Congruence Of Educational Outcomes With Labour Market Demand From Higher Education Graduates’ Perspective

This paper aims to emphasize the impact of the educational process on graduates’ transition into the labour market. It is explored the matching/mismatching between skills supply and skills demand for higher education graduates entering the labour market. An online graduate survey was conducted exhaustively to bachelor’s degree graduates at a large western Romanian university, returning 856 valid responses. The study had a longitudinal character, being applied in two stages, 6 months and 12 months after graduation. Analysing the matching of educational outcomes with labour market demand turns out that only theoretical skills were provided to students above the labour market demand. Also, the results highlight that the graduates’ job satisfaction increases proportionally to the degree of congruence between the studies completed and the job held.