Time to first employment (A Special Reference to the Graduates of University of Kelaniya)

Abstract

Graduate Employability means that higher education alumni have developed the capacity to obtain work. The recent experience reveals that even talented graduates have to wait for a long time to be employed after the graduation. Many of the graduates have passed out obtain a certificate, which does not help enough them to find suitable employments. Under this circumstance, graduates’ unemployment has become a severe problem in Sri Lanka during the last few decades. Therefore, this study was conducted in order to investigate that, is there a difference between the graduates’ faculties and the time to first employment. The sample was chosen using stratified random sampling method. Under the proportional system, 5% of the total population was selected for the sample. The sample of the survey is only from the latest passed out 100 graduates of university of Kelaniya in 2017. Primary data was collected by giving questionnaires to the selected sample unit. Secondary data was obtained from the academic section of the university of Kelaniya and literature survey. Collected data was analyzed using the SPSS software and MS Excel. Mean as a central tendency measure, Chi square test and Point & Interval estimation were used as analysis methods. Analyzed data was presented by using tables and charts. According to the data analysis, the average time of getting the first employment of a graduate is about five months. According to the ANOVA table, P-value is 0.044. Hence it can be concluded that there is significant difference on average time to first employment as per faculties at 95% confidence level. According to the interval estimation, that is, out of 2038 graduates, a number between 1810 to 2022 may employ by now. Finally, we can conclude that there is a difference between the faculty and time to first employment of graduates as per faculties