The Extent of Skills Mismatch Among Childhood Education Graduates of Princess Alia University College

Abstract

This study is aimed at investigating the extent of skill mismatch between the skills the childhood education graduates at Al- Balqa Applied University - Princess Alia University College acquired during their studies and those demanded in the labor market. The descriptive survey design was adopted and the purposive sampling technique was employed to select 110 participants to respond to a questionnaire items utilized by the researcher based on their knowledge. Three research questions were answered and two hypotheses were tested at the significant level of 0.05. Statistical analysis of the responses using the t-test and ANOVA (analysis of variance) showed that there was a negative relationship between skills demand and supply (r = -0.006 ; p < 0.05), which  is generally low. Additionally, the extent of skills mismatch was 48.37 with major weaknesses found in communication, interpersonal, decision-making, critical thinking,  and analytical skill.  The analytical skill was the most required skill by the labor market, while self directing learning was the least. The mean for each of the skills demand was significantly different from its supply. The university graduates were not adequately prepared for work with respect to the skills demanded in the labor market. The implications of these findings were discussed and it was suggested that universities should have a clear vision of the labor market demand for skilled graduates. The research’s limitations and implications included financial constraints, which automatically re-defined the researchers’ need to expand the scope of coverage, limiting the investigation to childhood graduates of 2013-2014, at Al-Balqa Applied University – Princess Alia University College. Therefore, the generalization of the study is limited to the sample of students involved.

Keywords: Skills mismatch, employability, graduates, labor market, higher education institutions.