Employability of Engineering Technology Graduates at a Vietnamese University: An Assessment from Employers’ Perspectives

Authors

  • Long Duc Pham Hanoi University of Industry, Hanoi, Vietnam
  • Nga Thuy Nguyen Hanoi University of Industry, Hanoi, Vietnam
  • Thuy Thi Tang University of Education - Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam
  • Thuy Ha Thi Nguyen Hanoi University of Industry, Hanoi, Vietnam

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52296/vje.2024.394

How to Cite

Pham, L. D., Nguyen, N. T., Tang, T. T., & Nguyen, T. H. T. (2024). Employability of Engineering Technology Graduates at a Vietnamese University: An Assessment from Employers’ Perspectives. Vietnam Journal of Education, 8(3), 190–202. https://doi.org/10.52296/vje.2024.394

Abstract

Employer feedback plays a crucial role in setting developmental directions for higher education and keeping university courses and curricula adaptive to the growing needs of the industry. This paper aims to analyze employers’ perspectives on the employability of engineering technology graduates after six months of working at the enterprise. An online survey of 47 items and sample characteristics was sent to employers who worked with graduates of seven engineering technology majors from a public Hanoi-based university. After two months, 234 answers were accepted and analyzed with the SPSS 26.0 software. The results showed that four components of graduates’ employability were at a medium level. Additionally, the graduates’ attitudes and other attributes were evaluated the best, followed by technical skills. Technical knowledge and generic skills were found to be at the lower level of employability. There was no difference in employability assessments by employers’ different age groups, but a significant difference was discovered in employability assessment between foreign-owned and private-owned enterprises.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Aliu, J., & Aigbavboa, C. O. (2020). Employers’ perception of employability skills among built-environment graduates. Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, 18(4), 847-864. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEDT-06-2019-0162

Calculator.net (2024). Sample Size Calculator. https://www.calculator.net/sample-size-calculator.html?type=1&cl=95&ci=5&pp=50&ps=555&x=Calculate

Chen, P. S. L., Cahoon, S., Pateman, H., Bhaskar, P., Wang, G., & Parsons, J. (2018). Employability skills of maritime business graduates: industry perspectives. WMU Journal of Maritime Affairs, 17(2), 267-292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13437-018-0140-9

Cheng, M., Adekola, O., Albia, J., & Cai, S. (2022). Employability in higher education: a review of key stakeholders’ perspectives. Higher Education Evaluation and Development, 16(1), 16-31. https://doi.org/10.1108/heed-03-2021-0025

Cheong, K. C., Hill, C., Fernandez-Chung, R., & Leong, Y. C. (2016). Employing the ‘unemployable’: employer perceptions of Malaysian graduates. Studies in Higher Education, 41(12), 2253-2270. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1034260

Confederation of British Industry (2009). Future fit: preparing graduates for the world of work. https://www.siopsa.org.za/files/future_fit.pdf

Creswell, J. W. (2015). Educational Research-Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research (Fifth Edition). Pearson Education, Inc.,.

Dang, B. L., Nguyen, T. T., Do, M. T., & Nguyen, X. A. (2019). The evaluation of employers on the competence of graduates from non-public universities. Vietnam Journal of Educational Sciences, 21, 18-22. http://vjes.vnies.edu.vn/en/evaluation-employers-competence-graduates-non-public-universities

Dipboye, R. L. (2018). Work-Related Attitudes in Organizations. In The Emerald Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (pp. 175-212). Emerald Publishing Limited.

European Higher Education Area (2022). Employability. http://ehea.info/page-employability

Froehlich, D. E., Liu, M., & Maria Van der Heijden, B. I. J. (2018). Work in progress: the progression of competence-based employability. Career Development International, 23(2), 230-244. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-06-2017-0098

García-Aracil, A., Isusi-Fagoaga, R., & Navarro-Milla, I. (2023). Employers’ perceptions of young higher education graduates’ employability in Belarus. Research in Comparative and International Education, 18(1), 104-122. https://doi.org/10.1177/17454999221145545

Hillage, J., & Pollard, E. (1998). Employability: developing a framework for policy analysis. England: Department for Education and Employment. https://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A40352

Hosain, M. S., Mustafi, M. A. A., & Parvin, T. (2021). Factors affecting the employability of private university graduates: an exploratory study on Bangladeshi employers. PSU Research Review, 7(3), 163-183. https://doi.org/10.1108/prr-01-2021-0005

Khoo, E., Zegwaard, K., & Adam, A. (2020). Employer and academic staff perceptions of science and engineering graduate competencies. Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, 25(1), 103-118. https://doi.org/10.1080/22054952.2020.1801238

Le, L. C. (2021). Capacity of Graduates through the Employer’s Assessment. VNU Journal of Science: Education Research, 37(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.25073/2588-1159/vnuer.4466

Leandro Cruz, M., & Saunders-Smits, G. N. (2022). Using an industry instrument to trigger the improvement of the transversal competency learning outcomes of engineering graduates. European Journal of Engineering Education, 47(1), 30-49. https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2021.1909539

Mai, T. Q. L. (2018). Skill gap from employers’ evaluation: a case of VNU graduates. VNU Journal of Science: Education Research, 34(2), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.25073/2588-1159/vnuer.4137

MOET (2022). Circular No.09/2022/TT-BGDDT prescribing the lists of higher education disciplines. https://english.luatvietnam.vn/circular-no-09-2022-tt-bgddt-dated-june-06-2022-of-the-ministry-of-education-and-training-prescribing-the-lists-of-higher-education-disciplines-222527-doc1.html

Moreland, N. (2006). Entrepreneurship and higher education: an employability perspective. The Higher Education Academy.

Nguyen, H. L., & Nguyen, M. H. (2015). Employers’ Assessment on Quality of Higher Education: A Study of Graduates in Engineering and Technology. VNU Journal of Science: Education Research, 2(31), 1-14.

Nguyen, P. T., Nguyen, Q. L. H. T. T., Nguyen, L. T., & Huynh, V. D. B. (2022). Factors Affecting Vietnamese Higher Education Quality in the Context of Industry 4.0. Vietnam Journal of Education, 6(3), 225-237. https://doi.org/10.52296/vje.2022.223

Park, H., & Hill, R. B. (2018). Psychometric Properties of the Korean Employability Skills Assessment and Korean Work Ethic for Gender and Generations. Career and Technical Education Research, 43(1), 19-40. https://doi.org/10.5328/cter43.1.19

Pažur Aničić, K., Gusić Munđar, J., & Šimić, D. (2023). Generic and digital competences for employability-results of a Croatian national graduates survey. Higher Education, 86(2), 407-427. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00940-7

Peeters, E., Nelissen, J., De Cuyper, N., Forrier, A., Verbruggen, M., & De Witte, H. (2019). Employability Capital: A Conceptual Framework Tested Through Expert Analysis. Journal of Career Development, 46(2), 79-93. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845317731865

Pham, D. L., Nguyen, T. N., & Tang, T. T. (2023). Application of the Delphi framework to develop a measurement instrument of employability. Proceedings of the 3rd Hanoi Forum on Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, 539-551. http://hafpes.education.vnu.edu.vn/index.php/WebControl/viewpage/210

Robinson, J. S. (2006). Graduates’ and employers’ perceptions of entry-level employability skills needed by agriculture, food and natural resources graduates. PhD Thesis, Columbia, MO: University of Missouri.

Römgens, I., Scoupe, R., & Beausaert, S. (2020). Unraveling the concept of employability, bringing together research on employability in higher education and the workplace. Studies in Higher Education, 45(12), 2588-2603. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1623770

Shah, M., Grebennikov, L., & Sid Nair, C. (2015). A decade of study on employer feedback on the quality of university graduates. Quality Assurance in Education, 23(3), 262-278. https://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-04-2014-0018

Steurer, M., Van der Vaart, L., & Rothmann, S. (2023). Managerial expectations of graduate employability attributes: An empirical study. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 49, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip. v49i0.2081

Su, W., & Zhang, M. (2015). An integrative model for measuring graduates’ employability skills - A study in China. Cogent Business & Management, 2(1), 1060729. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2015.1060729

Tomlinson, M. (2017). Forms of Graduate Capital and their Relationship to Graduate Employability. Education + Training, 59(4), 338-352. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-05-2016-0090

Tran, L. T., Hang Ngo, N. T., Mai Nguyen, H. T., & Thanh Le, T. T. (2022). Employability in Context: Labour Market Needs, Skills Gaps and Graduate Employability Development in Regional Vietnam. In Employability in Context: Labour Market Needs, Skills Gaps and Graduate Employability Development in Regional Vietnam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04144-0

Van Der Heijde, C. M., & Van Der Heijden, B. I. J. M. (2006). A competence-based and multidimensional operationalization and measurement of employability. Human Resource Management, 45(3), 449-476.

Vezi-magigaba, M. F., & Utete, R. (2023). Closing the Competence Gap of Graduates: Looking through Lens of Employability in South Africa. International Journal of Social Sciences Review, 11(3), 376-382.

Ye, B. R., & Jiang, X. Y. (2014). Study of an evaluation index system of nursing undergraduate employability developed using the Delphi method. International Journal of Nursing Sciences, 1(2), 180-184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnss.2014.05.018

Yepes Zuluaga, S. M. (2024). Employability skills in engineering from the perspective of three interest groups. Industry and Higher Education, 38(5), 485-496. https://doi.org/10.1177/09504222241247808

Zaharim, A., Omar, M. Z., Yusoff, Y. M., Muhamad, N., Mohamed, A., & Mustapha, R. (2010). Practical framework of employability skills for engineering graduate in Malaysia. 2010 IEEE Education Engineering Conference, EDUCON 2010, May 2014, 921-927. https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON.2010.5492478

Zaheer, M. I., Ajayi, S. O., Zulu, S. L., Oyegoke, A., & Kazemi, H. (2021). Understanding the key competencies of market-ready building surveying graduates from employers’ perspectives. Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, 19(1), 291-314. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEDT-01-2020-0012

Downloads

Published

2024-12-06

How to Cite

Pham, L. D., Nguyen, N. T., Tang, T. T., & Nguyen, T. H. T. (2024). Employability of Engineering Technology Graduates at a Vietnamese University: An Assessment from Employers’ Perspectives. Vietnam Journal of Education, 8(3), 190–202. https://doi.org/10.52296/vje.2024.394

Issue

Section

Original Articles