Empirical analysis of Arabic curriculum, graduate employability and career advancement in Nigerian universities

Abstract

The challenges facing Arabic education in Nigeria today will be reduced if the graduates are trained with effective communication and employability skills, and clear career paths. This study investigates the effect of the National Undergraduate Arabic Curriculum on graduate employability and career advancement in Nigerian universities through a quantitative approach with a total population of 2021 Arabic graduates. The instrument used was adapted from Kumar and Shukla (2011), Yorke and Knight (2007), and Cole et al.’s (2022) scale of measurements and was self-administered on a sample of 347 Arabic graduates at selected Nigerian universities using a stratified random sampling of the proportionate method. The sample were categorized into two stratum each stratum represented by the region. Descriptive and inferential analysis was used to analyse the research questions using (SPSS) and AMOS 24.0 for Structural Equation Modelling to check if the minimum requirement Goodness-of-Fit for the model construct was met and to further test the study hypotheses. The findings showed that 55.0% (n= 191) of the respondents were self-employed. The study confirmed that 84.4%, (n= 293) of the respondents were male, while the remaining 15.6%, (n= 54) were female. In addition, the findings of the study indicated that the graduates of Arabic at the selected Nigerian universities are unhappy with the National Undergraduate Arabic Curriculum since the curriculum does not inculcate the required employability skills requested by the employees and does not benefit their career path. The study confirmed that the curriculum, employability, and career advancement construct meet the SEM’s model-fit indices. Moreover, the findings indicate that the National Undergraduate Arabic Curriculum positively and significantly affect graduate employability and career advancement. At the same time, the study also affirmed that there is a relationship between all the study variables. Additionally, all study hypotheses were supported. Therefore, the study recommends the implementation of this research model in Nigerian universities, especially for the graduates of the Arabic language.