Academic Performance in Professional Programs is an Echo of Their Non-Cognitive Traits of Students: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

In the recruitment process for jobs; the HR department conducts a series of tests and interviews to assess individuals’ ability for job fit. Especially in fresher’s selection; academic performance is taken as a criterion for candidate selection. The question is; does the percentage of marks or CGPA score of students reflects an individual’s cognitive ability only or it also captures their non-cognitive skills too. As these non-cognitive skills are basically attitudinal characteristics of candidates so these measurable indicators can help HR to gauge students’ attitudes to any extent. To answer this; the research is based on the  “Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) “in which researchers consider the academic performance of Engineering students as long behaviour and they study about establishing causal impact of six Non-cognitive skills using PLS (Partial Least square) based Structural Equation Modelling. Results of PLS SEM model are discussed in detail with respect to validity and reliability.