AI-backed Student Advising in tackling the Employability Gap of University Students under Global Workplace Transition to an Upskilled Workforce

Employers often express concern about the inadequacy of career planning and employability skills of the new graduate entrants into the job market. The situation is complicated by the changes in job landscapes and job types brought by the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). There is a pressing need to understand the gaps in knowledge, skills, and attitudes between employers and young jobseekers, which are bounded by the tightening job availabilities and yet a set of ever-evolving skills are expected. The adoption of AI in student career planning and self-analysis enables flexible
tracking of student development needs versus market requirements. Consequently, an education structure that combines theoretical learning, technological upskilling, and resilience training would be introduced to enable graduates to be ready to launch their career globally.

A survey was conducted in August to December 2023 to identify the three most desired graduate attributes of firstyear university students (N = 1,028, Mean age = 19; 62.41% female) in Hong Kong. The results were compared with the rankings of employers as reported in the Surveys on Opinions of Employers on Major Aspects of Performance of Sub-degree and First-degree Graduates (2016) conducted by the Education Bureau, Hong Kong SAR Government and to the 2022 QS Global Employer Survey; and subsequently to the global reskilling needs in the next five years in the perspective of employers of over 11 million workers as conducted by the World Economic Forum Future Job Reports (2023).

Our study reveals that respondents tend to overweigh the importance of interpersonal skills while overlooking presentation skills and language skills as the essential workbased skills when we compared the data with employers’ expectations. The sub-degree counterparts tend to perceive non-knowledge, skills, and attitudes factors such as job experience, appearance, and educational background as desirable employability attributes. Employers deem the attributes of knowledge, skills, and attitudes more valuable. Interestingly, from the outlook of skills that are reported to be of increasing importance by 2027, AI and big data as well as leadership and social influence skills outranked all other elements when compared to their current importance. Analytical skills and creative thinking have the highest training priorities for companies to cope with industry transformation.

This study provides valuable insights into the urgency of filling the competency gaps as perceived by global employers and young jobseekers. This is crucial to bring Hong Kong businesses into the next technological era that is largely feasible only with the presence of a technologically skilled workforce who can perform the upskilled jobs. We seek to investigate how the demand for graduate skills may change in future and which sectors are most at risk of not having the essential employment skills needed. Institutions should be aware of the training priorities in the industry in support of the region’s socio-economic transition and business sustainability, and to develop a specific employability skills module to equip students with appropriate employability skills alongside their subject specific skills.