Graduate capital and employability in the new normal
View(s):Like caterpillars that transform into butterflies, young graduates metamorphose into a new page in life when they start in their first employment. That is also when they start contributing to the national economy and start getting paid. While a fresh graduates’ value addition to economy can take many shapes and forms, the conventional form of contributing to economy post tertiary education is through employment.
An extremely competitive examination holds the key to enter into Sri Lankan state universities. According to university statistics published by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for 2020, out of 62.4% of students who were eligible for university admission only 23% were admitted. On the other hand, a UNESCO sponsored survey conducted by the UGC in 2016 involving students graduated in year 2014 and 2015 saw that while around 65% of the graduates were employed, around 35% of the graduates remained without formal employment even after one to two years.
Whilst the prime objective of educators can be argued as producing competent individuals that supports the development of the country, among many expectations out of university education for students and parents, the prime expectations is finding better employment. However, employers have been complaining that the graduates are ill-trained or less prepared in certain critical areas that are essential for employment.
Since opening Sri Lankan economy to liberalisation policies in 1978, driving force of Sri Lankan economy has been the private sector organisations. More than 40% of the workforce represent the private sector. Therefore, resourcing this sector with suitably skilled and experienced people does have a considerable influence towards development of the country.
World of work in the new normal
COVID19 has created a double disruption for jobs and their digitalisation as a) automation efforts of the workplaces have already started before pandemic replacing jobs with machines and sensors (Industrial Revolution 4.0) or further simplification of processes. b) COVID-19 created the burning platform and became a catalyst of digitalisation supporting remote working, social distancing and hygiene. Also, Interruptions in global supply chain system has given rise to economic nationalism where localisation of production is taking place across the world. If leveraged well, this could create new job opportunities for Sri Lanka while boosting the economy with a healthier trade balance.
The undergraduates and fresh graduates have two specific challenges arising from the pandemic a) The quality of education has affected due to closure and interruption of the educational institutes b) Transitioning from the universities to work is affected due to cut down on jobs and reduction of internship and training opportunities. This situation demands graduates to work on their own, to be better prepared to face the competitive situation in the near future.
Graduate Capital Hexagon
Graduate employability depends on various factors. Graduate employability has evolved beyond the skills concept. Scholars and employers alike have frequently pointed out the need of upgrading the university education system in Sri Lanka. Even though there have been various attempts to improve aspects of tertiary education system, the overall approach of facilitating the learning instead of focusing on teaching doesn’t seem to have gained much traction yet. Especially following a highly competitive university entrance examination in Sri Lanka, students seem to continue to focus on tests or examinations with less opportunities to apply the knowledge in the real world. Now, knowledge has become a commodity that is available inexpensively creating pressure on the universities to justify the true value it delivers.
Employability studies have evolved from skills approach where the comprehensive Career EDGE model of Pool and Sewell, (2007) can be considered as a comprehensive framework for the skills approach to Tomlinson’s (2017) Capital approach. Tomlinson conceptualised graduate employability as a group of capitals that are acquired through their lived experiences. Graduate Capital is an amalgam of five different capitals: Human Capital, Social Capital, Cultural Capital, Psychological Capital, and Identity Capital. Tomlinson describes how these five capitals contribute to improve graduate employability.
Human Capital: The foundation to the labor market outcomes. Subject specific hard skills, technical knowledge, and career building skills
Social Capital: Networks, contacts, Relationship formation, bonding activities that help having access to opportunities and insider knowledge of jobs.
Cultural Capital: Knowledge of organisational cultures and embodied behaviors, symbolic values that give rise to cultural awareness and smoother integration into organisations.
Identity Capital: Formation of work identities, Personal investment in employment; development of personal employability narratives that supports presenting the employable self.
Psychological Capital: Resilience, self-efficacy and adaptability that helps to withstand setbacks and job pressures.
A study conducted in 2020 on employability potential of Sri Lankan undergraduates viewed through the lens of Tomlinson’s Graduate Capital and based on graduate candidate selection criteria of leading corporates gave birth to Graduate Capital Hexagon (Wijayanama, 2020). As illustrated in the figure 1, Graduate Capital Hexagon (GCH) is a framework that defines employability potential of graduates for Sri Lankan corporates. Compared to Tomlinson’s Graduate Capital Model with five capitals, GCH introduces a sixth capital – Leader Capital as Sri Lankan corporates give a significant consideration to the leadership attributes of graduates hired.
The leader capital branches out to two areas – The concept of “initiate and deliver” and the concept of “people champion”. “Initiate and deliver” covers the aspects of finding alternative approaches and work through hurdles to deliver expected results. Concept of people champion branches out to inspiring others and building trust with teams. Graduate Capital Hexagon also acknowledges physical health as an attribute to consider under Human Capital. The same model acknowledges that the boundaries of the six capitals are not hard-and-fast while being interrelated.
Figure 1: Graduate Capital Hexagon model (Wijayanama, 2020)
Present global pandemic has shaken the world including how people work. Hybrid work (where work happens from home and from office), virtual collaboration, merging boundaries of work and life, greater attention to health and wellbeing. The volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) work environment demands flexibility and adaptation and courage to bounce back with creative solutions to face challenges. Therefore, the employers will give preference to hire people who have a broader soft skill set and an agile mind. This situation for Sri Lanka has already been reflected in the GCH model.
Universities should use GCH to develop the employability potential of the undergraduates by helping them to understand how they can work towards improving their GCH score by the time they graduate. The same model can be used by the employers to hire graduates that are well-fitting in aspects of GCH. If the educators and the employers use GCH model in alignment to prepare and hire, that will provide a solution to the issue of employability readiness of the graduates that also avoids finger pointing at each other.
- Dr. Chandana Wijayanama -
wijayanama@gmail.com