Factors affecting Self- Perceived Employability among Tribhuwan University Humanities and Social Science Students

Abstract

One of the most pressing problems conspicuous in job markets all around the world is the never-ending supply of graduates who have acquired tertiary education, but a limited demand for workers in comparison to this supply, leading to high rates of unemployment and underemployment among the graduate students (Jackson & Wilton, 2016). Correspondingly, the situation of Nepali students/graduates is such that as soon as they complete their Master’s level degree, they start worrying about their job prospects. Nepali students of all faculties-- technical and mostly Humanities and Social Sciences-- grow dejected and exceedingly unsure about how to put their degree to use and consequently, they begin doubting on their potential and their qualifications. To doubt on one’s potential of being able to navigate the challenges in the labor market (Jackson & Wilton, 2016) and being unconfident about progressing in the labor queue, is having low self- perceived employability. Taking into consideration this ever- growing problem of job- insecurity and decreased self- perception of employability in students/ graduates, this research has focused on three factors—the possession of cultural- social capital of students (CSC), the state of the external labor market and students’ knowledge of it (SELM), and economic- class and university brand strength (UBS)--- under internal and external dimensions that are known to shape the self- perception of employability (SPE). The results of Spearman’s Rank correlation reveal a significant positive correlation between each of the independent variables to the dependent variable, SPE. And furthermore, the highest value of standardized beta (β) for CSC at .400 in the multiple linear regression analysis indicates that for this sample of TU social science students, their possession of CSC has the strongest relationship with SPE. Since the study results for TU social science students indicate that all three dimensions— CSC, SELM and UBS—have a significant positive relationship with SPE, it can be concluded that as argued in theories by Bourdieu, Collins and as shown by other existing empirical studies, CSC, SELM and UBS having a significant positive relationship with SPE is true in the context of Nepal too. Finally, given this relationship, stakeholders working to better the condition of these dimensions may produce a highly confident workforce that can compete and secure a desirable job not only in the national market but also international market.