Curricula and Employability: An Empirical Study on Tertiary Level Students of Bangladesh

Aim: The continuous innovation of information technologies accelerates the global economic development. The recent development of artificial intelligence and machine learning theory are not only through a big challenge to the graduates to enter to the job market but also all the stakeholders of entire knowledge economy to stay in the right track for better future. To develop graduates' professionalism with strong foundation of adequate skills are pivotal to meet the future challenges of fourth industrial revolution and artificial intelligence. The aim of the study is to assess the perception and attitude of graduate students regarding future employability in the context of their curriculum.

Data from 750 tertiary level students are collected purposively by direct interview method. A questionnaire is designed based the study aim with suitable well-structured closed ended questions.

Methodology: A five-point Likert scale is considered to measure the opinion and attitude towards future employability and curricula. Descriptive statistical techniques are used for basic comparisons while Chi-square test is appointed to assess the significance of different determinants to the graduates opinions and attitudes.

Results: We found graduates average age 22.39 years with small standard deviation 1.55. Most of the respondents (66.5%) belonging to bellow average income group. A clear educational migration observed in secondary to higher secondary education level. Very unexpected response observed when we asked students regarding their curricula for employability. 9.33% respondents think that the curricula is not important and 35.2% think curricula as least important. Significant impact of students gender, age and place of higher secondary level education place observed on their opinion regarding curricula for future employability.

Conclusion: The growing literature on graduate employability suggest that the role of tertiary level educational institutions, the curricula planners and the policy makers fostering graduate employability over the globe. This article endows with a comprehensive analysis of graduates' attitude towards employability. We hope that this study will contribute to promote graduate employability.