Tertiary Students’ Perceptions about Their Prospects of Employability: The Case of Students in Ghana

The soaring rate of graduate unemployment in Ghanahas continued to engage the attention of government and other stakeholders in finding a lasting and sustainable solution to the problem. However, the critical question that always arises is how students in tertiary institutions perceive their employability and what the extent of their knowledge of the requirements in the labour market is. Empirical information on this critical question will help guide employment policy formulation, skills training and entrepreneurial development. It is in this vein that this article presents an analysis of students' perceptions about the prospects of employability in the job market among students of the University for Development Studies (UDS) and Tamale Polytechnic. Purposive and convenience sampling techniques were used in selecting 368 students from the two institutions and interviewing them by means of a semi-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and probit regression analysis were applied in analysing the data. The analysis revealed that students prefer to be employed in public or private organisations than engage in self-employed enterprises. The results of the survey indicated that students generally are aware of the job market requirements but are, however, not confident about their employability. The students' age, residential status, and access to entrepreneurial training as well as prospects of securing a preferred job, work experience and level of studies were found to be significant determinants of their perceived prospects of employability. There is the need for entrepreneurial training and orientation of students in tertiary institutions in order to equip and inspire them in terms of self-employed enterprise creation and skills development.