Materials Today: Proceedings 80 (2023) 1727–1730

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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Employability skills of management students: A study of teacher’s

viewpoint
Renu Bala, Sultan Singh
Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, 125055, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In the present study, an attempt has been made to examine the views of faculty members towards the
Available online 16 June 2021 employability skills of management graduates of state and private universities in the states of Haryana
and Punjab. A sample of 90 teachers i.e. forty-five each from state and private university was taken.
Keywords: The key data where obtained by means of a five-point Likert questionnaire and evaluated through differ-
Perception ent descriptive statistics including frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation, etc. Person t-test
Management was used to test and verify the findings of the study hypotheses. The research reveals that teachers in
Employability
private universities focused on perceptive qualified individuals, negotiating capabilities and reputation
Faculty members
Skills
elements, while teachers in state Universities focused on theoretical competencies, delegation compe-
tences, perceptual abilities and strategic vision under the direction of fundamental employability. In
the other hand, instructors at private colleges are strongly focused on transdisciplinary expertise, emo-
tional stress control, new skills and construction mental abilities under current employability skills.
whereas teachers of state universities prioritised novelty skills, cognitive load management skills and
trans-disciplinarity skills. To improve the employability skills of the students, teachers suggested variety
of ways such as university-industry collaboration approach, skill-base education system, project learning
techniques, learning with the help of internships and projects, trained faculty, etc. As well as the higher
education institutions must develop effective routes of the communication with the employers, provide
required training to the staff members so that they can generate required employability skills in the stu-
dents and develop additional package of skills which are beyond the occupation as per employer’s
demands.
Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific
committee of the International Conference on Nanoelectronics, Nanophotonics, Nanomaterials, Nano-
bioscience & Nanotechnology.

1. Introduction ence by internships, etc. [12]. But they faced different kinds of
problems in their career life due to communication gap between
The term ‘employability’ is a combination of four different the higher education institutions and employers [4]. In the uncer-
aspects such as knowledge regarding subject, skilful practices or tain and rapid changing environment, subject specific or theoreti-
procedural knowledge, efficacy beliefs and meta cognition (Stiwne cal knowledge is not sufficient, because employer demand those
& Alves, 2010). Basically, employability skills are considered those skills which improve the employability outcomes [7]. The issue
teachable skills which are required to get, keep and doing better on of graduates’ employability has become a serious issue in the pre-
the workplace and are also referred to as core skills, basic skills, sent scenario, which cannot be ignored in the globalized economy
transferable skills, generic skills, key skills, soft skills, behavioural (Alrifai & Raju, 2019). The employability skills of twenty-first-
competencies skills and cross-curricular skills [3]. At the global century include a wide range of ICT literacy, problem-solving, crit-
level, education is considered as a tool of sustainable national ical thinking, innovation, decision making, creativity, collaboration
development as well as global competitiveness [10]. Students take and information literacy, etc. [8]. Nowadays, it has become very
admissions in the universities to expand their knowledge and gain difficult task to maintain a proper balance between the financial
worthwhile life experience as well as to get practical job experi- stability and full employment [6]. (SeeFig. 1.)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.05.473
2214-7853/Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on
Nanoelectronics, Nanophotonics, Nanomaterials, Nanobioscience & Nanotechnology.
R. Bala and S. Singh Materials Today: Proceedings 80 (2023) 1727–1730

observed that some specific skills are not sufficient to get a job
in the marketplace, so the students should concentrate on a variety
of skills. Agrawal & Dasgupta [1] described why faculty members
paid focus on the development of employability skills. The anal-
ysed data showed that teachers are aware about the importance
of employability skills as per current scenario. They understand
that theoretical knowledge is not sufficient to get the job in the
market place; there is a requirement of both basic and modern
kinds of employability skills for bright future of students. Bano &
Vasantha [4] showed what strategies should be adopted by the
education institutions to bridge the skills gap in higher education
and presented that to develop the employability skills in the stu-
dents efforts should be made by the teachers and students both.
Garcia & Barac [6] analysed how the entrepreneurship skills can
be developed in the students. The analysed data showed that
attention should be paid on multidisciplinary collaboration, team-
work, innovative thinking, healthy relationships, and fruitful ideas
for generating skills in the students. The foregoing review of liter-
ature shows that various studies have been conducted in this field,
Fig. 1. Employability skills. but the results provided by those studies are inconclusive in nature
as the focus was on basic employability skills, but present study in
extensive in nature and examined the perception of teachers
2. Review of literature towards basic as well as modern employability skills.

Boden & Nedeva [5] highlighted that universities of UK pay high

3. Research objective
attention towards the generation of employability skills in the stu-
dents and concluded that teachers focus on some specific kinds of
The present study is conducted to analyse the perception of
employability skills like leadership, creativity thinking and com-
teachers in state and private universities regarding basic and mod-
munication skills. Oliver & Whelan et al., [9] examined the views
ern employability skills.
of accounting academicians of Australian universities regarding
employability skills and presented that teachers focused on analyt-
ical thinking skills, writing skills and work related practical knowl- 4. Hypotheses
edge and to provide practical knowledge to the students,
academic-industry interface should be organized by the education In order to verify the study findings, the following theories were
institutions from time to time. Griffin (2012) analysed the percep- proposed and tested:
tion of teachers regarding employability skills in the fields of man-
ufacturing management, technology management and general H01: There is no substantial gap between teachers’ understand-
engineering and concluded that the teachers of different fields ing of basic skills in government and private universities.
pay attention towards similar employability skills such as critical H02: There is no big disparity between teachers’ understanding
thinking skills, team work skills and problem solving skills. On of modern employability in state and private universities.
other side, less attention is paid on written communication, change
readiness and customer service. Orji & Sunday [10] highlighted 5. Profile
what skills are necessary to be employable and revealed that
teachers give importance to the ICT skills, problem solving skills A sample of 90 respondents including 45 teachers from each i.e.
and numerical skill. It was also suggested that the higher authori- state and private University, has been taken. Punjab University,
ties of institution should try to provide good academic environ- Chandigarh; Punjabi University, Patiala; Central University of Har-
ment to develop employability skills in the personality of yana, Mahendragarh; Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical
students. Surta & Hardika et al., [14] explained what kinds of University, Bathinda under the head of state Universities and
employability skills are paid high attention by the lecturers and Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar; AMITY University,
supervisors. The study presented that there do not exist significant Noida; Chitkara University, Chandigarh under the head private uni-
differences in the viewpoints of lectures and supervisors. Both versities were selected as sample.
groups gave high importance to self-management skills and
problem-solving skills. Asonitou [2] examined the views of 6. Data collection
accounting teachers regarding employability skills of higher educa-
tion institutions of Greece and revealed that accounting teacher The key and secondary data were obtained to carry out this
give preference to numerical skills, ICT Skills and critical thinking analysis. A number of blogs, magazine, posts, publications, magazi-
skills. Paterson [11] analyzed the views of transnational univer- nes and records, etc. obtained secondary data. Principal details on a
sity’s lecturers and students regarding basic employability skills 5-point scale of Likert, i.e. In the case of the state teacher and pri-
and stated that teachers pay attention toward communication vate university, good compromises (SA), agreements (A), neutrals
skills, presentation skills, strategic vision skills and teamwork (N), differences (D) and strong disagreements (SD).
skills. Saeed & Rashidi [13] examined the technical skills and gen-
eric skills required by marketing professional employers of differ- 7. Analysis of data
ent sectors of Pakistan. The study concluded that under the
generic skills leadership, teamwork, and communication skills In order to compare the results of this analysis, independent
and under technical skills, sales management and industry specific sample T-test was used to evaluate the data obtained using differ-
knowledge are most required skills by employers. But teachers ent descriptive techniques such as average, Standard Deviation,
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R. Bala and S. Singh Materials Today: Proceedings 80 (2023) 1727–1730

etc. Cronbach Alpha coefficient (0.936) was used as a good metric 9. Conclusion and recommendations
for internal accuracy to control the confidentiality of data obtained.
The present study concluded that teachers are paying more
attention towards the modern employability skills as the current
8. Results and discussions market is demanding such skills from the youth. Teachers in pri-
vate universities focused on perceptual skills, negotiation skills
The frequency distribution of instructor insight from State and and integrity skills, whereas the teachers in state universities
private colleges to the fundamental skills of employability indi- focused on analytical skills, delegation skills, perceptual skills
cates that the majority of teachers are highly tolerant of teamwork and strategic vision skills under the head of basic employability
skills (N = 79, P = 87.78), leadership and inspirational skills (N = 76, skills. On other side, under modern employability skills, teachers
P = 84.44), voice (N = 74, P = 82.22), presentation skills (N = 73, in private universities focussed highly on trans-disciplinarity skills,
P = 81.11). cognitive load management skills, novelty skills and design mind-
Table 1 provides informative and inferential data on the under- set skills, whereas the teachers in state universities prioritised nov-
standing of teachers of basic skills in jobs. Professors in private aca- elty skills, cognitive load management skills and trans-
demia concentrated on expertise in interpretation (x=3.87, disciplinarity skills. To improve the employability skills of the stu-
l = 0.625), negotiation (x=3.18, Ś=0.886), and honesty (x=3.00 dents, teachers suggested variety of ways such as university-
and Ś=0.603). In the other hand, the professors in the State Univer- industry collaboration approach, skill-base education system, pro-
sities based their attention on intellectual ability (x: (3.60; ject learning techniques, learning with the help of internships and
l = 1.214), delegating abilities (x=3.38; =1.193) and perceptual projects, etc. The higher education institutions must develop effec-
capabilities (x=3.270; Statistically, the findings of t-test reveal that tive routes of the communication with the employers, provide
the experience of state and private university teachers in the fields required training to the staff members and develop additional
of analytical (p = 0005) abilities, the skills of delegation (p = 0003), package of skills which are beyond the occupation as per employer
the skills of coordination (p = 0001) and the sensory ability demands.
(p = 0001), is substantially different, and hence the zero hypothesis
(H01) is dismissed.
10. Implications of study
The frequency distribution of perception of teachers in state and
private universities towards modern employability skills presents
The present study will provide a roadmap to higher authorities
teachers strongly agree/agree towards cross-cultural competency
and teachers of educational institutions to know what steps can be
skills (N = 81, P = 90), ICT skills (N = 80, P = 89.89), new-media lit-
initiated by them for improving the employability skills of stu-
eracy skills (N = 71, P = 78.89), sense-making skills (N = 66,
dents. The results of the study can also be used as a reference by
P = 73.33), social intelligence skills (N = 60, P = 66.67), virtual col-
the researchers to conduct the research further in the respective
laboration skills (N = 57, P = 63.33), design mindset skills (N = 53,
field.
P = 58.89) and novelty skills (N = 41, P = 45.56).
The study of teachers’ perception towards new employability
skills is summarised in Table 2. The teachers in private universities 11. Limitations and further scope of the study
were profoundly concerned with the capacities of transdisciplinar-
ity (x = 3,76, ̈ < 0645), cognitive load handling (x = 2,89, 0 =0647), The study is limited to few Universities only situated in the area
new talents (x = 1,98 and ̈ = 0543) and design analytical ability of Punjab and Haryana. The sample size of 90 teachers is also small
(x = 1,98 and x= 1583). In the other hand, state university teachers which cannot be used to generalize the outcomes of the study. So
prioritised the ability to acquire new expertise (x = 3.49, ̈+ = 0.695), the study can be extended further by including the faculty mem-
the capacity to handle cognitive loads (x = 3.44, ̈= 1.253) and the bers of universities in other states.
capability to transdiscipline (x = 3.11), x= 1210). Statistically
speaking, the outcomes of t-test reveal that the perceived dispari- CRediT authorship contribution statement
ties in cognitive load control (p = 0010) and creativity abilities
(p = 0000) at 5 percent are significantly different for teachers in Renu Bala: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Visual-
the governmental and private sector universities and that the zero ization, Writing - original draft. Sultan Singh: Data curation,
hypothesis (H02) is thus dismissed. Supervision, Software, Validation, Writing - review & editing.

Table 1
Descriptive and Inferential Statistics of Basic Employability Skills.

Statements N Private Universities Public Universities t-test

x r x r t Sig
Speaking skills 45 1.69 0.596 2.04 1.065 1.954 0.054
Listening skills 45 2.07 0.863 2.00 0.977 0.343 0.732
Presentation skills 45 1.27 0.447 2.16 1.224 4.576 0.076
Creativity and innovation skills 45 1.89 0.935 2.42 1.196 2.356 0.231
Analytical skills 45 2.93 0.939 3.60 1.214 2.914 0.005*
Strategic vision skills 45 1.96 0.601 3.11 1.172 5.884 0.083
Decision making skills 45 1.38 0.535 2.67 1.206 6.554 0.843
Leadership and inspirational skills 45 1.51 0.506 2.29 1.079 4.378 0.092
Negotiation skills 45 3.18 0.886 2.80 1.014 1.882 0.063
Delegation skills 45 2.73 0.720 3.38 1.193 3.103 0.003*
Teamwork skills 45 1.51 0.506 2.13 1.160 3.299 0.001*
Integrity skills 45 3.00 0.603 2.89 1.153 0.573 0.568
Perceptual skills 45 3.87 0.625 3.27 0.939 3.568 0.001*

Note: N = No. of Respondents, * = Significant at 5 percent level.

Source: Primary survey (Author’s Calculation).

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R. Bala and S. Singh Materials Today: Proceedings 80 (2023) 1727–1730

Table 2
Descriptive and Inferential Statistics of Modern Employability Skills.

Statements N Private Universities Public Universitie t-test

x r x r t Sig
Sense-making skills 45 1.58 0.583 2.76 1.209 5.886 0.732
Social intelligence skills 45 1.40 0.495 2.89 0.885 9.849 0.884
Novelty skills 45 1.98 0.543 3.49 0.695 11.494 0.000*
Cross-cultural competency skills 45 1.56 0.624 1.80 0.815 1.598 0.114
ICT skills 45 1.62 0.650 1.67 0.820 0.284 0.721
New-media literacy skills 45 1.84 0.562 2.22 1.085 2.074 0.061
Transdisciplinarity skills 45 3.76 0.645 3.11 1.210 3.152 0.202
Design mindset skills 45 1.98 0.583 3.02 1.177 5.333 0.632
Cognitive load management skills 45 2.89 0.647 3.44 1.253 2.642 0.010*
Virtual collaboration skills 45 1.91 0.557 2.93 1.195 5.202 0.934

Note: N = No. of Respondents, * = Significant at 5 percent level.

Source: Primary survey (Author’s Calculation).

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The authors declare that they have no known competing finan- [8] D. McGunagle, L. Zizka, Employability skills for 21st century STEM students:
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared the employers’ perspective, Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning,
2020, 2(1), pp. 1-22, ISSN: 2042-3896, available at commons.erau.edu.
to influence the work reported in this paper.
[9] B. Oliver, et al., Accounting graduates and the capabilities that count:
perception of graduates, employers and accounting academics in four
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