Abstract
We explored three resource capitals related to employability (human, personal-social, and organisational) to explain graduate work entry prospects in a developing country setting. Our study sample consisted of 743 final year university students in Ghana and Kenya. Less than half (n = 305) attended an international university in China (females = 37.05%; mean age = 28.89 years, SD = 3.06 years), while 443 attended local universities in Ghana and Kenya (females = 33.12%; mean age = 25.68 years, SD= 2.27 years). Following a serial mediation regression analysis based on 10 000 bootstrap samples at 95% CI, results indicate that organisational capital directly influences graduates’ employability. Human and personal-social capital partially mediates the relationship between organisational capital and graduate employability; increasing employability prospects. The findings suggest that organisational capital, including the prestige of degree- awarding institutions in addition to human capital and personal-social capital, explains graduate employability. We conclude that graduate qualification, institutional affiliation, and the social capital benefit from those affiliations is associated with employability.
Acknowledgement
This research is supported by the research projects of the Ministry of Education of China, project number 17YJA630088 and 16YJA630057