Limiting Skills Gap Effect on Future College Graduates

Abstract

Many graduates upon graduation from college or university find it difficult to get the job they planned to enter after they leave school. Employers are claiming that the new graduates are not equipped with the necessary skills required to work for them. Hence, they are not hirable. Obviously, it is easy to shift blame on academic for failing to prepare students with the necessary skills to be gainfully employed upon graduation. However, this is an issue that needs to be addressed jointly by all stakeholders involved in educating these potential college graduates while in school. This article addresses what skills gap is, some of its causes, and what to be done by students, educators and the industry to limit its effect on the future college graduates.

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“…Concerning students, they have to understand that the economic challenges will make it hard for fresh graduates to get the opportunity for a suitable job without possessing the adequate soft skills needed because hotel operators are looking for success, which requires hiring graduates who have the potential to add value to the hotel business (Ejiwale 2014). Therefore, students have to improve their skills to attain goals by exerting more effort in learning skills that are valuable for their potential job and realizing that in today's world, to be successful, they have to be flexible and creative.…”

“…Concerning the hospitality industry, hotel management graduates experience a shortage of the necessary skills, which makes them less relevant to the industry, and thus less attractive for hotel recruitment (Hossny 2018), which affects the graduates' employability and leads to an increase in unemployment and underemployment among higher education graduates (Brewer 2013, Ejiwale 2014, Ramisetty and Desai 2017, Crespin et al 2019.…”

International mobility programs to improve soft skills of Vocational College students and alumni

“…Colleges and universities as education institutions are responsible for facilitating their students to develop their soft skills along with the development of their hard skills. Unfortunately, there is a gap between what students learn in their respective field of study and the skills needed by the employers [6]. Therefore, it is important that in the 21 st century, education institutions prepare their graduates to become productive workers and citizens who possess both, hard skills and soft skills.…”