Employability Survey of the Management Graduates in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Employability of graduates in Sri Lanka is a trending research area especially due to the increasing trend in competition among state university and non-state universities of the country. Also unemployment of state university graduates could be considered a national issue as billions of rupees are invested each year to provide the free university education to the highest score students of each stream and thus returns of these investments are worth investigating in terms of both at institutional level and national level. Accordingly, the main objective of this study was to discuss the employability trends of graduates of the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce (FMSC) of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, in year 2016. The primary data was collected at the time of their graduation at the 42 nd Convocation held in year 2016. A structured questionnaire was used and data were analysed using a descriptive approach. The main finding of the study denotes that in year 2016 the employability is 85% inclusive of those who are employed at degree level, not at degree level, self-employed and employed as audit trainees. In the year 2015 it was recorded as 58% but not considering the level at which they are employed. The employment rates of both the years are recorded at a period of three months after receiving their final results depicting that the employment rate of graduates of the FMSC is in a favourable situation vis-à-vis to other state universities in Sri Lanka as well of foreign countries. It was also identified that majority of the graduates were employed in the private sector. Findings on the secondary objectives of the study concludes that graduates consider degree, professional qualifications and work experience as the main aspects in obtaining their current employment while lack of training experience and employability skills are considered to be the main obstacles of obtaining their expected employability.

Employability Survey of the Management Graduates in Sri Lanka (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318813531_Employability_Survey_of_the_Management_Graduates_in_Sri_Lanka [accessed Sep 27, 2017].