Development Of An Integrated Graduate Portal (IGP) For Graduate Marketability

Graduate marketability has become a critical issue as many graduates have problem in getting employed after completing their study in the university. This is mainly due to their inability to showcase their achievements and market their skills properly to prospective employers. This study firstly identifies the user requirements from all identified stakeholders, and secondly, based on these findings, develops a portal prototype that incorporates the integrated features called the Integrated Graduate Portal (IGP). Finally, the study evaluates the use of the IGP in facilitating graduate marketability. The aims of this portal are to facilitate graduate marketability by showcasing graduates’ contents and skills using electronic portfolio (e-portfolio), to employers, and to reduce the communication gap between the employers, graduates and their university. Two phases of survey were conducted for this study. The first one was conducted to identify and gather the user requirements from all identified stakeholders (graduates, employers, lecturers and administrator). These requirements were analyzed and carefully selected prior to incorporating them during the development of the portal. Once the IGP prototype was developed, the second survey was conducted to evaluate the use of IGP to facilitate graduate marketability. The evaluation results showed that the IGP may help to facilitate graduate marketability. It was found that integration features such as graduates’ e-portfolios, employers’ job requirements information, verification of graduates’ content by lecturers, and collaboration of graduates, employers and university in the IGP, are features that may aid graduates to facilitate their marketability. In conclusion, it is hoped that the use of the IGP may help the graduates to facilitate their marketability and bridge the communication gap between the graduates, employers, lecturers and university, therefore improving the interaction and collaboration between all stakeholders. Index terms- Electronic portfolio (e-portfolio), graduate marketability, Integrated Graduate Portal (IGP).