A Study on the Effectiveness of the Career Guidance Model applied by NIBM

Abstract

Opportunity to obtain higher education is considered as a privilege in countries like Sri Lanka, as people believe that this opens new avenues for young generation to obtain better employment and benefits in life. Therefore all the higher education institutions are keen to make their graduates employable. They use different models to inculcate skills and competencies required by the industry in their graduates, hence to make them employable. National Institute of Business Management (NIBM) is a statutory body which has been offering higher education opportunities for its students since 1968. They utilize their own career guidance model which is based on grooming school leavers with the graduate attributes based on TDF model (Thinker, Doer & Finisher) they have identified and finally making the students industry ready through a study module called Continuous Professional Development (CPD). This study aimed at identifying the level of satisfaction of the employers with whom the graduate students of NIBM completed their internships with regards to the graduate attributes as well as CPD module outcomes. A questionnaire developed to measure the satisfaction level of the employers regarding the graduate attributes and CPD module outcomes were distributed to 138 employers who have provided internship opportunities to NIBM students in 2017/2018. The results pointed out that the model utilized by NIBM is successful as it shows above average satisfaction level for all the areas that has been tested, but at the same time it shows that there is tremendous opportunity for improvements since none of the areas show extremely high satisfaction levels