Helen, SNagendraKAU2020-04-272020-04-272018http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810145879PGSkills are the abilities acquired through systematic efforts to carry out the activities which require technical and scientific approach. Employability skills make people confident in getting and performing the job in the most effective manner throughout their professional career. The current job market is changing dramatically and there is demand and supply mismatch between expected and satisfactory skill level. There is a need to focus on enhancing the skills of the agricultural graduates to empower them to manage the agricultural profession in the most effective manner. A sample size of 120 agricultural graduates were selected using the proportionate sampling procedure from the three agricultural colleges providing graduation in agriculture under Kerala Agricultural University and 30 employers of agricultural graduates were selected randomly to assess the skills demanded by the employers of agricultural graduates. The demanded skills were grouped under three factors viz., core employability skills, professional skills and communication skills to compute skill gap between demanded skills of the employers of agricultural graduates and self-assessed skill levels of agricultural graduates The results showed that more than two-thirds of agricultural graduates were from rural background and finished schooling in rural areas. It was observed that nearly four-fifths of the fathers (81.66%) of the respondents had college education and 47.50 per cent of them had government jobs as their profession, while 54.16 per cent of their mothers were homemakers. More than three- fourths of the agricultural graduates (76.66%) belonged to the medium to high category of additional exposure while achievement motivation level was found as above average among the agricultural graduates. Teaching was the most preferred career option among agricultural graduates followed by agricultural research and development, administrative/managerial positions, banking and agricultural marketing jobs. The overall skills demanded by the employers of agricultural graduates were worked out with the composite index of 80.59, while present overall skill level among agricultural graduates was recorded with a composite index of 66.04 and the difference of index 14.54 was observed as the skill gap among the agricultural graduates of Kerala. Core employability skills with an index value of 83.28 were the most demanded skills by the employers of agricultural graduates than other skills. Highest skill gap was observed in the case of communication skills with an index value of 19.09. Team work (90.80), interpersonal skill (90.20), leadership skill (88.20), self- confidence (84.60), integrity (84.25), oral communication skill (84.20), positive attitude (83.80), creativity (83.60), self-presentation skill (83.20) and problem solving skill (81.60) were the most demanded top ten skills by the employers of agricultural graduates. Team work (79.06), empathy (77.91), integrity (76.40), responsibility (75.03), adaptability (73.33), leadership skill (72.66), customer service skill (72.16), self- confidence (71.98), positive attitude (70.94) and oral communication skill (70.43) were observed as top ten existed skills among the agricultural graduates of Kerala. The highest skill gap was observed in the case of self-presentation skill (23.32) followed by information skill (22.71), interpersonal skill (22.47), information and communication technology skill (21.47) and critical thinking skill (20.96). These skill gaps invite the attention of the policy makers of higher education of agriculture sector to enhance the skill level of the agricultural graduates. Whereas customer service skill (1.44), empathy (1.69), adaptability (4.47), responsibility (5.37) and management of people (5.38) had low skill gap among the agricultural graduates of Kerala. Nature of place of education up to secondary education, educational status of parents, occupational status of parents, additional exposure, achievement motivation and career options of the graduates expressed a positive and significant relationship to the skill level of the agricultural graduates of Kerala. Considering the diversified needs of prevailing agricultural situation advanced course curriculum may be designed to bridge the skill gap among agricultural graduates. Establishment and effective utilization of language labs may improve the soft skills of the graduates. Periodic professional mentoring, updating course content regularly based on the current demands in the job market and active involvement of placement cells for employability audit will contribute in building employability skills of agricultural graduates.enThesis