Present research was aimed to explore the level of perceived employability,
professional competencies, and career aspirations of postgraduates in Pakistani
universities. The study also examined the relationship among perceived
employability, professional competencies, and career aspirations of postgraduate
students across department in different universities. Furthermore, it was examined the
perceptions of university faculty and employers regarding the perceived
employability, professional competencies, and career aspirations of postgraduates. In
recent years, enrollment in higher education has increased as well as university
graduates. However, the literature indicates that postgraduate students lack required
skills and competencies required for the job. This indicated a gap between education,
professionals, and employability skills of postgraduate students. Therefore, institutes
may be focused on job training to improve the employability skills of graduates and
postgraduates. A mixed- method research (sequential explanatory) was used to target
postgraduates, and heads of the departments from public and private universities, and
employers were selected from public and private organizations. For this purpose,
multistage proportionate random sampling was used, data was collected through
survey and after analysis of the survey results, interview protocols were created to get
the perceptions of postgraduates, employers, and Head of the departments.
Quantitative results reveal that there is significant difference among postgraduates of
public and private universities based on perceived employability, professional
competencies, and career aspirations. Furthermore, difference was also found among
different departments. Professional competencies have significant and positive effect
on perceived employability and career aspirations of postgraduates. On the other side
qualitative results shows that universities are not addressing employability skills and
professional competencies, confirmed by all the participants. Therefore, employers
are not satisfied from the performance of fresh graduates, so there is a need to develop
employability skills and professional competencies in university students suggested
by employers and head of the departments. Additionally, universities should
collaborate with industry to improve professional development of their students, and
these skills and competencies should be included in scheme of studies. It is
recommended that the scheme of the studies must have some practices relevant to the
market demands. Like students‟ can directly visit and experience the relevant
organization and their practical routines to develop their employability skills and
professional competencies according to the job market