Participative Leadership and Youth Employability in Public TVET Colleges: Explanatory Sequential Mediation by Staff Commitment, Industry Linkage, and Cooperative Training

<title>Abstract</title> <p>Background Youth constitutes twenty-five percent of Ethiopia’s population. However, only thirty-eight percent of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) graduates in Sidama region are employed within two years of graduation, compared to the sixty percent regional target. The discrepancy shows that despite the government’s efforts in creating linkages as a critical factor for addressing youth unemployment, the role of training institutions needs to be revisited. Methods An explanatory sequential mixed-method design with N = 443; Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to explore the relationships between partcipative leadership and employability. One-hundred and seventy-six participants responded to the survey while twenty-eight participated in semi-structured interviews and two focus group discussions were held providing qualitative evidence to expound on the quantitative results. Results Participative leadership predicted industry linkage (β = 0.61; p &lt; 0.001) and cooperative training (β = 0.23; p = 0.002). However, mediating effect of staff commitment on employability was not supported (β = 0.08; p = 0.182). Cooperative training was identified as a major predictor of graduate employability (β = 0.38; p &lt; 0.001). Employability was predicted indirectly through industry linkage with a mediated effect of one hundred and three percent (indirect effect = 0.13; p &lt; 0.001). The model explained forty-six percent of the variance in employability while seventy percent of the total effect of participative leadership was achieved indirectly through the proposed mechanism. Conclusion The research makes theoretical contributions by advancing the participative leadership theory, developing the notion of goal-aligned commitment, applying the capability approach, and incorporating public choice and bureaucratic theories to explain the lack of mediating effect of staff commitment. It also contributes to practice by recommending the promotion of industry linkages by college executives, autonomy by regional bureau of education, and engaging industries in cooperative training programs. Participative leadership is recommended to increase youth employability directly and indirectly through strengthening industry linkages which promote high-quality cooperative training.</p>