A Novel Employability Model for Enhancing Job Readiness and Career Development among Nigerian Graduates

This paper presents a novel employability model for enhancing job readiness and employability among Nigerian graduates. The study was motivated by the increasing rate of graduates’ unemployment and the need for education system reforms and curricula re-engineering. The Southeast region consistently recording the highest university enrollments annually, was selected as sampling area. The research scope is limited to public universities and private-sector employers. Purposive sampling was applied in selecting a sample of 144 multi-stakeholder participants. Participants include 80 students in their graduating level having cumulative grade point average of 3.50 and above, 50 faculty/academic administrators, and 14 human resources managers of selected private sector employers. A Likert 5-point scaled instrument was used for data collection. Qualitative responses were quantified and subjected to multi-variate error correction model analysis. Results show that in the short term, academic achievement and work-integrated learning all have significant negative effects on education training outcome (job readiness), while in the long term, that of academic achievement becomes positive and significant. The paper concludes that the novel employability model has high likelihood of bridging employability skills gaps of traditional training outcomes, thereby enhancing job readiness and career development among graduates. Hence, the adoption of the model by universities is recommended as curricula re-engineering and educational system reform strategy.