Occupation and employability of Indonesian forestry science graduates (2008 2015) Abstract: Background: Over the past two decades a number of studies have drawn attention to the declining interest in professional forestry education and forest and wood based sectors. Indonesia is no exception. Factors contributing to this situation include the contraction of the forest and wood based sectors and the gap between graduates competencies types of their competencies and the demands placed on them.<br>Objectives: The first objective is to describe graduates employment and experiences finding employment after graduation. The second objective is to describe graduate employability particularly in addressing issues of employment after graduation from the perspective of forestry faculties. Finally the third objective is to describe the issue and challenge of curricular relevance to the job market particularly within the context of employment after graduation.<br>Methods: We investigated the employment of Indonesian forestry graduates by exhaustively analyzing data from graduate surveys and interviews with stakeholders both within and outside forestry sectors following Schomburgs conceptual framework of mixed methods and statistical analysis of the graduate survey and interviews. <br>Findings: The majority of respondents (73.2%) found employment within six months of completing their studies which was slightly longer than average for fresh graduates in Indonesia. A vast majority of respondents used the internet social media and networking (alumni friends family) in their search for employment. The two biggest issues faced by respondents were the unavailability of jobs within their field of interest (39.8%) and respondents lack of work experience. Interestingly respondents said that they most frequently failed during job interviews (27.4%). They also believed that employers prioritized communication abilities (4.04 5) computer and IT skills (4.02 5) and practical skills (4.00 5) (e.g. mapping GIS fungiculture) in interviews. Surprisingly graduates felt that mandatory and elective program courses contributed the least to their employability while non academic extra curricular activities such as internships and field work contributed the most.<br>An approximately equal number of graduates (50.55% vs. 49.45%) found employment in the forest and wood based sectors and in the non forest and non wood based sectors during the studied years and the majority of respondents (72.53%) worked for private companies. Overall about 74% of g ...