Employability and Job Mobility: Critical Skills for New Graduates in ASEA

This paper explores the level of student employability skill, and identifies factors that influence international mobility. The findings would help forecast employment trajectories of new graduates in the Southeast Asia labor market. The information will be especially useful for seven professional occupations including doctors, engineers, nursing, architecture, accountants, dentists, and surveyors. The sample sizes were 278 new graduates of five occupational programs; nursing, accountancy, engineering, doctor, and surveying, from Burapha University in 2012. The findings revealed that most respondents were male and graduated from engineering programs. We consider the intention of these new graduates to work aboard. The proportion of new graduates who have plans to work aboard and who have not was quite indifferent. Countries which new graduate would primarily expect to work in were Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei. For graduates, self-assessed employability skill readiness for Southeast Asia labor market, the personal trait ranked first. Moreover, the most influential factor of new graduate job mobility was work experience, followed by higher wages, gaining promotions, life enhancement, and family concerns.