Paper Title
Development of an Integrated Graduate Portal (IGP) for Graduate Marketability
Abstract
Graduate marketability has become a critical issue as many graduates have problem in getting employed after
completing their study in the university. This is mainly due to their inability to showcase their achievements and market their
skills properly to prospective employers. This study firstly identifies the user requirements from all identified stakeholders,
and secondly, based on these findings, develops a portal prototype that incorporates the integrated features called the
Integrated Graduate Portal (IGP). Finally, the study evaluates the use of the IGP in facilitating graduate marketability. The
aims of this portal are to facilitate graduate marketability by showcasing graduates’ contents and skills using electronic
portfolio (e-portfolio), to employers, and to reduce the communication gap between the employers, graduates and their
university. Two phases of survey were conducted for this study. The first one was conducted to identify and gather the user
requirements from all identified stakeholders (graduates, employers, lecturers and administrator). These requirements were
analyzed and carefully selected prior to incorporating them during the development of the portal. Once the IGP prototype
was developed, the second survey was conducted to evaluate the use of IGP to facilitate graduate marketability. The
evaluation results showed that the IGP may help to facilitate graduate marketability. It was found that integration features
such as graduates’ e-portfolios, employers’ job requirements information, verification of graduates’ content by lecturers, and
collaboration of graduates, employers and university in the IGP, are features that may aid graduates to facilitate their
marketability. In conclusion, it is hoped that the use of the IGP may help the graduates to facilitate their marketability and
bridge the communication gap between the graduates, employers, lecturers and university, therefore improving the
interaction and collaboration between all stakeholders.
Index terms- Electronic portfolio (e-portfolio), graduate marketability, Integrated Graduate Portal (IGP).