Skills and employability of human resource management graduates in Sri Lankan universities: from employers’ perspectives

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the perception of employers towards employability skills essential by HRM graduates who graduated from Sri Lankan universities. Employable Graduate is one of the key attentions over the local university system in Sri Lanka where it is a vastly debated area on the fact due to the belief of state university graduates are deficient the required employability skills that are expected from a graduate. The study used a quantitative approach and data was collected using questionnaires. The sample was selected using random sampling technique from banking sector. Data were collected from 60 employers represents the managerial and non-managerial levels of employees in banking sector where the HR graduates are attached to work in HR department. Data were analyzed by using descriptive, bivariate and regression analysis. The results show that there is significant impact of graduate skills together with employability of those graduates especially learning skills, problem solving skills and communication skills. It can be concluded that there is a significant impact of problem solving skill Respectively all the graduates’ skill does not have significant and positive effect on employability separately. It is concluded that skills are needed by graduates entering the HR profession & also graduates want to fulfill employer’s expectations in terms of qualifications, competencies and other requirements in HRM job opportunities of job market in Sri Lanka.