Dimensions of Self-Perceived Employability in First Year IT Students

Abstract

Undergraduate students entering university arrive with certain expectations as to how their degree program will equip them to enter the world of work. Students are aware of the competitive nature of the modern day labor market and, as seen in this study, there is a majority belief that their program of choice and the good reputation of the university will give them an advantage in increasingly competitive labor markets. This competition and the relentless trend of automation are placing downward pressure on the numbers of otherwise employable graduates. In this study, we use an established research instrument (Rothwell et al, 2008) to examine the expectations and self-perceptions of undergraduate students, considering dimensions of self-perceived employability in a cohort of 300 Information Technology (IT) students (136 responses) at a multi-campus, metropolitan university. We then contrast these results with the perceptions held by university students across multiple domains and professions. The results indicate that the IT students perceive themselves to be more employable relative to other professions.