Acquisition of knowledge and skills for advancement - II:

Making graduates ‘employment ready’

Convocation address of Professor Kusuma Karunaratne, Professor Emeritus, University of Colombo at the graduation ceremony at Sri Jayawardenepura University recently

Part I was published yesterday

Professor Kusuma Karunaratne

The reasons for unemployment are fairly well known but there has been no concerted effort to solve the problem. The employers found the graduate, especially the arts and commerce graduates unemployable, as they did not possess the skills nor the knowledge relevant to the employment.

Even though universities are not meant to train graduates as in the vocational schools, certain basic attributes were lacking in the graduates, some of them being
(a) lack of commitment and earnestness
(b) inability to establish good relations with superiors, peers and subordinate grades
(c) inadequate or lack of knowledge of English required for the job
(d) insufficient familiarity with modern day technology
(e) lack of enthusiasm for retraining etc.

Private sector

In view of these shortcomings, such graduates were not welcome in the private sector whose motive naturally is profit and the graduate was considered a liability.

The employment possibilities were further complicated due to political decisions when the Government during a couple of years decided not to recruit any graduate or otherwise to the public sector.

In fact the public sector was the ‘grazing ground’ for arts graduates as teachers in schools or office workers in Government offices.

The subsequent Government had to step in and employ not only the passing out graduates but also the backlog that was created. The Government employed over 40,000 graduates over the last four years which is also a burden to the Government by increasing the State sector employees.

University graduates have come to their own conclusion that it is the duty of the Government to provide employment for the bulk of the graduates. This was shown during their demonstrations within the Colombo city and elsewhere.

Nowhere in the world, the State can find employment for all graduates. Even in India and China sometimes over 50 percent of the graduates are unemployed. This is not a justification but a statement of fact.

In order to find employment a graduate must be more versatile. Especially, he should be able to communicate with at least the mother tongue and English. English has become the universal language and with the so-called ‘global village’ we cannot be isolated from the rest of the world. Without English, we naturally get isolated.

I sometimes wonder how the Sinhala people forget about the necessity of being proficient in several languages which is an established requirement for knowledgeable people.

The poem:

“Pahala porana isivara muvini mana nada
Demala saku magada nohasala sathata dada
Puvala nithi satha gatha pada aruth lada
Sihala basin sekevin kiyami pada benda”
(Subhashithaya - Verse 5)

This is a clear indication that people ignorant of other languages are considered uneducated. This is a clue which states that a knowledgeable person must be conversant with a few languages.

We know in the early days, even in the University of Ceylon those who wanted to specialize in areas like Physics and Chemistry it was compulsory for them to learn German and French in addition to the medium language which was English.

In order to be gainfully employed, a graduate will have to be conversant in English and must be able to communicate in English.

When the whole world is going through an IT revolution and almost all commerce and industry information systems are based on IT, a graduate must be proficient in IT to some extent. Graduates must realise the hierachical system in industry and commerce.

The so-called egalitarian system practised in the universities is not existent in industry or commerce. An attitude change by the graduate is most desirable if he or she wants to be successfully employed.

University students

I believe it is not fair to put the entire fault or burden on the graduate for his being unemployable on graduation. Many countries are working on systems to make graduates, ‘employment ready’. There are schemes in India, Malaysia etc. where graduates are trained for three months, six months or one year to make them ‘employment ready’.

Lastly, there is an absolute necessity for the university students to conduct themselves in an exemplary manner within the university and outside the university to improve their credibility in the eyes of the private sector employers and the public.

When employers see the university premises where slogans are scribbled all over the place with all kinds of demands using ungentlemanly language, an employer gets the feeling that all university graduates are trouble makers, even though these are done by a minority.

The public do not see this as the work of a minority, they get the impression that all undergraduates are of this calibre. An employer will think twice before employing graduates as the Sinhala saying goes “Why put a snake inside your sarong”.

In the early days, in 1950’s the university students were looked up to by the public as potential leaders and high-level professionals. Unfortunately, presently the public view is that the university students are troublemakers.

You may have seen a street drama in Sinhala where a village lad comes to Colombo with his uncle and he is asked to identify the location of the university. He identifies the university as the place where slogans like “...... vaha sevaye pihituvavu”, “diyavu”, “Akulaganiv” are scribbled on the walls.

Listening to this, you might think that this is sarcasm, but it is not. The students in the university must set an example to others with decent behaviour and good conduct.

Employers’attitude

The values of a university if they are confined to the Vision and Mission statements in the handbook, that is not adequate. The university students and staff must demonstrate the values to the public and to the potential employers in order to completely change the present attitude of the employers and public towards the university students and graduates.

It is time we realise that we are in a world of advancing technologies and processes. The acquired knowledge is fast becoming obsolete and the necessity of acquiring new knowledge must be recognized. The new terminology such as CPD which stands for ‘Continuing Professional Development’ and ‘life long education’ are rather new terms that we are confronted with.

In a highly competitive world, another method for success is the acquisition of multiple skills.

Acquiring multiple skills stabilise the position of professionals. I am aware of many professionals, eg. some engineers, who have acquired qualifications in accountancy and management as multiple skills are required, as professionals advance in their profession.

Postgraduate study is another method by which graduates can improve their chances of employment and promotion.

In the early days, Sri Lankans had to go to UK, USA or other foreign countries even to acquire a Master’s Degree. Postgraduate education was very limited in Sri Lanka. This was mainly because there were no extra rewards financial or otherwise given to university staff for conducting postgraduate degree programs in Sri Lanka.

In the later years, postgraduate education flourished because there were financial and other incentives for conducting postgraduate courses and research degrees. As a result practically all universities of repute started conducting Master’s Degree Programs.

The creation of Faculties of Graduate Studies at universities was an indication of recognition of postgraduate education. Today, we can see that ten to 30 percent of students in universities are engaged in postgraduate education.

This is certainly a healthy sign for the country as our industry, commerce and economy have to keep pace with those in advanced countries. External degree programs of the Universities were particularly popular in arts, social sciences, commerce etc. which do not require laboratory or practical/clinical work.

I am aware that the USJP has a large number of students registered as external students. Statistics show that the pass rate for external candidates is much lower than for the internal candidates. This of course is quite natural because external candidates do not have the same commitment towards their studies as the internal candidates and some of them are already employed or running families.

With growing demand for university education the external degree programs can play a major role in satisfying the needs of students. In order to make the external degree programs effective, there need to be a change in the structure or framework for conducting external degree programs.

External degree students

One method of improving the system as I perceive is to ensure that the external degree students too get some academic support from the university though to a lesser extent than the internal students.

This can be done by registering some competent organisations as academic content providers to students and the teaching content can be provided to such organisations by the university, may be for a reasonable fee. Such content providers can register the students for whom they provide academic services.

This is bound to improve the external degree system and the graduation rates as the university, the designated academic content provider and students will form a group to uphold and improve the external degree programs.

This suggestion is not an innovation as this methodology was followed by the University of London in the yester years and followed even now and the University of Moratuwa employs a similar methodology in conducting their external degree program in Information Technology.

Information technology

Another method I can think of is for the university to up-load the academic content such as lecture material, tutorials, exercises etc. required for the external degree on to the Internet for the registered students to access this content using given passwords.

With the increasing demand for tertiary level education, new methodologies will have to be found to satisfy the learning needs of the society.

The university, the private sector academic service providers and Information Technology could be integrated in serving the learning needs of a vast majority of students who by choice or otherwise have not entered the University as internal students.

I am particularly pleased to be here today to give this address at the Convocation of Sri Jayawardenepura University at which many students graduate with degrees after following external degree courses.

I hope you will be interested in gaining advanced knowledge and skills by further studies by following postgraduate degree programs in future.

I recently observed that a well-known University in Australia, Monash University has its motto ‘ANCORA IMPARO’ meaning, “we are still learning”. Education as you know is something that you will and you like to receive throughout your life. Along with the knowledge you receive by learning what is in books, continued effort to improve your skills will no doubt, make your life a far better one.

You will also be able to contribute more meaningfully to the economy of this country which has to advance in keeping pace with the rapidly expanding economies elsewhere.

Concluded