Identifying Graduate Employability Skills: A Case of IT Graduates in India

Abstract

Purpose: Empirical evidences on employability reiterate that learners graduating from
higher education are do not possess employability skills.This is due to mismatch between
desired and available employability skills among the learners. This skill gap is more intense
in the graduates of technical and professional programs. Considering this scenario, it
becomes prime responsibility of the higher education system to identify the relevant
graduate employability skills to enrich their learners with relevant employability skills so
as to make them job-ready. This study aims to identify the key employability skills of IT
graduates and relevant constructs of these skills.
Research Design/ Methodology: A qualitative study was conducted to identify
employability skills required by IT graduates followed developing key constructs of each
skills to be demonstrated by the learners. This qualitative research falls under descriptive
research by analyzing the current market demand of skills for IT graduates.
Findings: The study identified eight key employability skills for IT graduates followed by
the key constructs for these employability skills.The skills and their constructs identified in
this research are contemporary in nature and represent the latest trend in the IT industry
in India.
Originality/ Value: This study will help the HE institutes to identify programme relevant
employability skills and their constructs. This will help them to deploy these skills in the
curriculum delivery components so that learners graduating from these programs are
employable. This study will also helpful for the IT graduates to develop these skills among
them to become job ready.
Paper Type: Case Based Study