Tertiary education institutions play an important role in supporting the country’s
economic objectives as well as in disseminating and applying new knowledge and developing
a qualified indigenous labour force that can meet the requirements of a society. For the past
ten years, educators, employers and university administrators have been greatly concerned
about the quality of graduates because those graduates have less demand in the labour market
which is a common issue in most of the countries; developed or underdeveloped. This paper
addresses one of the critical national issues in the country: Employability of business
graduates in Sri Lanka by examine what attributes business graduates should need for them to
be employed. The research sample included 150 business graduates passed out in the year
2008/09, selected based on the convenience and random sampling methods, from the first
three ranking universities in the field of commerce and management studies. The study
mainly used primary data, collected through a structured questionnaire and the data analysis
included the multivariate analysis and descriptive analysis. As per the findings, there is a
positive and significant relationship between the quality of business graduates, their
working/training experience and their employability. Hence the business graduates of Sri
Lanka should improve a range of essential skills as English language proficiency, ICT skills,
soft skills, practical training experience, research experiences and entrepreneurial skills as
around 50% of them lack with those skills and competencies.