Bridging the Employability Gap: The Vital Soft Skills Needed by HND Graphic Design Graduates in the 21st Century Workforce

Abstract

Basically, competencies have been a significant matter that affects the growth of economies. From the perspective of the industry, the skills gap has been identified as a lack of the right skills among graduates. This multiple case study adopts the evaluative research to investigate the level of soft skills inherent in the Higher National Diploma (HND) in Graphic Design Programme (GDP) at Takoradi Technical University (TTU). Adopting the interpretive approach, it translated the social perspectives of 30 key stakeholders of the HND GDP gathered through purposive and snowball sampling methods using face-to-face and focus group interaction from Sekondi-Takoradi, Kumasi, Accra and Tema to establish the applicability of the curriculum to the world of work. Utilizing the Career EDGE model by Dacre-Pool and Sewell as a theoretical lens for analysing the data, the result reveals that some key skills are absent in the CAPGD curriculum, thus presenting graduates ill-equipped for the world of work.