Table 1 revealed that the university system would require 70,854 academic staff for a projected student enrollment of 1,417,080 in 2010 and 286,644 staff for 5,732,878 students in 2020.
Concept of Graduate Soft Skills Competence
Employment skills have become increasingly important in the globalised world. Skill is the unique potential or expertise to do something properly, which is gained by learning and having passed through a particular training exercise (Adebisi, 2014). Fakomogbon and Adegbija (2011) perceived it as the know-how or capacity developed in the course of training and experience. Aderogba (2011) referred to it as the possession of expertise needed to carry out a particular task or a chain of jobs and of essence.
Competence is the ability to combine and apply relevant attributes to particular tasks in particular context (Danner & Pessu, 2013). Competency is the observable and measurable capacities of an employee in a labour market on a standard scale. Competency is a composite of skills, knowledge, attitudes or personal traits (Grzeda, 2005). It is the ability of an individual to perform his duties effectively and efficiently, which requires the possession of specific knowledge, skills and personal attributes deemed important to both the job requirements and context of the industry (Salleh, Yusoff, Amat, Noor, & Suredah, 2013).
According to International Labour Organisations (ILO) (2008), employability skills are the abilities, knowledge and competencies that enhance a worker’s ability to secure and retain a job, progress at work and cope with change, secure another job if he or she so wishes or has been laid off and enter more easily into the labour market at different periods of the life cycle. Individuals are most employable when they have broad-based education and training, basic and portable high-level skills, including teamwork, problem solving, information and communications technology (ICT) and communication and language skills. This combination of skills enables them to adapt to changes in the world of work.
Employability results from several factors such as foundation of core skills, access to education, availability of training opportunities, motivation, ability and support to take advantage of opportunities for continuous learning, and recognition of acquired skills. This is critical to enabling workers attain decent work, manage change and for enabling enterprises to adopt new technologies and enter new markets (ILO, 2008). Robinson (2000) described employability skills as the basic skills needed for one to get a job and enable him or her to carryout duties well. Kazilan, Hamzah and Bakar (2009) described employability skills as a group of important skills instilled in each individual in order to produce productive workforce. This is parallel with individuals who have strong characteristics such as a high sense of self, innovativeness, productiveness, skillfulness and competitiveness, a strong sense of determination and creativity in facing the challenges of the nation as well as globalisation in the 21st century. Employability skills are the significant subset of a broader set of generic skills. Rychen and Salganik (2001) identified four major conceptual elements in generic competencies. These are:
(i) multi-functional; they meet a range of different and important demands of daily life. They are needed to achieve different goals and to solve multiple problems in different contexts;
(ii) relevant across many fields; they are relevant for participation in school, the labour market, political processes, social networks and interpersonal relationships, including family life and for developing a sense of social wellbeing;
(iii) a high order of mental complexity; they assume a mental autonomy which involves an active and reflective approach to life and
(iv) multi-dimensional: they are composed of know-how, analytical, cultural, communication skills and common sense (p. 54).
