Level of Perceived Employability of Engineering Students in Kathmandu Valley

Abstract

The discourse of employability revolves around the mitigation of mismatch between educational outcomes and the job market demand.  This discourse is pertinent in engineering education as it is dedicated to producing human resources with the required employability skills. In this context, the students - to whom employability is transformed - are in the central focus. Their perceptions about their abilities in demonstrating and performing in the world of work require attention to connect education and their work. Considering this, the level of perceived employability of the engineering students studying in their final year was measured by using a self-constructed scale in a representative sample of 314 students of Kathmandu valley. The finding shows that the graduating students’ perceived employability was not consolidated and optimised to reflect on their behaviour and practices. It is at the level of ‘emergence’ and ‘presence’, which is thus not enough to see in their abilities to perform better. Therefore, the students were not able to perform as per the expectation of the market.  The key implication of this study is that the gap of work-study transition stipulated to be minimised for the employability of the graduates with their exposure in the world of work.