Employment status and associated factors of Pharma College Hawassa Campus graduates of 2017 to 2020: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Graduate employability is becoming a major concern for governments, development-oriented organizations and higher learning institutions both in developed and in developing countries including Ethiopia. There are varied types of factors that determine whether young graduates will be able to find work, and earning potential. Although many scholars have worked hard by analyzing the employment status of college graduates most of them were focused on public higher education institutions, without considering private educational institutions. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the employment status and associated factors of Pharma College graduates from 2017 to 2020.

Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted among randomly selected 246  Pharma college graduates. A simple random sampling technique was used to select study participants. Data were collected through telephone interviews and google forms by 10 trained first-degree holders using a pretested online questionnaires. The collected data were entered using Epi data and exported to SPSS for analysis.  Bivariable and multivariable binary logistic regressions were performed to identify factors associated with the employment status of graduates. Statistical significance was determined using a p-value of less than 0.05 at a 95% confidence interval (CI) and adjusted odds ratios.                         

Result: In this study, the employability status of Pharma College Hawassa Campus graduates was found to be 73.2% (95% CI:  67.3-78.7). Year of graduation 2017 (AOR: 30.88; 95%CI: 4.23-225.48) and 2019 (AOR: 6.96; 95% CI: 2.16-24.44) were positively associated with graduates employability status. Whereas, CGPA of 2–2.74 (AOR: 0. 006; 95% CI: 0.001-0.05) and CGPA of 2.75–3.24 (AOR: 0.19; 95% CI: 0.04-0.88) and health officer field of study (AOR: 0.15; 95% CI: 0.03-0.67) were found to be negatively associated with employability status of Pharma College Graduates.

Conclusion: Although the majority of Pharma College graduates have been employed in different sectors, factors like the field of study, year of graduation, and CGPA were found to be significantly associated with employability. Therefore, the college should work on enhancing student’s relationship with parents, lecturers and senior students to work in peers, providing training on good techniques of study, answering and questioning in the classroom and effective time management to improve the students' grade point average (GPA). Moreover, further research has to be conducted to assess the graduate market saturation point for health officer field of study.