicant so they would prefer only those
candidates that possess employability skills over the other candidates. Hence, if the graduates
want to increase their chances of being selected for the employment opportunities then they have
to ensure that they inculcate these skills. By inculcating these skills, graduated would not only
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increase their chances of being selected but would also contribute in the development of their
overall personality which is very essential to fight the competition(Jackling and Natoli, 2015).
Every candidate should focus on development of employability skills in order to groom
their overall personality and behaviour. This would not only help them in succeeding in their
carrier but would also play a vital role in reflecting a better personality and to shine among the
bunch of candidates. These skills can be inculcated or developed in an individual by taking
personality development classes or employment classes for getting an overall idea regarding
requirement of attitude in a professional life. These personality development classes play a vital
role in development of overall personality of an individual or grooming their existing skills.
Hence, it is very essential from the perspective of candidates to develop these for their own sake.
Employers value these employability skills to a wide extent because these skills include
various aspects related to the workplace and employers are also related with the
workplace(Jackson, 2015). Furthermore, the success of the employer even depends on the
abilities and skills of the graduates to a wide extent. Hence, the degree to which the graduate get
along with the co-workers and customers reflect his/her performance towards the success of the
business. Thus, the employer get affected by it because by choosing the best candidate, who
possesses employability skills would contribute more towards taking the business to new heights.
There are wide range of employability skills. The most important skill is teamwork.
Employer pay a strong focus on degree to which the graduate would be comfortable working
with other people in the organisation as well as degree to which he/she would contribute towards
team work and take the responsibility. The next important skill is effective communication that is
whether the graduate is able to freely exchange his/her ideas and opinions as well as fluency in
speaking and writing. While the other important skills are problem solving, critical thinking,
interpersonal skills, foundational skills and ethics and legal responsibilities(Rowe and Zegwaard,
2017). Hence, employer pay immense emphasis on noticing these skills and then selecting the
graduates based on their possession of these skills.
In this globalised world, the sole criteria that is responsible for getting the jobs is
employability skills because employers demand more than qualification. These skills have now
become a decisive factor to decide whether to select a candidate or not. It is very important for
employers to select those candidates that possess employability skills in order to maintain
positive and healthy environment at the workplace. These skills have a paramount place from an
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employers perspective because they could become the reason behind the high success of the
company. When a company would consist of employees possessing employability skills, its
efficiency towards the attainment of business objectives would also enhance and this in turn may
lead to businesses achieving new heights of success.
Apart from that, if the employer favours selection of graduates possessing employability
skills then it would even help the company in gaining competitive advantage over the rivalry
firms(Sharif, 2017). In this globalised would, if the company is able to gain the competitive
advantage over the rivalry firms then it would be able to maintain and grow its business
operations in long run. Furthermore, these skills would not only play a vital role for graduates to
succeed in their carrier but would also contribute towards the success of the employer as they are
responsible for getting the work through them and the results of their performance would have an
impact over their performance.
Moreover, employer even lay strong emphasis on selecting graduates possessing
employability skills for the purpose of maintaining peace and harmony at the workplace. This is
so because if the individual possesses employability skills then he/she would be in better position
to resolve the conflicts at the workplace and this in turn may lead to harmony at the workplace.
This in turn would create job satisfaction in the mind of employees and they would retain in the
company for a longer duration of time leading to low employee turnover rate(Simatele, 2015).
Hence, by hiring the graduates with employability skills, employer would be able to maintain
healthy and positive environment at the workplace.
Even the employer can reduce its cost by hiring skilled employees. This is so because if
the employer hires unskilled employee then he would have to incur lot of expenses for the
training and development of an individual. Even lot of time would be consumed in providing
training to the graduates lacking these skills as well as lot of time would be consumed in
arranging proper training schedules and programs so that training is carried out efficiently
without any barriers. Thus, it is better to take care at the time of recruitment as it is said
prevention is better than cure.
Apart from the above reasons, there are various other reasons that has created necessity
for employers to select the graduated with employability skills. The first and foremost reason is
that these skills are the basis of performance indicator for employers. It is a known fact that the
graduate possessing these skill would definitely perform better than the graduate lacking in these
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skills(Taylor, 2016). Thus, if there are flaws in performance of the candidate then these flaws
would also be reflected in the performance of employer.
Thus, in order to increase the efficiency in performance it is necessary for employers to
recruit those graduates who have employability skills. Another reason is that employee's
contribute up-to a large extent towards the growth of the company. Thus, if the highly skilled
employees are recruited that they would contribute maximum towards the attainment of business
objectives effectively and efficiently and thus would lead to further growth and development of
the company.
Apart from improvement in performance and growth of the company, employability
skills are also play a vital role towards evaluation of overall performance of the employees. This
would help the employers in getting an idea whether the graduate would be able to fulfil the
needs and wants of the company or not. Only those graduates who possess employability skills
would be viewed as an asset to the company and would be employed by the employer(Wolff and
Booth, 2017). Moreover, candidates with employability skills would help the employer to face
challenges of the market and gain competitive advantage so as to survive and grow its market
share in the industry and to run the business smoothly in long run.
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it has been summarised that employability skills are not only
important from the graduates point of view who are searching for future job opportunities but are
also important from the perspective of employers hiring the candidates. It is very important for
graduated to possess these skills in order to get selected for employment because employers
prefer only those candidates who have possession of these skills. Furthermore, it is also very
essential for employees to have possession of these skills in order to succeed in their carrier.
While on the other hand, it is important for employers to select the candidates possessing these
skills in order to maintain peace and harmony at the workplace. Apart from this, selection of
candidates based on possession of employability skills play a vital role towards the growth and
enhancement in the performance of the company.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Abas, M.C. and Imam, O.A., 2016. Graduates' Competence on Employability Skills and Job
Performance. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education. 5(2).
pp.119-125.
Collet, C., Hine, D. and Du Plessis, K., 2015. Employability skills: perspectives from a
knowledge-intensive industry. Education+ Training. 57(5). pp.532-559.
El Mansour, B. and Dean, J.C., 2016. Employability skills as perceived by employers and
university faculty in the fields of human resource development (HRD) for entry level
graduate jobs. Journal of Human Resource and Sustainability Studies,. 4(01). p.39.
Jackling, B. and Natoli, R., 2015. Employability skills of international accounting graduates:
Internship providers’ perspectives. Education+ Training. 57(7). pp.757-773.
Jackson, D., 2015. Employability skill development in work-integrated learning: Barriers and
best practice. Studies in Higher Education. 40(2). pp.350-367.
Rowe, A.D. and Zegwaard, K.E., 2017. Developing graduate employability skills and attributes:
Curriculum enhancement through work-integrated learning.
Sharif, A., 2017, June. Perceptions, pedagogy, employability: from survey indicators to
improving skills. In 14th Enhancement Themes Conference.
Simatele, M., 2015. Enhancing the portability of employability skills using e-portfolios. Journal
of Further and Higher Education. 39(6). pp.862-874.
Taylor, L., 2016. What is employability and what does it mean for you?. How to Develop Your
Healthcare Career: A Guide to Employability and Professional Development. p.1.
Wolff, R. and Booth, M., 2017. Bridging the gap: Creating a new approach for assuring 21st
century employability skills. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning. 49(6). pp.51-
54.
Online
Employability skills. 2019. [online]. Available through;
<https://www.skillsyouneed.com/general/employability-skills.html>
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