Conditions of An-Najah National University Graduates: an Analytical Study

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Authors: 
Rasmiyah Said Abedelkader Hanoun
Current Affiliation: 
Department of Psychology,An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine
Preferred Abstract (Original): 
This study examined the conditions of An-Najah National graduates in the Palestinian labor market. It specifically investigated the degree of agreement between the graduates' skills and the labor market's required skills. To these two ends, two questionnaire were developed and administrated to a randomly chosen sample of 111 graduates.
After analysis of collected data, it was found that there was an increase in the rates of unemployment among graduates of Palestinian higher education institutions. These graduates represented 70% of the total supply of graduates in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  Unemployment is attributed to a number of factors. Some of them are pertinent to the labor market. The Palestinian institutions of higher learning  failed to match their outputs with needs of the labor market. The Palestinian labor market suffered from rigidities due to the polices of the Israeli military occupation in the last decades. The Palestinian university graduates represented 7% of the total work  force  in the public sector.  Government employments, mechanisms and scale of salaries, low productivity, all make the rate of employment misleading. It was  also found that the student's choice of major did not depend on a clear–cut goal which he/she wanted to achieve after graduation. It may depended on getting a university degree. Furthermore, the university graduates were unable to find work and were fired from their jobs due to their weakness in oral and written English Skills, Computer skills, and Content skills. It was also found that personal connections and favoritism were used to get employment. The graduates enjoyed insufficient practical experience due to the lack of pre-service training courses or opportunities before or after graduation.  

In the light of these findings, the researchers recommend providing counseling programs to school students to enable them to chose the right majors which will qualify them to work directly after completion of high school. The universities need also to restructure their programs and specializations offered and work to improve and develop university teaching methods and train students during their study and help them acquire the necessary skills  for work. The employers of graduates should use objective criteria when they choose their employees. Finally, the university and administrations should consider the introduction of training programs during student's study and introduce students to institutions and establishments which might employ them to get training and get experience and keep them abreast of developments of new developments in their field of work. The university administration should follow up graduates to get feedback from them in order to develop their curricular and extracurricular programs.

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