OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION AS PREDICTOR OF EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS AMONG UNIVERSITY POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS

Abstract

Background: The outcome-based education values have been adopted from the American accreditation board of engineering technology, which focuses on the dimension of learning outcomes (LOS) for each course and those outcomes will be the basis for continuous quality improvement.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine outcome-based education as a predictor of employability skills among university postgraduate students.

Design/methodology: The investigator adopted a descriptive survey method using a small sample of 173 university post-graduate students from Periyar university.

Sampling technique: The stratified random sampling technique was used for the present investigation.

Scale:In the present study Outcome Based Education Scale (OBE) has been constructed and standardized for higher education levels among university post-graduate students. This scale consists of 30 statements. The second tool used to find the employability skills scale is standardized by Wardand Riddle (2003) which contained 25 statements and four dimensions communication skills, attitude skills, team skills, and self-confidence skills.

Results: The results of the study showed that there is a significant positive relationship exists between outcome-based education and employability skills of university postgraduate students. The results also indicated that outcome-based education is a significant predictor of employability skills of university postgraduate students with a magnitude of 73% of the variance.