Page 41 - UDYAMA FINAL final for web

the future. Employers recruit
judge persons’ Attitudes and soft
fresh graduates not only for a skills in a 15-20 minute inter-
current routine type of a job, but view? Recruiters are often pre-
with a vision to groom them for a ssurised to fill the workforce
future job. Because of that reason, shortages within a short notice.
the most of the big companies
recruit fresh graduates under On the other hand, we experience
Management Trainee program- that most new recruits struggle
mes. When selecting candidates due to issues of their attitudes and
for these programmes, priority is soft skills even they were some-
given for attitudes and soft skills how selected. Either they leave
because if attitudes are right, the company shortly or they stay
other problems can be fixed. The- with frustration and dissatisfac-
refore, famous quote of “Hire for tion. The majority of graduates
Attitudes Train for Skills” is very rejected at the interview stage or
valid for graduate recruitments. terminated or resigned in their
often 1st year of career. There is
also a kind of negative opinion
Identifying where the about graduates coming from the
problem is important government university system
because of their attitudinal issues.
Our graduates are generally well On the other hand, there is a
equipped with subject/technical general belief that private sector
knowledge and IQ because of our graduates/foreign graduates perf-
education and examination sys- orm better than public sector
tem aiming in that direction. graduates do. Therefore, there is a
Often employers / managers criti- predisposition to recruit gradu-
cise about graduates’ attitudes ates from foreign universities /
and soft skills not hard skills. professional bodies than from
Employers can quickly improve local universities. From one hand,
hard skills that have already industries always complain that
gained from graduate studies, thr- there is a shortage of profession-
ough experience and workplace als and skill people. From the
training programmes, but not so other hand, we see young gradu-
for attitudes and soft skills. Large ates struggling in finding job
stable organizations have budg- opportunities. Finally, these situ-
ets/resources for employee devel- ations may lead to economic and
opment programmes, but SMEs social crisis.
does not have that capacity.
SMEs cover the largest part of the
employment market of Sri Lanka. All should work together to
find solutions
Researchers find that demand for
soft skills is increasing. Employ-
ers seek soft skills than hard Succi & Canov (2020) identify
skills. The reason for that is, that top 20 soft skills that are required
most of the workplace issues wh- to enhance graduate employabili-
en analyse, deep rooted in emp- ty in selected European contexts
loyees’ attitudes and soft skills. based on the perceptions of
This does not mean that hard ski- industry and students. According
lls are not important, but it indi- to this study, top 20 skills were
cates the Gap: the deficiency of ranked based on the mean values
our graduates. However, asse- (Graph 1). These studies provide
ssing attitudes and soft skills are valuable insights and learning
always difficult and challenging. opportunities. Those who can
Recruiters often say; how can we demonstrate the highest level of
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