The aim of the research is to identify the significant factors which influence employability skills. The research focused on the value of skills such as communication, interpersonal abilities, as well as teamwork. The research aimed to explore the mediating role of emotional intelligence in the relationship between digital skills and employability skills within the context of trainee teachers in the agricultural field. Stratified random sampling was utilised in the process of conducting a cross-sectional survey to 200 Malaysian agricultural trainee teachers majoring in higher education. The important variables were assessed via modified questionnaires. The researchers utilised structural equation modelling to examine the suggested model, resulting in the measurement model to show a satisfactory fit to the data. The findings unveiled a positive detailed exploration of emotional intelligence sub-constructs reveals that the mediating effect is only partial for each specific sub-construct, thus adding new insight to current understanding of the factors involved in this relationship. © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
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