Search results

A graduate must be qualified in order to be successful in the labor market. Hence, embedding employability into higher education is a priority of policymakers and universities. The purpose of this paper is to promote students’ employability skills deal with the issue.

This paper is accomplished in three phases, and qualitative and quantitative approaches were conducted. Data were collected from 14 entrepreneurs and experts in the field of business and 150 faculty members from the main academic categories (including: engineering, humanities, agriculture and veterinary, science, and art).

The findings revealed that employability skills of students could be totally classified in three categories (basic, intermediate and advance) and five levels. Also, factor analysis regarding university activities to develop students’ employability skills showed five activities including: support, cultural, informing, research and educational activities.

The results can be beneficial for universities’ plan activities and offer proper services that enhance students’ skills for their future career. Also, the findings can be fruitful for higher education policymakers to find the right way to foster employability issues at universities. Mechanisms such as employers’ participation in curriculum development and work-based learning are useful in ensuring a good match between the supply of skills and the demand for skills.

This study classified graduates’ employability skills in basic, intermediate and advance categories. Another important contribution of this study was the proposed paths for improving each level of employability skills, enabling universities to be aware of the proper activities for each skills enhancement.

This study aimed to understand university students' knowledge, attitude and behavior (KAB) toward sustainable development.

A sample of 567 students studying humanities, agriculture or engineering at public universities of Iran participated in this study. A survey was administered to investigate KAB of the respondents according to their gender, membership in academic associations, academic major, educational and informing activities and social units; abbreviated as GAMES.

The results indicated that students had a medium level of KAB, with mean scores of 55.15 out of 75 (for knowledge), 45.68 out of 65 (for attitude) and 36.03 out of 50 (for behavior). Differences and similarities were found on students' KAB by GAMES. The results suggest that education and social units are useful to improve individuals' KAB toward sustainable development. In addition, positive correlations were identified between knowledge, attitude and behavior toward sustainable development.

The findings confirmed the key role of education for sustainable development in addressing sustainable development (SD).