Employment Skills of Public Health Students and Graduates in a Public University: A Study from South India

Background: Public Health has a demanding job market and the number of institutions offering Master of Public Health programmes (MPH) is on the rise. This paper investigates the perceived employability skills required for public health students and graduates to secure and sustain a job.Method: A survey was conducted among 41 students and graduates of the MPH programme (12 beginners, 18 mid-termers, and 11 graduates) offered at a public university in South India. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) of employability skills was done using a tool adopted from the Generic Skills Questionnaire from Tuning Educational Structure. Non-parametric tests (Mann-Whitney test, Kruskal Wallis test, and Spearman Rank correlation test) were used to test the hypotheses on the association of achievement of employability skills with various predictors.Results: The median of overall importance and achievement of skills was three each. The most important employability skills were ‘decision-making’ and ‘planning and time management’. The least important ones were the ‘ability to work autonomously’ and the ‘innovative and entrepreneurial spirit’. The level of achievement was high for the skills, namely ‘will to succeed’ and ‘concern for quality’. It was low for skills – ‘capacity for analysis and synthesis’, and ‘initiative and entrepreneurial spirit’. Job experiences/ internship opportunities were found negatively correlated with the achievement of employability skills, reflecting the limitation of the MPH curriculum (p value: 0.030). Graduates had higher levels of achievement compared to beginners and mid-termers, indicating the contribution of the MPH curriculum in skill development.Conclusion: It is important to design the MPH curriculum to ensure students’ achievement of essential employability skills to enhance their job prospects upon graduation. How to cite this article:Jayalakshmi R, Kadali P B, Amaladevi CS, Sibasis H. Employment Skills of Public Health Students and Graduates in a Public University: A Study from South India. Chettinad Health City Med J. 2024;13(4):75-84. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24321/2278.2044.202462