Addressing employability challenges of business graduates in Bangladesh: Evidence from an emerging economy perspective

Abstract

This study aimed to explore and address the employability challenges of business graduates in the higher education sector in Bangladesh. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed applying thematic analysis (N = 35, 77% male, mean age = 34 years). Findings revealed that skill gaps, lack of quality education system, quality teachers, industry-university collaboration, backdated course curriculum, and corruption are important challenges for graduate employability in Bangladesh. The study suggests improving communication skills, updating course curriculum, curbing institutional corruption, limiting student-teacher politics, hiring and promoting quality teachers, and industry-university collaboration as strategies to improve graduate employability. The findings may help employers, managers, graduates, academics, and policymakers in the higher education sector to identify and address graduate employability challenges in an emerging economy such as Bangladesh.

Keywords

Graduate employability challenges higher educational institutions Bangladesh

Introduction

University graduate employability is an important challenge for many countries, including developing countries like Bangladesh (Asonitou, 2015). To address these challenges, it is essential to identify critical graduate skills and the challenges faced by graduates (Abbasi et al., 2018; Ayoubi et al., 2017). However, there is a widespread gap between the skills of graduates and those demanded by employers, which raises concerns about students’ capacity to smoothly transition to the workforce (World Economic Forum, 2014). The ability of economies to properly utilize the workforce is vital for the development of emerging economies like Bangladesh and requires active contribution of all involved, including graduates. If graduates lack essential employability skills and face significant employability challenges, it will threaten Bangladesh’s socio-economic development (World Bank, 2018). Thus, this study sought to identify the graduate employability skills in Bangladesh, explore perceived employability challenges, and it suggests strategies to address them.

There have been consistent challenges in Bangladesh regarding employability of graduates. The 2016–17 Bangladesh Labour Force Survey reported 13.4% unemployment amongst graduates, which is much higher than the national unemployment rate of 4.2%. The youth unemployment rate is 10.6% with 29.8% not in employment, education, or training (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2018). Poor graduate employability is due, in part, to the lack of skills taught and acquired by students and because challenges faced by students have not been identified or addressed (Chowdhury & Miah, 2019a, 2019b). The high rates of graduate unemployment in the country threatens social, economic, and political stability, and for some leads to demoralization, depression, loss of self-confidence, social exclusion, and anxiety for them and their families (Hasan et al., 2017). Additionally, research has shown that crime rates are positively related to youth unemployment (Yang et al., 2016). Thus, Bangladesh represents a pertinent context in which to explore employability skills and how these might be improved to support the country's sustainable development goals.

Recent studies have investigated employability skills based on the opinions of employers (Institute for Employment Studies, 2015), accounting graduates (Jackling & Natoli, 2015), business graduates (Abbasi et al., 2018; Ayoubi et al., 2017), students (Sin et al., 2016), government, employers, and industry (Verma et al., 2018). Some studies have examined employability challenges in Botswana (Pheko & Molefhe, 2016), in Malaysia (Mohd Salleh et al., 2019), and in Indonesia (Priyono & Nankervis, 2018). The findings from these studies appear to be inconsistent with the Bangladesh perspective, which has different educational and socio-economic settings that warrant investigation.

In Bangladesh, previous research on employability skills is based on the perceptions of students (Hossain & Sormunen, 2019) and, mid-level and strategic-level HR managers of local and multi-national companies (Chowdhury & Miah, 2019a).There is a dearth of studies that gather opinions from academics and employers who are the people directly involved in training and employment processes (National Skills Development Council, 2011).

Thus, based on the above, this research drew on the opinions of academics, students, HR managers, employers, and graduates, and aimed to study the employability challenges of private university business graduates in Bangladesh. Unemployment rates have been consistently high amongst private university graduates (World Bank, 2018), which makes these universities an ideal context for this study. Thus, this study addresses the research gap by exploring graduate employability skills and graduate employability challenges for entry level positions and suggests strategies to address these challenges. The study aimed to provide deep insights for higher education institutions, students, and practitioners to realize the country’s economic development potential through the human capital of university graduates. The study also contributes to the literature by adding findings in the South Asian context where graduate unemployment is a vital issue to address.

Social-economic and political perspectives on Bangladesh

Bangladesh has a parliamentary system of government with the Prime Minister as its chief executive and the President as the head of state. Bangladesh emerged as a sovereign state on March 26, 1971, after fighting a nine-month war of liberation. Bangladesh an E9 country, is one of the fastest growing in the world, and has reduced national poverty from 44% in 1991 to 14% in 2017 (World Bank, 2019). Bangladesh has also made significant progress in human development outcomes of, infant and child mortality rates, gender parity, access to education, and empowerment of women, along with a striking growth rate of above 6.5% in annual GDP over the last decade (World Bank, 2019).

Despite these achievements, the official unemployment rate according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics figures in 2019 was 4.2% during 2016–2018, with 10.6% for overall youth unemployment. Notably, 29.8% of young people in Bangladesh are not in employment, education, or training (NEET) with a 13.4% unemployment rate for university graduates. Other social issues include labour strikes, terrorist threats, limited access to capital, and climate change. Transparency International ranks Bangladesh as 146th out of 180 countries in its Corruption Perceptions Index 2019, three places higher than a year earlier.

Review of the literature

Conceptualizing employability

Researchers have conceptualized “employability” differently. Knight and Yorke (2003) defined it as "a set of achievements (skills, understanding, and personal attributes) that makes individuals more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community, and the economy” (p. 5). Pool and Sewell (2007) saw it “as a set of skills, knowledge, understanding, and personal attributes that makes a person more likely to choose, secure and retain occupations in which they can be satisfied and successful” (p. 2). The current study draws on these definitions by conceptualizing “employability” as a set of skills, abilities, attributes, and competencies for getting, sustaining, and advancing in jobs successfully and satisfactorily.

Employability skills

Previous studies have identified various employability skills in different contexts. For example, Nguyen et al. (2018) identified three critical skills (initiative, personal planning, and organizational skills) by surveying students, graduates, and industrial supervisors. Belwal et al. (2017) basing their study on opinions of employers, identified “trustworthiness, reliability, communication skills, motivation, and willingness to learn” as essential. Deaconu et al. (2014), surveying employers, stressed that “assuming responsibility, efficient planning and organization, and time management” are necessary for decent employment. Burke et al. (2016) identified “team management, supply-chain management skill, negotiation skills, and cross-functional coordination skills” as valuable for supply-chain related jobs. Last, an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2011) study mentioned foundation skills, communication skills, teamwork and negotiation, technological flexibility, learning skills, creativity, and entrepreneurship.

Regarding business graduates, in an extensive study among universities in Australia and the UK, Jackson and Chapman (2012) noted that core business skills were: critical thinking, problem-solving, decision management, political skills, ability to work with others, communication, confidence, self-awareness, self-discipline, leadership, environmental awareness, performance management, professionalism, and a strong work ethic. Pang et al. (2019), in another study on fresh graduates, recorded dynamism, professionalism, reliability, ability to work under stress, communication, self-confidence, and attitude towards learning as essential employability skills. A longitudinal study conducted over 25 years in the USA listed social skills, technological skills, and professionalism as the needed skills for graduates (Wittekind et al., 2010). Moreover, Pitan (2016) reported academic skills, generic skills, self-motivation, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and dynamism as important. Critical thinking, problem-solving, leadership, communication, work ethic, and teamwork skills were also highlighted in a World Bank (2018) Report.

Recent Bangladeshi studies sampled marketing students, employers, and managers and reported ability to work, interpersonal communication skills, research experience, foreign language (English) proficiency, communication and problem-solving, critical thinking ability, and self-confidence as desired skills for decent employment (Chowdhury & Miah, 2019a, 2019b). Drawing a sample from recruiters and academics, Nusrat and Sultana (2019) further found interpersonal skills, communication skills, and ability to work under pressure as valuable soft skills for effective employment. The existing literature, thus, reveals different desirable graduate employability skills in Bangladesh and beyond. Based on this, the first research question developed for this study was:

RQ1. What are the employability skills required by employers in Bangladesh?

Graduate employability challenges

Several studies have examined graduate employability challenges. For example, Pitan’s (2016) study in Nigeria identified poor curriculum and learning environment, inadequate funding, lack of university-industry collaboration, dearth of counseling and career services, poor commitment by students to develop, and employability skills of graduates. Vietnamese studies found English language proficiency, lack of industry-employer collaboration, and dynamism to be critical challenges (Nguyen et al., 2018; Tran & Nguyen, 2018). A Chinese study identified lack of quality education and poor labour market orientation of graduates as crucial issues to address (Su & Zhang, 2015).

Other studies reported ‘traditional curriculum’, ‘universities, employers, and graduates failing to incorporate labour market demands, and a ‘lack of industry-university collaboration’ (Jackson, 2016; Jackson & Chapman, 2012; Pitan, 2016; Poon, 2012; Tran, 2015; Tran & Nguyen, 2018).

In a study of young people, Woods (2008) found an ability to develop suitable vocational education and training (VET) a key challenge, since VET tends to facilitate faster employment of graduates. Likewise, Rabayah and Sartawi’s (2008) study with ICT students in Palestine, and Sung’s (2013) study in Singapore, highlighted integrating theoretical knowledge and updating work-related skills as key problems. Lastly, a recent World Bank (2018) Report on Bangladesh outlined a need for quality education, inability to develop flexible curriculum, lack of quality teaching, politicization, resource shortage, and outdated policies as primary issues. Thus, the above discussion leads to the second research question:

RQ2 . What are the challenges that employers, graduates, students, academics, and HR managers identify for enhancing graduate employability skills in Bangladesh?

Addressing graduate employability challenges

Previous studies have suggested several strategies to address graduate employability challenges. Pheko and Molefhe (2016) recommended practical programs, including voluntary work, part-time jobs, and internships that improve students’ analytical and problem-solving skills, creativity, and adaptability, to enable them to obtain and manage a decent job upon graduation. Other studies have highlighted increasing investment in developing a competent workforce and urged employers and industry members to collaborate with universities to design updated curriculum and to establish training institutes to improve employability competencies among students (Nguyen et al., 2018; OECD, 2017; Priyono & Nankervis, 2018). This study aimed, therefore, to identify strategies to address graduate employability challenges in Bangladesh, leading to the following research question:

RQ3. What recommendations are made by respondents to address graduate employability challenges?

Research design and methodology

A qualitative (interview) approach was employed to address the three study questions. Thirty-five in-depth interviews were conducted with students (7), employers (7), HR managers (7), academics (7), and graduates (7) as they were identified as appropriate sources for data (Heu et al., 2015).

Participants, who were drawn from the two main cities in Bangladesh, Dhaka and Chattogram, were selected purposively and, contacted via telephone, email, social media, and private meetings at their preferred locations. Purposive sampling focuses on a specific target group (Sekaran & Bougie, 2010) and is a widely used technique in qualitative research to select participants knowledgeable about a phenomenon of interest (Creswell, 1998).

Respondents who consented to be interviewed were sent a list of questions to allow them to prepare for the interview. Interviews were conducted during June/July 2019 according to participants’ preferred time and locations, and tape-recorded with their prior permission. Interviews lasted approximately 45 to 60 minutes. All ethical requirements were met. One of the authors transcribed all interviews, read through them several times identifying relevant themes, and transferred them to note cards, which were manually cross-referenced. All authors then examined and discussed these in a friendly and trusting atmosphere (cf. Baylina et al., 2016; Wilkinson et al., 2017).

Research tool

A semi-structured questionnaire was developed that encouraged participants to share and discuss their ideas regarding graduate employability skills, challenges, and suggestions to overcome challenges. Semi-structured interviews provided the required flexibility and space for participants and allowed the researchers to collect comprehensive and contextualized data. The key open-ended research questions that guided the interviews were as follows:

What are the essential skills that university graduates need to possess for their effective employment?

What are the challenges relating to graduate employment in Bangladesh?

What strategies could you suggest to overcome these challenges and facilitate graduate employment?

Sample demographics

Participants were aged between 22 and 57 years, 27 were male (6 employers, 5 academics, 5 students, 5 graduates, 6 HR managers) and eight were female (1 employer, 2 academics, 2 students, 2 graduates, 1 HR manager). Most respondents were postgraduates (N = 26, 74%). Faculty and HR managers from the steel (3), cement (2), pharmaceutical (2), banking (3), and readymade garment industry (4) industries had > 10 years work experience, Seven Masters of Business Administration students were recruited from seven private universities.

Data analysis

The analysis began with the researcher developing a “feel” for the interviews, jotting down first impressions and highlighting themes (Wilkinson et al., 2017). Then a structured coding system was applied to all transcriptions to aid the thematic analysis, which was used to systematically identify and organize themes found in the data set (Braun & Clark, 2006). This approach defines the boundaries of a theme, the meaningfulness of the data to support the theme, and it ensures the themes are coherent (Cabral & Lochan Dhar, 2019; Castleberry & Nolen, 2018). Finally, we focused on deriving relevant themes and analyzing them to articulate similarities and dissimilarities (Seidel & Kelle, 1995).

Findings

Identifying employability skills

Regarding employability skills, participants primarily focused on problem-solving, decision-making and communication skills for graduate employability. The findings are partially consistent with previous studies in diverse contexts such as Vietnam (Nguyen et al., 2018), China (Su & Zhang, 2015), Europe and indeed Bangladesh (Nusrat & Sultana, 2019). Students, academics, and graduates reported ‘communication skills’ as essential, whereas HR managers and employers viewed communication as a soft skill. Employers, academics, and managers in general focused on problem-solving, analytical ability, work knowledge, and commitment as critical skills.

[…] most private universities produce poor quality graduates. Graduates need to possess some fundamental skills at least for employment […]. We (e.g., employers) are less interested in hiring graduates without basic skills such as problem-solving and analytical skills, communication skills, positivity, and stress taking ability. Graduates we employ might not have a good result but must possess necessary job-related skills to qualify them for selection […].

These results resonate with the findings of Burnett and Joyaram (2012), who surveyed 170 employers in 24 countries from Asia and Africa. However, our findings are more consistent with previous studies in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Vietnam (Duoc & Metzger, 2007; The Economist, 2014; Warraich & Ameen, 2010), which have stressed communication skills in English, computing skills, work knowledge and a friendly attitude. Similarly, a recent World Bank (2019) report preferred “problem-solving and analytical thinking, positive attitude, and personality” (p. 35) for effective graduate employment.

HR managers stressed communication, analytical skills, critical thinking, decision-making, leadership, and teamwork as required general skills for entry-level positions in the steel, cement, banking, and pharmaceutical sectors. In contrast, academics highlighted leadership skills, technological skills, professionalism, cognitive skills and interpersonal skills. By contrast, graduate participants reported that teamwork, professional knowledge, ability to take initiative, sense of responsibility, and self-confidence were essential. Similar findings were reported in Su and Zhang’s (2015) study in China. However, in a Nigerian study by Pitan (2016), students viewed leadership as less important, while preferring ‘written and verbal communication' and ‘technological skills’. This is partially consistent with a recent Bangladeshi study (Nusrat & Sultana, 2019), which reported ‘verbal communication skill’ as critical for graduates in marketing and sales jobs.

To summarize, respondents identified problem-solving (88%), analytical skills (83%), professionalism (78%), self-confidence (73%), leadership (71%), and technological skills (68%) as important skills for effective employment of business graduates in Bangladesh.

Employability challenges

Graduate skill gaps

In relation to graduate skills gaps, notable comments were:

Bangladesh has an abundant supply of graduates with significant skill gaps [Employer]. Due to widespread skill gaps, they utterly fail to manage jobs after their graduation making employers hire overseas employees [HR Manager]. Industry-university collaboration is pathetic…exists to a minimal extent, but not effective (Academic).

The skills gap was also highlighted by student participants themselves, who identified skills as not congruent with industry skill requirements. Participants commented:

Many higher education institutions fail to identify and address skill gaps and prepare their graduates for job sectors, and there is a corresponding negligence of companies offering suitable development opportunities for graduates. There is a lack of collaboration among key stakeholders to link consistently between industries’ skill demands and the supply of the education system.

Evidence reveals that matching skills taught at universities and employers’ requirements is essential to contribute to a country’s economic growth (Priyono & Nankervis, 2018). However, this study reported skill gaps of personal integrity, intellectual ability, teamwork, analytical and problem-solving skills, English communication skills, self-confidence, time management, critical thinking, leadership, and ICT skills. An OECD (2016) report identified “qualifications mismatch, skill mismatch, and a field of study mismatch” (p. 129) as important skill gaps. Because of these skill gaps, graduates perceived that they were poorly prepared to enter the job market. Employers commented:

Due to the shortage of skilled graduates, we have been running our companies with 10-15% vacant positions at the entry-level; thus, developing graduate employment skills has been a critical issue of the country.

Bangladesh does not suffer from a shortage of graduates, but from an underdeveloped workforce due to widespread skill gaps. Some participants attributed employers, universities, and educators' lack of interest as contributing to these skill gaps. Graduates commented:

Employers have been more prone to develop existing employees to boost up their performance and companies’ profitability than to create employment opportunities for fresh graduates, which could effectively improve their skills.

The skill gaps potentially occur because of a lack of integration between curriculum design at universities and specific demands of industries. There also might be a corresponding reluctance by industry to provide suitable development opportunities to graduates, and universities failing to appropriately acknowledge the needs of the labour market, as well as better match the educational outcomes with employer demands (Priyono & Nankervis, 2018).

Poor quality education

This section addresses the quality of higher education in Bangladesh, which mainly produces graduates and fulfills labour market demands. In short, Bangladeshi education system is old-fashioned with no accommodation for skill dynamics, technology and the labor market. Participants commented:

The one and only focus of the teachers, students and guardians is on what grades students are getting instead of skill development or career mapping. Universities in Bangladesh produce very poorly qualified graduates with less employability potentiality.

Respondents also expressed concern about widespread skill gaps and an ever decreasing quality of higher education in Bangladesh. Employers and managers highlighted the poor state of graduate skills at the beginning of employment and suggested to better prepare them to face future work challenges.

Graduates lack critical employability skills, and are less capable of doing job duties [Employer]. Interestingly, graduates complete their graduation obtaining a good grade but lack employability skills [HR Manager]. Moreover, many graduates have poor subjective knowledge and less interest in continuous learning. Some practical assessments might benefit the graduates [Educator].

The government is trying to improve the quality of higher education and established the Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP) in 2009, which was funded by the World Bank and implemented by the University Grants Commission. However, HEQEP has not yet resulted in the creation of either an accreditation council or an equivalent quality assurance system that is viewed as essential for enhancing the quality of higher education which in Bangladesh is characterized by excessive use of exams. As participants stated:

Excessive exams do not improve standards of students; instead, they create stress for students, teachers, and parents. The system forces teachers to deal with limited knowledge aiming at students’ success in the exam. By doing so, a wide range of knowledge remains untouched and as a result, students cannot prepare themselves for the real test of practical life that they will face in the job field.

The Bangladeshi higher education system is characterized by a traditional lecture delivery method and stuck with imparting only textual knowledge without developing skills needed for graduate employability. This creates grievances among the students, and participants opined that Bangladeshi students become specialists in textual knowledge without any employability skills and, thus, fail to manage expectations of jobs. Graduates are being prepared by taking excessive and unnecessary tests to develop their readiness, which is characterized by “drilling and grilling” in academic life and, hence, they fail to contribute to their families and country’s socio-economic development. Analysis regarding quality educational system has suggested three key challenges: course curriculum, teachers’ quality, and corruption.

Course curriculum

Many Bangladeshi private universities have been teaching students with outdated course curricula and assessment systems that requires routine memorization of trivial facts and passing exams, with no focus on developing human capital among university graduates. The education system is also characterized by non-creative routine learning and students’ passivity, which hinders the development of higher-order critical and analytical thinking and soft competencies. Assessment is mainly done through written exams with little chance of feedback other than grades. Consequently, Bangladeshi graduates can contribute less to organizational productivity and efficiency, which eventually compel employers to hire foreign graduates. As employers commented:

Industry members, professionals, governments, and guardians are expecting universities to include generic skills into their course curriculum of teaching programs within degree studies. Disappointingly enough, the skill development process has shifted from the workplace to the classroom.

However, there have been appeals for more significant industry-university collaboration to design a job market-oriented course curriculum (Blackmore et al., 2014) that would facilitate access to the work environment and improve students practical “know-how” (Maelah et al., 2014). The participants illustrated:

The curriculums are ‘too lengthy’ and truly mundane [graduate& educator], too hard to change [educator], and there is a lack of initiatives and resources to update it with regards to industry changes [educator & graduate]. The curriculum design does not include and encourage teaching employability skills [graduates & educators], and resources are also limited in this regard [Educators].

At the curriculum level, academics are uncomfortable in teaching skills beyond their discipline-centric issues (De la Harpe et al., 2009), while employers do not appropriately communicate their skill demands to universities (Rosenberg et al., 2012). Against this backdrop, universities globally are initiating several measures such as “ready for job” programs, by engaging employers in designing curriculum to make employability skills more explicit to learners. Notably, one university has adopted an evidence-based employability skills profile program (Pang et al., 2019) to develop and manage graduate skills.

Teacher quality

The second challenge is related to teacher quality as participants considered it a vital aspect of graduate employability. Although talented graduates are teaching at universities, there are deep-rooted challenges related to quality teaching, which in turn have to do with fundamental changes in teaching and teacher selection. As one faculty member stated:

It is true that there is a segment of great teachers. Yet it will not be wrong to say that many teachers are less interested about effective teaching and classes. Lessons they give are not interactive, and they remain stuck in traditional lecture method. Even some teachers lack in-depth subjective knowledge.

Some students and employers expressed frustration with the academics’ focus on students’ employability development and commented:

For a long time, there has been no revolution in the minds of academics about students' skill development, and we are still arguing about graduate employability skills [students]. Instead of preparing the students for a successful career in the job field, academics are busy and confined to preparing them for exams [employers].

Teachers are used to delivering lectures using traditional methods without developing knowledge and skills dynamics. Teachers also lack the ability to teach skills and in particular showing the application of those skills (Felstead, 2013). Graduates commented:

…there is a need to improve faculty skills in delivering, preparing, conducting classes and students’ assessment system. Faculty skills in subjective knowledge, curriculum development, pedagogy, and socio-emotional competencies need to be improved.

Corruption

The Bangladeshi education system is characterized by widespread corruption including bribery, politicization, nepotism in recruitment and promotion of teachers and staff, student enrolment, incentives and rewards, and in disbursing funds and procurement (World Bank, 2013). The World Bank also identified sexual harassment, faulty examination systems, and question paper leakage as serious issues, leaving the country’s education system largely without meritocracy. Such a corrupted education system may threaten the attainment of the country’s sustainable development goals and inspiration to become a developed country by 2041. Employers commented:

The education system is in danger if strength and quality are not improved, and achievements come through dishonesty, bribing, manipulation, and favoritism, thereby creating incompetent future workforce.

Moreover, a corrupt education system produces incompetent graduates who are a liability for a nation, and ruin the reputation of the country's entire education system and the country itself. Incompetent graduates may be unproductive in their family and social life. As one employer remarked:

Corruption in the education sector endangers the social and national investment made to build human capital by producing graduates without competencies for life. It also grows the position of an incompetent future workforce.

Educational corruption breeds and normalizes a social recognition of corruption at a very early age, which is detrimental. Participants commented:

The actual damage to a nation occurs when educated youths lack skills for life and work and believe that success and achievement come not through hard work and merit, but through other means [employers, HR manager, and academics]. Extensive corruption generates frustration and threatens individual effort and expectations, thereby curbing contributions to socio-economic development [graduate, students].

The corruption that has seeped through the education system is no longer something to be swept under the carpet. The Bangladeshi education system, ranging from issuing false and on-payment certificates to pre-planned question paper leakage, has taken on an entirely different face (World Bank, 2019). It does not inspire pupils to look beyond books to apply their knowledge. The education system needs restructuring to link socio-economic perspectives with employer requirements.

Strategies

This section reports findings related to approaches designed to address graduate employability challenges. The participants primarily suggested exchanging views, organizing dialogue, communicating about labour market and skill dynamics with graduates, and establishing a graduate skills centre to develop specific skills. Summary comments of participants included the following:

Graduate employability is the country’s key issue to address with concerted efforts and collaborations of all concerned. Besides, cooperation, sincerity, and a sense of moving ahead with a substantial unity of direction towards attaining the goal are also essential to accomplish aspirations with a promising demographic dividend.

Interviewees, in congruence with the literature, generally highlighted skill- and evidence-based academic programs, and effective industry-university feedback loops related to graduate skill necessities and industry trends (Priyono & Nankervis, 2018). Academics, students and graduates underscored, in particular, the collaborations between educators and industry members to inspire graduates towards continuous learning in the face of employment challenges. This can be designed and implemented into education programs and then evaluated, so that graduates’ self-development becomes possible and a way of being.

Building on this view, we suggest programs such as open innovation challenges and hackathons to foster creativity and exploit the power that comes from connecting students and companies from diverse perspectives. In addition, we suggest programs such as innovation challenge platforms, which include the development of problem solvers to design solutions for real future challenges. We would further emphasize programs like crowdsourcing platforms to develop innovative solutions, drive brainstorming sessions, and create opportunities for a community of problem solvers.

Employers and HR managers suggested improving English language proficiency to develop necessary communication skills, develop problem-solving and analytical skills, design financial modeling, and teach fundamental coding systems from the beginning of tertiary education to build students’ analytical and numeric skills. HR managers proposed improving technological knowledge by including critical problem-solving and thinking, creativity in course curricula, and building industry-university collaborations to increase graduate-work readiness. Similarly, graduates stressed updating curriculum to include labour market dynamics, while students preferred internship and counselling throughout the education system. Participants also urged institutions to develop innovative and fundamental communication skills from the early stages of student education. Moreover, participants suggested identifying and eliminating institutional corruption, banning student-teacher politics, and hiring and promoting faculties on the basis of academic qualifications and contributions, not political considerations.

We propose academic access programs, which bring students from diverse backgrounds into a common learning platform and offer remedial non-credit courses in mathematics and English to improve their English proficiency, quantitative reasoning, and general academic skills. Universities can also create centres for cognitive skills enhancement to develop higher-order cognitive abilities, as applied in some private universities (World Bank, 2019). Finally, universities can become partners with renowned overseas universities through twinning programs to improve the quality of learning and teaching in Bangladesh.

Discussion

This study analysed qualitative data collected from 35 semi-structured interviews with employers, HR managers, academics, graduates, and students to identify graduate employability skills, challenges, and strategies in the development of employability of Bangladeshi university graduates. The findings revealed that Bangladeshi graduate unemployment is due in part to a lack of required employability skills, low quality education, inadequate industry-university collaboration, low numbers of qualified academics, and flawed course curriculum. The following sections discuss the findings related to the research questions.

Regarding graduate employability skills (RQ1), participants highlighted communication and analytical skills for improved employability, which is partially consistent with previous studies in Bangladesh (Nusrat & Sultana, 2019). In particular, employers and managers highlighted the need for leadership, critical thinking, positive attitudes, analytical ability, and problem-solving skills. Academics suggested technological skills, cognitive skills, interpersonal communication, and leadership skills, while graduates have identified teamwork, professional knowledge, and responsibility as essential skills. Students also stressed communication and technological skills for useful employment. However, this study suggests that communication and technical skills, analytical ability, leadership and positive attitudes are seen as vital skills for graduate employability.

Our findings are partly consistent with previous studies (e.g., Chowdhury & Miah, 2019a) that focused on marketing students and employers in Bangladesh, which highlighted marketing, research, and teamwork skills. On the other hand, Chowdhury and Miah’s (2016) study with students and employers regarding entry-level HRM positions emphasized major courses taken and completing “subject-relevant courses”. Hence, unlike previous studies, this study suggests a unique skillset for future employees to equip themselves for decent employment.

Regarding employability challenges (RQ2), participants revealed a skills gap, lack of quality education, flawed course curriculum, low quality of academics, and institutional corruption as key challenges. These might be partly due to a lack of regular industry-university collaboration and liaison initiatives and partly to the designing and application of inconsistent competency models in universities. Labour supply in Bangladesh far outweighs demands, but the challenge lies in ensuring a good match between the competencies needed in the job and labour market and those acquired in education.

Concerning suggestions (RQ3) to improve graduate employability, managers suggested including critical thinking, interpersonal communication, teamwork, and administrative skills in the standard curriculum (cf. Priyono & Nankervis, 2018) and increasing financial support to update the curriculum regularly in order to keep pace with skills dynamics, and developing needed competencies in students. Furthermore, academics, graduates, students and employers stressed the importance of improving English proficiency in both writing and speaking as all correspondence and documentation is done in English. Students and graduates further reported a lack of employers interest in hiring local graduates perhaps due to widespread perceptions that they are less dedicated, productive, objective-oriented, and skilled, and that they would need higher training costs and more time to achieve goals (Priyono & Nankervis, 2018). Regarding quality education, participants suggested establishing quality assurance systems and an Accreditation Council to monitor quality enhancement (cf. Blanco Ramírez & Jahirul Haque, 2016).

Participants suggested allocating more resources for private universities to build infrastructure, provide additional training, and develop and apply an integrated competency model. Thus, we suggest universities develop and implement integrated work-readiness models such as the Work-Readiness Integrated Competency Model Framework (Monteiro et al., 2016) and the Employee-Educator-Employer-Employability (4E) Framework (Pheko & Molefhe, 2016), which would require all stakeholders to realize the importance of skills development among graduates and to develop a shared perspective to increase their contributions to improve the current jobless cohort. Concerted efforts by all stakeholder might improve the quality of graduates and thus the overall labour market.

Policy implications

Technical education remains below what is required, and few institutions are turning out skilled graduates for the job market (Wilkinson et al., 2017); thus, policies need to improve our graduates’ technical skills. Besides, graduates need to be oriented to the fact that employment opportunities might not be created for all, and many will have to be self-employed. For them to nurture entrepreneurial skills, the country's education system needs to be restructured to truly equip students for a life in business. Interventions are also essential to eliminate excessive impractical exam-based assessment systems. To develop a competent pool of graduates, substantial efforts must be directed towards practical curriculum design, the examination system, the teaching and learning environment, experience, skills, the emotional intelligence of students, and the range of degree subjects (Pool & Sewell, 2007).

This study also suggests that the government, the University Grants Commission, the Education Ministry, employers, graduates, students, industry members, and regulators all work in an integrated manner to identify and develop interrelated processes, procedures, and mechanisms to increase graduate employability. Similarly, policies are needed to reduce politics in all educational institutions. Against this backdrop, universities can exhibit key performance indicators and link their reward system to them, while the government can establish an accreditation council to monitor higher educational qualitative improvements.

Practical implications

The findings have implications for practice. First, the findings suggest that students should be provided with a deeper understanding of skill requirements to proactively complement their academic qualifications, which would resemble a skills development process. Moreover, the findings imply that universities should steadily and consistently teach appropriate skills in cooperation with employers by opening career and job centres to facilitate placement for graduating students (Ayoubi et al., 2017). Besides, universities must improve course curricula regularly by incorporating graduate employability skills and labour market dynamics in collaboration with industries, managers, and faculties to improve outcomes (Pheko & Molefhe, 2016). Indeed, employers and managers should extend more support towards universities to make business-oriented degrees more practical as universities are the main source of future employees and managers.

The findings suggest that the government should increase investment in education from its current level of 2% to a level of 5% of the national budget, so that universities can adopt an outcome-based education system. The country's education system must be streamlined to include the teaching of emerging employability skills by employing a sustainable educational model that can enable students to capitalize on “the skills revolution” through the exploration of a raft of new opportunities.

In addition, we suggest that university management, financial institutions and government introduce student loans programs to support low-income meritorious students. Employers and HRM managers could introduce joint projects to impart technical, vocational, and practical knowledge. Joint projects tend to develop problem-solving ability and higher-order critical thinking among participants (EIU, 2014). Besides, diverse assessment methods, along with written examinations, including evaluation of students’ practical learning could be initiated. As employers and HR managers reported problem-solving, analytical ability, critical thinking, communication, commitment and responsibility as important skills, faculties and students should focus on these skills. Many private universities operate their regular academic programs by recruiting part-time teachers who reduce the quality of learning since they are not involved in the long-term academic development of the institutions.

Many private universities have no structural and systematic faculty orientation, training, and professional development programs while universities across the world are increasingly focusing on this to ensure a quality teaching service. Thus, Bangladeshi universities need to build in-house professional training and development programs to enable faculties to deliver quality teaching and learning in the class room. Furthermore, faculties, students and graduates should focus more on developing practical and hands-on skills rather than root learning. Thus, a mechanism to assess students’ progress in learning must be established. Faculties, students, and graduates need to work together to strengthen industry-university collaboration and bring about sustainable socio-economic and cultural process for effective knowledge exchange between universities and industries.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Originality

This work is original and has neither been submitted for publication nor been published elsewhere nor it is currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.

ORCID iD

Mahi Uddin

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