Impact of participation in extra-curricular activities during college on graduate employability: an empirical study of graduates of Taiwanese business schools

This study examined college graduates’ evaluations of their employability skills associated with graduate participation in various extra-curricular activities including being a core member of: (a) student government (such as student councils), (b) service (such as scouts clubs), (c) sports, (d) music and (e) arts clubs. The final sample comprised 28,768 business school graduates who hoped to enter the workforce immediately upon graduating in the 2008 school year. Results from propensity score matching analyses demonstrated that students who had been core members of extra-curricular activities were more likely to positively evaluate their communication, leadership, creativity and self-promotion skills. Furthermore, results suggested that different types of extra-curricular activities could unequally influence the employability of graduating college students. Leadership skills benefited most from involvement in sports clubs, while creativity skills benefited most from involvement in music clubs. Communication and self-promotion skills benefited moderately from all extra-curricular activities. Unlike other employability skills, the time management skills of students hardly benefited from extra-curricular activities.