General Competency Modeling And Validation Of Graduates' Employability

The purpose of this research was to construct and validate the general competency model of graduates'employability in the method of literature analysis, Behavior Event Interview (BEI), was questionnaire survey, foucus discussion. The whole study was divided into three sub-studies:The purpose of the first sub-study was to construct a theoretical competency model of graduates'general employability. Firstly, Behavior Event Interviews with graduates were conducted to collect behavioral information on the characteristics of the graduates with excellent job performance. Then the data were analyzed to determine the competency items and the potential structure underlying the competence items so as to establish a theoretical model of graduates'general employability competency.The purpose of the second sub-study was to verify the theoretical competency model constructed in the first study. Questionnaires about graduates'general competency were edited on the basis of the theoretical model and survey with the graduates was carried out. Then cross-validation of the theoretical model was confirmed in the way of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). During the course the reliability and validity of the questionnaire were tested and the questionnaire was revised.In the last study, the level of graduates'general employability competency and their job performance were investigated to establish the relationship between general employability competency and job performance with the technique of structural equation model (SEM). As there was no job performance questionnaire for graduates existing yet now, a performance questionnaire for graduates was developed according to the task performance-contextual performance model at first.From the studies above, the following conclusions were obtained:(1) The general competency model of graduates'employability was composed of 5 dimensions, including 21 competency items. Dimension of self-enhancement included integrating theory with practice, learning from others, drawing lessons from the past, being open-minded, willing to star from the grassroots, accepting opinions of others; Dimension of professional ability included stress coping, professional insight, execution capacity, work planning capacity and teamwork capacity; Dimension of interpersonal management includs team obedience, interpersonal flexibility, helping others, and independence from others; Dimension of professional affection includes achievement motivation, sense of responsibility and sense of value; Dimension of personality traits included generosity, optimism and adventurousness.(2) The general competency of graduates'employability had significant effect on performance: self-enhancement capacity and professional ability had the most significant effect on task performance, then professional affection and personality traits followed; interpersonal managenment and professional affection had the most significant effect on contextual performance. Interpersonal management, professional affection, self-enhancement and personality traits also indirectly affected task performance by affecting contextual performance.(3)Gender, working state and work category showed influence on sub-dimensions of graduates'general employability competency. Male got significantly higher scores in professional affection than female and formal graduate employees got higher scores than intern graduates; graduates in technique field got higher scores in self-enhancement than those in service industry, graduates engaged in managemental work got higher scores than those engaged in technical work. The speciality background showed no differentiation in the general employability competency.(4) The model of gradutes'job performance consisted of task performance and contextual performance. Contextual performance affected task performance significantly.(5) The questionnaire of graduates'general employability competency and the questionnaire of graduates'job performance were developed with 21 items and 8 items respectively. Both questionnaires were tested with good reliability and validity.