IMPACT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL AND QUALITY EDUCATION ON ST GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY IN THE 21 CENTUARY

Abstract

Preparing students for employment is inherently part of the goals of tertiary educations. With the
current trends of events in the labour market, employability has become a thing of paramount
important. This paper is an attempt to provide information base in regards to Psychological Capital
as having the indispensable contents for quality education with which to shape a graduate for
suitable employment. To achieve this objective, the researcher formulated two null hypotheses to
guide the study. Ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. Purposive sampling
technique was used in the selection of the samples. A total of 100 respondents were used for the study.
The major instrument for data collection was a four-point Likert scale questionnaire titled
Psychological Capital and Graduate Employability Questionnaire (PCGEQ). This was designed by
the researcher with the aid of four research experts to establish its validity and reliability. The data
collected were analysed using Pearson Correlation in IBM SPSS version 22. The result shows that
there was a strong positive correlation between psychological capital and graduate employability,
which was statistically significant (r = 0.752, n = 100, p<0.001). There was a strong positive
correlation between quality education and graduate employability, which was statistically
significant (r = 0.670, n = 100, p<0.001). Based on this finding, it was recommended among others,
that the psychology courses in tertiary institutions curriculum should be reformed and made core to
provide students of higher institutions with the skills requirements of contemporary labour market. It
was also recommended that emphasis on certificate instead of skill oriented training should be
minimized.