PERCEPTION AND SATISFACTION OF EMPLOYERS TOWARDS PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN ETHIOPIA.

Abstract

The pursuit of education, particularly postsecondary education leads to individual growth. It is also a key for the development of any nation. Thus, without skilled human power it is impossible to think about nation development. The main purpose of this study is to examine employers’ perception towards the service of private higher education institutions (PHEIs). In addition, it also aims at identifying the level of satisfaction of employers towards employees, who acquired their degree from PHEIs. In order to achieve these objectives a descriptive research design is chosen and a survey questions was prepared. For this purpose, purposive and snowball sampling methods were used to select human resource experts and general managers, who are involved in the selection and recruitment processes. Snowball was used to identify companies, who hired graduates from PHEIs. After the data has been collected it was analyzed in both qualitatively and quantitatively. The result revealed that most employers had developed a negative perception towards the educational quality of PHEIs for different reasons. As a result, they have little preference to graduates of PHEIs. However, once they hired them, they are highly satisfied with the knowledge and skill of graduates, who came from PHEIs. As per the findings of the study, it is recommended that PHEIs should take the initiative to create awareness among employers about the quality of their education. Besides, decision makers particularly HR people should refer to their respective policies and standard to make sure their decision are not affected by their perception.