Education-Work Transition: Skills Gap in the Construction Industry

Prakash C. Bhattarai^1*Mahesh Nath parajuli¹Suresh Gautam¹Prakash Kumar Paudel¹Anup Bhurtel^1,2Amrita Sharma¹

• ¹Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel, Nepal
• ²Nepal Administrative Staff College, Lalitpur, Nepal

This study aims to assess the skills gap between employers' evaluations of competencies and employees' self-perceived competencies within the engineering sector of the construction industry. It also examines the foundational subject matter knowledge of graduate employees and their likelihood of acquiring such knowledge based on variables including gender, ethnicity, infrastructure quality, and the quality of on-the-job training (OJT). To conduct the study, a crosssectional survey was carried out using a self-administered questionnaire, which was completed by 59 employers and 222 recent graduates. The findings indicate that, from the perspective of employers, the majority of graduates exhibit inadequate proficiency in soft skills, professional competencies, common technical skills, and trade-specific abilities. Furthermore, the graduates demonstrated limited subject matter knowledge, with an average score of only 50.98% on a basic knowledge assessment. The analysis also reveals that graduates with access to high-quality institutional infrastructure and OJT opportunities performed nearly twice as well on the foundational knowledge test compared to those with poorer quality experiences in these areas. These results highlight the urgent need to revise the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) curriculum and to strengthen collaboration between training institutions and industry stakeholders to ensure that graduate competencies are aligned with labour market demands.