Exploring IT Graduates' Career Readiness: Courses, Internships, and Industry Alignment

This quantitative study was conducted with graduates of the Information Technology department from different universities in Kazakhstan. The purpose of this research is to explore the experiences of graduates outside their academic education, such as courses, internships, or professional experience. Also, this paper presented information about IT graduates' preferences about IT fields and opinions on the compliance of education with the job market's needs. Besides, correlational analysis and independent sample t-tests were conducted to check the correlation and relationship between indicators. Results show that online courses are more popular among students, and more graduates have no internships or job experience than graduates who have. Regarding preferred IT areas, they defined popular directions for graduates, but about one-fifth want to leave the IT industry. Correlation analysis showed a positive moderate correlation between internships and experience and between chosen field and opinion about education accordance level. Independent sample t-tests showed that there are differences in graduates' internships and job experiences in different regions.