EVALUATION OF UNIVERSITY GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS COMPETENCE IN NORTH-WEST, NIGERIA

Abstract

One of the challenges facing university graduates is unemployability. This is because university graduates have generally been described as poorly-trained and are deficient in employability skills. Thus, this study evaluated university graduate employability skills competence in North-west, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to examine graduates’ employability competence in communication, basic computer, analytical, entrepreneurial and interpersonal skills. A descriptive (survey) research design was adopted for the study. Purposive sampling technique was used to select four states for the study. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 306 out of 1,212 top management staff from educational, commercial, science and technology industries in the Selected States (Zamfara, Jigawa, Katsina and Kaduna). The instrument used for the study was a validated researcher-designed questionnaire with a test re-test reliability index of 0.89. Descriptive statistic of mean score was used to answer the research questions. The findings of the study revealed that the employability skills competence of university graduates in communication, analytical and entrepreneurial skills were low with mean scores of 1.86, 1.81 and 1.71, respectively; while basic computer and interpersonal skills were moderate (mean scores = 2.18 and 2.12, respectively). This study concluded that university graduates’ employability skills competence level in North-west was low and the implication of this is that the Nigerian universities needed to focus more on developing graduates’ employability skills. This study recommended that more emphasis should be placed on the employability skills competence of graduates and the curricular content of every area of specialisation should be reviewed to be more activity-based in meeting the skills required by employers of labour.