THE MEDIATING ROLE OF CAREER COMPETENCIES BETWEEN INSTITUTIONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AND CAREER SUCCESS: A PROCESS MODEL FOR PRODUCING TVET SKILLED WORKFORCE

Although, TVET sector is producing a large number of graduates to fulfil the industries’ needs but the future human-resource is not matching with the industries expectations. This gap leads to under-employment (low scale jobs / lower wages) or unemployment, and ultimately an unsuccessful career path. This dilemma raises the question on TVET sector infrastructure with regard to curriculum design, learning facility, pre-admission and post-admission career counseling, and development of individual’s competencies etc. This study aims at contributing to the body of existing literature, specifically in developing countries, by exploring the impact of learning environment on the career success of TVET graduates with the mediating role of career competencies. For the empirical validation of the proposed hypotheses, the data from TVET graduates, self-employed or working in different industries, were collected using already established measures, taken from existing body of literature. A total of 500 respondents were targeted using stratified sampling approach. Results suggest that practice based curriculum has a positive impact on objective career success. The second factor of learning environment, inquiry based curriculum, has a positive impact on objective career success via career adjustment and control, and communication and networking. his is the first study of its domain that focuses on TVET sector graduate’s success factors in developing countries, especially in Pakistan. The findings have some imperative guidelines for TVET Board of Management to improve the deficiencies in the institutional infrastructure.