Personality Developement

There is a general belief in the UK labor market that fresh graduates lack the skills that enhance their employability (terms of employability, a degree is only a label on the graduate for some ambiguous skill set, the need   of   the hour is that graduates orient themselves  to become employable in the labour market .

The UK Government, Universities are being charged with improving the employability of students by developing curricula that is relevant to  the present  job market. According to the conference board of Canada. Knowledge house 2003:3 “8 out of 10 organizations said that graduates should have better interpersonal skill, writing, presentation and team work skills. Employable graduates according to most organizations portray the same skills that are required by a person to lead a successful life.

A few factors that influence the occupational choice of a candidate are his interests and personality traits. Interests are defined by his preference in certain activities and Personality traits are enduring behavioral traits that are characteristic to certain people. According to (Digman 1990) “these traits come under the dimension of Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness and emotional stability. ”

Students have to face many obstacles in achieving the skill sets   that will help them in achieving their occupational goals. Counseling and various training programs can help students in learning those skill sets and personality characteristics that are desirable for a desired occupation and structural position in an organization /industry.

Every   student has his own style of absorbing knowledge and information, understanding a students learning style by analyzing his learning style   enhances the student’s receptivity and ability to learn and assimilate information and thus increase his performance in academics   and chances of employment in the premium labour market.

Merrill 2000 has also given due importance to learning styles of a student and states   that a student’s preference and interests along  with  other “affective, cognitive and  physiological factor “ affect his learning ability  .

 “Three mechanisms that can be used to understand a student learning styles are observation, interviews and administration of learning techniques”.  As students it is our preferences  that determine  our future occupation  as  ascertained  by Kaplan and Sacuzzo .” We all have specific preferences in the way   in the way we construe our experiences and preferences  that underlie our interests , needs , values and motivations” .