Cognitive Skills Construct and Effecting on Employability Competence for Undergraduate Students: A Conceptual Framework
This paper attempts to examine the effects of cognitive skills on the employability competence of Libyan university students. This study aims to develop a practical model for the employability competency of finance and banking graduate students in Libyan universities. The focus of the study will be based on three large selected public universities located in three different regions in Libya: each university will represent each of the three regions (South, East, and West) in Libya. This study conducted a conceptual framework using a list of 60 items, starting with cognitive skills with student's perceptions concerning the set of routine technical, analytic/design and appreciative skills required from finance and banking graduates to pursue a career in the finance and banking profession and the last employability competency required in the workplace. This study collected data from 450 finance and banking students in three universities in Libya. The cognitive skills will be assessed reflectively using a multi-dimensional scale inclusive of routine/technical skills, analytic/design skills and appreciative skills dimensions. This study makes a significant theoretical and methodological contribution to both the students, universities and cognitive literature, as it examines an interesting subject that has not yet been investigated in the Libyan context by assessing cognitive skills as an integrated reflective high-order construct and by examining the overall cognitive skills on their employability competence.