Internships and Campus Recruitment Training as Predictors of Employability: Evidence from Indian Higher Education Institutions

Graduates' employability is a growing concern for Indian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) because of the continued mismatch between the preparedness of graduates and the expectations of the industry. As part of their institutional interventions to rectify this issue, internships and Campus Recruitment Training (CRT) are growing in importance as the two major employability-related interventions. This research study aims to identify how internships and CRT can predict an HEI graduate's employability in India. The study constructs employability as a multi-dimensional construct. The five components of employability identified in this study are as follows: technical skills; communication skills; professional skills; skills for adaptation in the work environment; and skills for job awareness. The quantitative research design was implemented by interviewing graduates, employers, and conducting a Regression Analysis to determine whether or not internships or CRT predicted employability, based on the information from the three stakeholder groups. The results indicate that internships and CRT have a statistically significant and positive relationship to graduate employability, with internships being a stronger predictor than CRT. The study emphasised the critical importance of experiential learning, as well as the role of internship programs and CRT in helping to develop job-relevant skills, enhance interview performance and improve soft skills. The study contributes to the employability literature by providing empirical data from an Indian Higher Education Institution setting, an area of research that is largely unexamined. Based on the study results, the study provides important implications for HEIs and employers, suggesting the need to embed internship and CRT into the academic curriculum as core components of the educational experience. The study also provides recommendations for policies to enhance the employability of graduates through collaboration between HEIs and employers and to utilise an outcome-based education system to help improve graduate employability levels.