Purpose: This study explores the perceptions of Australian employers regarding the benefits and challenges of micro-credentials within higher education and enablers of their effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach that included 11 semi-structured interviews with employers affiliated with an Australian university was…

Established and well-known employers in Bangladesh often complain that suitable candidates are not available for employment in their organizations, despite the millions of unemployed graduates in the country. This bears clear witness that graduates in Bangladesh are mostly unable to fulfill the needs and expectations of established and well-known…

This paper presents a qualitative study of Estonian video game companies. In total, 11 companies were interviewed regarding their company values and expectations for employees. The interviews consisted of two parts. First, a regular semi-structured interview was conducted. In the second part, we used three persona sheets based on Bachelor…

This paper analyzes how employers use discourse to ideologize the value of college internships--a historically emergent form of contingent, temporary, educational labor which has rapidly become a major feature of both higher education and labor relations in the United States (Frenette, 2015). The analysis is based on in-depth interviews with…

The paper examines the attractiveness of graduates from Indian Polytechnics (PTs). The attractiveness is examined from the perspective of actors who have a demand for the graduates, namely companies and engineering colleges. To understand the reasons for their assessment of attractiveness, this study uses the concept of institutional logics (ILs)…

Purpose: This research aims to understand employers' views and preferences on the assessment of holistic competencies (HCs) in graduates, a topic with existing gaps in literature. With the disparities between higher education practices and employer expectations concerning HC assessment, the study focuses on what employers wish to see in graduates'…

Higher education opens doors to job enhancement and economic benefits to adult learners. Despite facing multiple barriers such as life-work-school time conflicts and financial constraints, adult learners continue to seek higher education and certifications. Rural employers also benefit from supporting degree completion or job-specific…

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the skills expected by employers and the skills demonstrated by accounting graduates with data from 160 employers of accounting graduates in Ghana. From the perspective of employers, the authors compare the expected skills to the skills demonstrated by accounting graduates and identify any significant gaps.…

Purpose: The world of work is becoming digital, a process accelerated by the recent COVID-19 pandemic and resultant remote working guidelines. Online internships have become more popular in this context, and yet there remains a lack of research investigating how these internships are perceived across stakeholders. The purpose of this paper was to…

Purpose: The study aims to ratify skills necessary to bridge the gap between the existing models and emerging needs of a technology-enabled workspace; especially in the Indian context. Design/methodology/approach: This paper extends the ongoing debate on a relevant employability framework suitable both for higher education institutes and…

Institutions rely on career-ready competencies developed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) to understand the nationwide job outlook and labor market trends. The purpose of this mixed-methods study is to inform a course redesign process in the business curriculum at a Midwestern university in the United States. Using an…

In recent years, various international organizations in the field of higher education have taken on the task of defining the skills that professionals in different disciplines should develop to succeed in the labor market. As a result, universities have started to transform their curricular structures. Consequently, the aim of this study was to…

The sudden termination of nearly 40% of U.S. WIL experiences during the summer of 2020 caused employers to quickly adapt to virtual WIL experiences. What employers learned from these adjustments to their traditional WIL practices and perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of virtual experiences form the basis of this paper. Over 350…

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze Northern Manitoba employers' indexes of employability skills that influence the UCN (University College of the North) students' employability in indigenous contexts. Design/methodology/approach: This study constructs the employability skills into six indexes from employers' perspective: reading comprehension,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the industry's expectations on the key employability skills of fresh graduates in the communication and media industry. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has raised the question of whether the university should produce work-ready graduates with employability skills. Driven by the theory of human…