Assessment of the needs of ICT Skills on Employability in SMEs: A VFT approach

Abstract

The globalised economy comes with the extra demand for ICT skills among the graduates. This is due to the demand if ICT technicalities in performing several basic activities in the workplaces. Majority of studies which concentrate on ICT skills on employability deals with technical enterprises. In non-technical companies such as construction, manufacturing and agriculture, ICT is studied as among the basic skill-set of graduates. However, recently, there has been a special demand for graduates with basic ICT knowledge of recruitment processes. This indicates the growing demand for basic ICT skills among a broad range of professions. However, the type of basic ICT skills required for work is not clear. This study aims to explore and understand the type of ICT skill needed, the significance of each ICT skills on employability and the way of identifying the best graduate based on ICT. This study uses Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) to understand and identifying the possible ways of managing ICT skills on employability. VFT uses in-depth interviews will be conducted to identify the fundamental and intermediate concerns regarding ICT skills on the employability of graduates. This study explored five main fundamental issues which have to be handled effectively by the stakeholders to make sure that ICT graduates are more employable within the SMEs.