Our client is the Singapore branch of an Australian University. They offer a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programs in fields such as business, psychology, education and more.
Research Objectives
The study strives to understand the employment landscape of the university.
For recent graduates:
Their employment status
Nature of roles / industries that the graduates are working in
Starting salaries
Feedback on education
Challenges faced in their job search
For employers:
Considerations when hiring graduates
Positive and negative perceptions of the university’s graduates
Suggestions to better prepare their graduates for work
Approach
This study was conducted via online self-administered surveys with 259 graduates and some employers. The project team employed various methods to encourage participation from the graduates, including email reminders, SMS reminders, phone reminders as well as the use of mailers with a QR code to the survey link.
Findings to the Graduate Employment Study
With the results from the graduate employment survey, the university was able to understand the career support needs of their graduates.
Our client was also able to understand the in-demand skills and traits their graduates should possess. This helped them to understand the direction and priorities for aligning their curriculum to meet the industry’s needs.
For example, it was found that the top 3 challenges that graduates encountered during their job search were:
Lack of internship/mentorship programme opportunities
Securing initial interviews related to their career interest
Lack of technical skills for the roles that they applied to
The top industries of employment of the graduates were:
Banking, Financial Service & Accounting
Psychology, Social Work & Counselling
Education & Teaching
On the other hand, for employers, the top 3 factors of consideration when hiring include:
Personal Effectiveness
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
Interpersonal Effectiveness
Additionally, employers felt that the university can better prepare graduates in the areas of:
Internship/Mentorship Programme Opportunities
Personal/Interpersonal Effectiveness
Enhancing Multidisciplinary Knowledge and Technical Skills
Application
With the results, the university was able to better understand the gap between their undergraduates and the industry needs. This enables them to improve on their current curriculum and better prepare their undergraduates for the workforce. This will then improve the employability of their graduates.
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