Employability development opportunities (EDOs) as measures of students’ enhanced employability

Purpose – Empirical studies in relation to employability development opportunities (EDOs) and university students’ enhanced employability are few, especially in Nigeria. The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent of university students’ engagement with EDOs and to empirically establish the extent of the relationship between these EDOs and students’ enhanced employability. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 600 final-year university students in Nigeria with the use of an adapted questionnaire. The 29 items on the questionnaire were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis in which 28 loaded under six factors which were used for further analysis. Findings – Results indicate that at Nigerian universities students are engaging with all the EDOs to a moderately sufficient extent. Findings also show that there is a significant positive relationship between EDOs and students’ enhanced employability. Besides, considering the relative contribution of each of the EDOs to students’ enhanced employability, real-world activities make the highest contribution. Extracurricular activities were found to have no significant relationship with students’ enhanced employability. Research limitations/implications – Not all the EDOs are measured in the study. Originality/value – Apart from empirically confirming the significant positive relationship between EDOs and university students’ enhanced employability, the study has established the relative contribution of each of these EDOs, which is a major contribution to the limited existing body of knowledge on university students’ employability.