The purpose of this study is to focus on the areas of degrees that one takes and the receptiveness

to the labor market in Belize City.

As mentioned in many studies and findings, education is a major ingredient in the stabilizing and
developing of a countrys economic and demographic structures. It is at this stage that a person
may be affected negatively or positively- the transition process between college and later work
success in general (Schomburg 2007; Stokes and Wyn 2007). At this stage, obtaining
employment will play a major role at whether or not a person has become self-actualized and has
developed some sort of satisfaction professionally. Some researchers may argue that education
and employment have a cohesive relationship while others argue that education and employment
have an unlike magnetic relationship. This research will focus on the relationship between
degrees obtained compared to what businesses or companies want to employ.
Much research has been done to study the co-relationship and the trends that exists between
higher education and employment (Labor market); one of the trends identifying undergraduate
students being a key ingredient in this relationship. As time has shown and proven to us, we have
been able to see that despite the perseverance in getting higher degrees, we may face the chances
of not being hired immediately after graduation. We may even go a year of being unemployed.
The demand of jobs does not correlate with the availability of jobs in the labor market.
It also goes on to say that the specific degree studied at a tertiary level does have an implication
on whether or not you will be hirable after you have completed tertiary level school. In a study
done by Hamood K. Al-Harthi, he was able to locate and find previous researches that were
based from countries from all around the world, specifically Egypt and Oman, and developing

countries. All countries of which focused on one implication, whether why or why not specific
university education played a role on employment or unemployment in the labor market.
(Hamood K. Al-Harthi, 2011)
Undergraduate students have come to realize that having a prestigious degree will not matter if
there are not jobs available with for the specific skills acquired. This realization can be seen in
the contradiction between students high appreciation for their university degree education and
their low confidence that will be relevant as they seek employment (Hamood K. Al-Harthi,
2011). Students or graduates have to be aware that globalization will have implications on the
obtaining jobs. As the world changes, jobs are becoming more interrelated; that is our jobs may
entail working with international companies and firms. Universities and work forces may need to
focus and study the labor markets to be able to identify what specific skills or degree will be of
demand for future graduates. (Hamood K. Al-Harthi, 2011)
As stated by Shaws argument (2000), there are not enough findings to rely on that states quality
education and training will be sufficient. It also entails that persons should be fully equipped,
whether that endorses the conditions which their competencies and capabilities can be put into
fruitful usage. This can be seen in the study of where Egyptian students shown a lack of
confidence in the specific university degree obtain and the uncertainty in the knowledge obtain
while at school. In various other studies, it also identified that females had a lower chance of
being hired and earning a lesser income than of males (Lyon (1996). In contrast, another
researcher stated that undergraduates that graduate from applied and skills-oriented program had
a higher chance of being hired than those who graduated from a general liberal art programs
(Walters, 2004) (Hamood K. Al-Harthi, 2011). Studies also continued to be done accordingly to
demographical regions, specifically the Western and Non-Western Region. Students have been

pursuing careers and degrees based on their patterns and issues affecting their specific countrys
labor market demand (Tomlinson, 2008). Despite all the implications identified by graduate
students, graduates were able to identify the mismatch that occurred between curricular and
employment opportunities while in developing countries, the main focus was to aid graduates
become employable in a competitive global economy (Teichler, 2007).