The Skill Gap in Bangladesh’s Financial Sector: Employer Expectations, Graduate Competencies, and Mitigation Strategies (Published)
This paper analyzes the skill gap among fresh graduates entering the financial sector of Bangladesh from the employer’s perspective and suggests possible mitigation strategies to reduce the gap. This study analyzes the difference between employers’ expectations of skills that a graduate should possess, and the actual skills and competencies fresh graduates have. Three skill categories: soft skill, technical skill, and personal attributes of graduates have been used to analyze the skill gap. Data for the study was collected through a survey from professionals in the financial sector of Bangladesh. A quantitative research approach was followed. Data was analyzed using mean and standard deviation, paired sample t-tests, independent sample t-tests, and regression analysis. The findings suggest that there is a significant gap between employer expectations and the actual skill levels of graduates across all three skills categories. The gap is most prominent in personal attributes such as time management and professional ethics. For graduates, soft skills are found to be more important than technical skills. According to employers, structured and on the job training and mentoring programs help mitigate graduate skills gap. To match classroom learning of graduates with the skills requirement, deeper industry academia collaboration is needed. The findings of this study can be useful for universities, students, employers, and policymakers in improving graduate employability and organizational effectiveness in the financial sector.
Keywords: Employability, Training, financial sector of Bangladesh, graduate skill gap, industry academia collaboration
Contemporary Working Dilemmas and European Policies for Transformation (Published)
The contemporary societal characteristics, the rapid development of technology, the intense demographic changes, the high and persistent unemployment rates have led to major changes in the workplace. More and more professional groups are becoming vulnerable and they need to redefine their work profile and strengthen it with skills that will let them respond to the mental, physical and emotional demands of the new labor market. In such a context, the training and education of potential professionals becomes a matter of major importance and a reference point for the policies of international organizations. The European Commission has drafted texts which aim to increase the employability of individuals. One recent text is that of “A New Skills Agenda for Europe”, which was adopted by the Commission on 10 June 2016. Following the quantitative methodology and in particular the content analysis of the text we examine the way it can be achieved. The categories used for the analysis of the text come from the transformative learning theory of Mezirow and in particular the ten stages of stochastic processing. The results of this study show that the aim of this text seems to be the learning transformation of employees in order to become more employable.
Keywords: Dilemma, Employability, European Policies, Skills, Transformative Learning
EMPLOYABILITY OF TERTIARY EDUCATION GRADUATES IN NIGERIA: CLOSING THE SKILLS-GAP (Published)
The issue of graduate unemployment has been in the front burner of discourse in the nation in recent years with the churning out of graduate’s year in, year out clogging further the labour market. Even with the large number of unemployed graduates in the country, employers of labour still find it difficult to fill the existing few vacancies that crop up from time to time because these graduates are often found unemployable. They lack certain requisite skills for sustainable employment. These skills create a gap in their knowledge which should have been embedded in the curriculum used in the process of training them. From the literature reviewed, the paper looked into what the employers actually want, recognising the gaps in the required skills and how these can be incorporated into the curriculum the students are exposed to before they graduate. This curriculum should expose them to skills apart from technical and professional skills that will make them employable or make them self-employed, reducing greatly the number of unemployed people in the nation. This will stem the tide of rising social menace in the country often created by joblessness, which if not addressed can threaten the stability of the nation
Keywords: Employability, Employability Skills, Entrepreneurship, Skills-Gap, Unemployment