Pub Date : 2022-04-12DOI: 10.21153/jtlge2022vol13no1art1488
O. Romanova
This paper investigates how explicit integration of employability skills into vocational education and training (VET) affects students’ perceived skills. Perceived or self-evaluated skills are often inaccurate perceptions of the real skills’ possession, but nonetheless they play a profound role in graduates’ career decisions. Confidence that resulted from positive self-evaluations supports the efforts and aspirations during school-to-work transitions. Thus, they are considered to be an important educational outcome supporting employability. The purpose of the study is to enrich understanding of relationship between students’ self-evaluations of employability skills and different teaching practices. The analysis employs self-evaluations and entrepreneurial intentions of the Russian VET students collected with Monitoring of education markets and organizations in 2020 (n = 9 178). It focuses on social, self-learning and entrepreneurial skills, which are part of the VET national curriculum. The findings show that explicit embedding and integration of employability skills in the curriculum is significantly related to more positive self-evaluations of social and self-learning skills. Moreover, students, who were explicitly taught entrepreneurial skills, are more likely to plan to establish their own enterprise after graduation. Despite being effective, the explicit integration approach is revealed to be not dominant. Further research on the reasons behind this is needed for development of properly informed policy.
{"title":"Embedding employability skills in vocational education and training: What works best for students’ self-evaluation and aspirations?","authors":"O. Romanova","doi":"10.21153/jtlge2022vol13no1art1488","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2022vol13no1art1488","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates how explicit integration of employability skills into vocational education and training (VET) affects students’ perceived skills. Perceived or self-evaluated skills are often inaccurate perceptions of the real skills’ possession, but nonetheless they play a profound role in graduates’ career decisions. Confidence that resulted from positive self-evaluations supports the efforts and aspirations during school-to-work transitions. Thus, they are considered to be an important educational outcome supporting employability. The purpose of the study is to enrich understanding of relationship between students’ self-evaluations of employability skills and different teaching practices. \u0000The analysis employs self-evaluations and entrepreneurial intentions of the Russian VET students collected with Monitoring of education markets and organizations in 2020 (n = 9 178). It focuses on social, self-learning and entrepreneurial skills, which are part of the VET national curriculum. The findings show that explicit embedding and integration of employability skills in the curriculum is significantly related to more positive self-evaluations of social and self-learning skills. Moreover, students, who were explicitly taught entrepreneurial skills, are more likely to plan to establish their own enterprise after graduation. Despite being effective, the explicit integration approach is revealed to be not dominant. Further research on the reasons behind this is needed for development of properly informed policy.","PeriodicalId":37004,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49274785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-17DOI: 10.21153/jtlge2022vol13no1art1026
Sharon Hayes, B. Freudenberg, D. Delaney
Approximately 40% of graduate recruitment in Australia is by small and medium accounting (SMA) firms, firms which can face different constraints compared to their larger counterparts. Given the attributes of SMA firms it is important to appreciate what they consider makes a work ready graduate. This article reports the findings of a study that explores what makes a graduate work ready when commencing employment within an Australian SMA firm. The findings suggest that a work ready graduate for an SMA firm has a working knowledge and understanding of business accounting software programs, taxation knowledge and tax software skills. Additionally, there is a high emphasis on communication and interpersonal skills. This raises the question as to whether current university degrees are providing adequate technical and generic skill development for those graduates seeking employment with SMA firms.
{"title":"Work ready graduates for Australian small and medium Accounting firms","authors":"Sharon Hayes, B. Freudenberg, D. Delaney","doi":"10.21153/jtlge2022vol13no1art1026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2022vol13no1art1026","url":null,"abstract":"Approximately 40% of graduate recruitment in Australia is by small and medium accounting (SMA) firms, firms which can face different constraints compared to their larger counterparts. Given the attributes of SMA firms it is important to appreciate what they consider makes a work ready graduate. This article reports the findings of a study that explores what makes a graduate work ready when commencing employment within an Australian SMA firm. The findings suggest that a work ready graduate for an SMA firm has a working knowledge and understanding of business accounting software programs, taxation knowledge and tax software skills. Additionally, there is a high emphasis on communication and interpersonal skills. This raises the question as to whether current university degrees are providing adequate technical and generic skill development for those graduates seeking employment with SMA firms.","PeriodicalId":37004,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41983043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-10DOI: 10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no2art1481
R. Sambell, L. Andrew, A. Devine, J. Darby, Shelley Beatty, S. Godrich
Employability skills can be categorised as ‘people’ or ‘soft skills’ and ‘technical’ or ‘industry specific’ skills. Australian employers are increasingly seeking to employ university graduates with well-developed people skills. Evidence from industry suggests these skills, in particular communication skills are lacking in today’s graduates. The aim of this study was to raise student awareness of the importance of people skills, assess their perception of personal competence across a range of these skills and support them to develop plans that will help them strengthen these skills in preparation for graduation. An online survey was emailed to 222 first year undergraduate students; 99 were completed. Analysis of quantitative data revealed students perceived themselves to be highly competent across a range of people skills. However, qualitative data found students also identified people skills that they needed to develop further. The study findings suggest that first-year students may have inflated and unrealistic perceptions of their people skills and highlights the importance of the introduction of these employability skills early in the curriculum. Recommendations from this study include the introduction of curriculum activities in the first year of their degree that raise student awareness of industry expectations of people skills upon graduation. The implementation of a people skills self-assessment tool for these students is also recommended as a benchmarking activity. Use of this tool can motivate students to engage with university support and industry opportunities that further strengthen these important skills.
{"title":"Opportunities to identify and develop people skills: What university students need early in their degree journey","authors":"R. Sambell, L. Andrew, A. Devine, J. Darby, Shelley Beatty, S. Godrich","doi":"10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no2art1481","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no2art1481","url":null,"abstract":"Employability skills can be categorised as ‘people’ or ‘soft skills’ and ‘technical’ or ‘industry specific’ skills. Australian employers are increasingly seeking to employ university graduates with well-developed people skills. Evidence from industry suggests these skills, in particular communication skills are lacking in today’s graduates. The aim of this study was to raise student awareness of the importance of people skills, assess their perception of personal competence across a range of these skills and support them to develop plans that will help them strengthen these skills in preparation for graduation. An online survey was emailed to 222 first year undergraduate students; 99 were completed. Analysis of quantitative data revealed students perceived themselves to be highly competent across a range of people skills. However, qualitative data found students also identified people skills that they needed to develop further. The study findings suggest that first-year students may have inflated and unrealistic perceptions of their people skills and highlights the importance of the introduction of these employability skills early in the curriculum. Recommendations from this study include the introduction of curriculum activities in the first year of their degree that raise student awareness of industry expectations of people skills upon graduation. The implementation of a people skills self-assessment tool for these students is also recommended as a benchmarking activity. Use of this tool can motivate students to engage with university support and industry opportunities that further strengthen these important skills.","PeriodicalId":37004,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41443254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-09DOI: 10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no2art1318
L. Lexis, Jency Thomas, Caroline J. Taylor, J. Church, Brianna L Julien
Higher education institutions are expected to produce career-ready graduates who are equipped for the challenges of the 21st century. Employability experts argue that this can be achieved by integrating career development learning (CDL) into the curriculum. The informational interview helps students learn more about a career by interviewing a professional working in a field of interest, and helps students to make decisions regarding their career plans. The aims of the study were to determine students’: 1) preferred career paths and career identity at the midpoint of their non-vocational degree; 2) experiences and perceptions of an informational interview module. An informational interview module was embedded into a second-year human biosciences subject taken by students in undergraduate non-specialist health-related STEM degrees. Students indicated their preferred career, learned about informational interviews, and conducted an interview with a professional working in the field they wished to enter. After the interview, students completed reflection activities, responding to open-ended and Likert-scale questions. 91 student reflections were analysed to determine students’ career identity, and their experiences and perceptions of the module. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted on Likert-scale answers and inductive thematic analysis was conducted on open-ended answers. Students’ career preferences were wide-ranging, with allied health the most popular. Career identity was reasonably well established in this cohort. The student experience was overall positive, and students’ thought the module was useful in supporting their career planning and career development. In conclusion, an informational interview assignment is an effective career development tool for human biosciences students.
{"title":"Informational interviews help undergraduate students at the mid-point of non-vocational STEM degrees confirm their career aspirations","authors":"L. Lexis, Jency Thomas, Caroline J. Taylor, J. Church, Brianna L Julien","doi":"10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no2art1318","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no2art1318","url":null,"abstract":"Higher education institutions are expected to produce career-ready graduates who are equipped for the challenges of the 21st century. Employability experts argue that this can be achieved by integrating career development learning (CDL) into the curriculum. The informational interview helps students learn more about a career by interviewing a professional working in a field of interest, and helps students to make decisions regarding their career plans. The aims of the study were to determine students’: 1) preferred career paths and career identity at the midpoint of their non-vocational degree; 2) experiences and perceptions of an informational interview module. An informational interview module was embedded into a second-year human biosciences subject taken by students in undergraduate non-specialist health-related STEM degrees. Students indicated their preferred career, learned about informational interviews, and conducted an interview with a professional working in the field they wished to enter. After the interview, students completed reflection activities, responding to open-ended and Likert-scale questions. 91 student reflections were analysed to determine students’ career identity, and their experiences and perceptions of the module. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted on Likert-scale answers and inductive thematic analysis was conducted on open-ended answers. Students’ career preferences were wide-ranging, with allied health the most popular. Career identity was reasonably well established in this cohort. The student experience was overall positive, and students’ thought the module was useful in supporting their career planning and career development. In conclusion, an informational interview assignment is an effective career development tool for human biosciences students.","PeriodicalId":37004,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47151900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-30DOI: 10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no2art1077
Bilingual programs have become more common in higher education around the world in an attempt to provide learners with the education they need to face today’s world. These programs can provide academic, linguistic, intercultural, and professional benefits to students. Consequently, countries like Spain have developed bilingual education to help students become proficient in foreign languages and develop essential competences for their professional futures. Research has analysed how Spanish bilingual education is implemented, and how teachers are trained. However, few studies examine how bilingual programs impact graduates’ employability, mobility, and intercultural awareness, and how graduates perceive their skill development. Moreover, little has been studied about bilingual graduates’ work situation and whether participating in these programs has helped them find work abroad. This paper analyses whether a combination of participation in Spanish bilingual programs, employment, and experiences working abroad affects bilingual education graduates’ self-perceived employability, mobility, and intercultural awareness. This study adopts a quantitative approach, in which 741 respondents participated. Findings show that bilingual graduates who are currently working have higher self-perceived employability and better perceptions of their mobility and employability competences than those who followed monolingual studies, even when they have not worked abroad.
{"title":"Employment, work abroad and bilingual education: Spanish bilinguals graduates’ self-perceived employability, mobility and intercultural competence","authors":"","doi":"10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no2art1077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no2art1077","url":null,"abstract":"Bilingual programs have become more common in higher education around the world in an attempt to provide learners with the education they need to face today’s world. These programs can provide academic, linguistic, intercultural, and professional benefits to students. Consequently, countries like Spain have developed bilingual education to help students become proficient in foreign languages and develop essential competences for their professional futures. Research has analysed how Spanish bilingual education is implemented, and how teachers are trained. However, few studies examine how bilingual programs impact graduates’ employability, mobility, and intercultural awareness, and how graduates perceive their skill development. Moreover, little has been studied about bilingual graduates’ work situation and whether participating in these programs has helped them find work abroad. This paper analyses whether a combination of participation in Spanish bilingual programs, employment, and experiences working abroad affects bilingual education graduates’ self-perceived employability, mobility, and intercultural awareness. This study adopts a quantitative approach, in which 741 respondents participated. Findings show that bilingual graduates who are currently working have higher self-perceived employability and better perceptions of their mobility and employability competences than those who followed monolingual studies, even when they have not worked abroad.","PeriodicalId":37004,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45909790","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-16DOI: 10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no2art1075
Maisarah binti Ahmad Kamil, Ahmad Mazli Muhammad
This paper reports a systematic literature review that was conducted to explore the areas of research pertaining to English language workplace communication needs in order to design courses in English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) that can better meet the demands of the industry. Articles from Scopus, ScienceDirect and Emerald Insight were extracted following the five-step method of conducting a systematic literature review. In total, 133 articles were analysed. From the analysis, it was found that most studies focused on examining the needs of the learners, or the needs of the industry; very few studies triangulated the findings between different stakeholders to obtain a better picture of the needs, wants, and gaps between the target situation and the present situation. Additionally, most studies focused on language tasks required and did not pay due emphasis on the competencies required to perform the tasks well. Thus, the outcome of this review is a proposed theoretical model to develop professional communication competence among new graduates that is intended to be used in a future study to address the gaps found in this review. Practically, the review also sheds light on gaps that exist in current research that can be addressed in future research, especially for higher education institutions (HEIs) that are working to design and develop courses in EOP to improve English language communication skills for employability.
{"title":"Professional communication competence in English for occupational purposes (EOP) courses: A systematic literature review and proposal of a framework","authors":"Maisarah binti Ahmad Kamil, Ahmad Mazli Muhammad","doi":"10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no2art1075","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no2art1075","url":null,"abstract":"This paper reports a systematic literature review that was conducted to explore the areas of research pertaining to English language workplace communication needs in order to design courses in English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) that can better meet the demands of the industry. Articles from Scopus, ScienceDirect and Emerald Insight were extracted following the five-step method of conducting a systematic literature review. In total, 133 articles were analysed. From the analysis, it was found that most studies focused on examining the needs of the learners, or the needs of the industry; very few studies triangulated the findings between different stakeholders to obtain a better picture of the needs, wants, and gaps between the target situation and the present situation. Additionally, most studies focused on language tasks required and did not pay due emphasis on the competencies required to perform the tasks well. Thus, the outcome of this review is a proposed theoretical model to develop professional communication competence among new graduates that is intended to be used in a future study to address the gaps found in this review. Practically, the review also sheds light on gaps that exist in current research that can be addressed in future research, especially for higher education institutions (HEIs) that are working to design and develop courses in EOP to improve English language communication skills for employability.","PeriodicalId":37004,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47044883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-16DOI: 10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no1art1456
B. Oliver
Much has been made of micro-credentials, and the ‘craze’ (Ralston, 2021) and ‘hype’ (Roy & Clark, 2019) they generate. One of the barriers to their success is that a definition of micro-credentials has not been widely agreed (Kato, Galán-Muros, & Weko, 2020). However, to succeed, micro-credentials need not just a definition, but a way to ensure they are valued, and bring value to key stakeholders: particularly learners, employers and providers. To this end, this provocation proposes a micro-credential value framework that sets out their key benefits and costs for learners.
{"title":"Micro-credentials: A learner value framework","authors":"B. Oliver","doi":"10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no1art1456","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no1art1456","url":null,"abstract":"Much has been made of micro-credentials, and the ‘craze’ (Ralston, 2021) and ‘hype’ (Roy & Clark, 2019) they generate. One of the barriers to their success is that a definition of micro-credentials has not been widely agreed (Kato, Galán-Muros, & Weko, 2020). However, to succeed, micro-credentials need not just a definition, but a way to ensure they are valued, and bring value to key stakeholders: particularly learners, employers and providers. To this end, this provocation proposes a micro-credential value framework that sets out their key benefits and costs for learners. \u0000 \u0000 ","PeriodicalId":37004,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45221515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-02DOI: 10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no1art1321
K. Oxley, Tristan Van Rooyen
Micro-credentials, digital badges and industry-recognised certificates have been attracting considerable attention in recent years and with the disruption of many jobs due to the pandemic, interest in continuing education has grown. Micro-credentials represent an alternative approach to career and professional development (Ghasia, Machumu, & De Smet, 2019, p. 219; LaMagna, 2017, p. 207). These credentialed … industry aligned short units of learning’ are described by Wheelahan & Moodie (2021, p. 212) as an extension of ‘21st century skills’ and the discourse of employability in higher education. Graduate employability has become heavily integrated into modern higher education policy frameworks, but what does this actually mean from a student perspective?
{"title":"Making micro-credentials work: A student perspective","authors":"K. Oxley, Tristan Van Rooyen","doi":"10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no1art1321","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no1art1321","url":null,"abstract":"Micro-credentials, digital badges and industry-recognised certificates have been attracting considerable attention in recent years and with the disruption of many jobs due to the pandemic, interest in continuing education has grown. Micro-credentials represent an alternative approach to career and professional development (Ghasia, Machumu, & De Smet, 2019, p. 219; LaMagna, 2017, p. 207). These credentialed … industry aligned short units of learning’ are described by Wheelahan & Moodie (2021, p. 212) as an extension of ‘21st century skills’ and the discourse of employability in higher education. Graduate employability has become heavily integrated into modern higher education policy frameworks, but what does this actually mean from a student perspective?","PeriodicalId":37004,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46576212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-30DOI: 10.21153/JTLGE2021VOL12NO2ART1025
A. Ramnund‐Mansingh, N. Reddy
South African higher education (HE) cannot be compared to any other country’s HE systems due to the unique political landscape and structural narrative that it has undergone. Subsequent to the reorganisation of HEIs in 2004, a number of complexities arose. These included accessibility to education across race and the alignment of the South African HEIs to global pedagogic benchmarks. With the changing political landscape, transformations within higher education, socio economic inequities and changes in the workplace, researchers failed to cognize the impact of these factors on graduate employability. Changing graduate attributes to align with a decolonised curriculum and Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) workspaces were transiently underway when COVID-19 set a new narrative for the future of employability. This paper seeks to identify the impact of workplace changes and its direct influence on successful graduate employment and integration into the HE curriculum. The work environment has cursorily moved from 4IR to an advanced stage of the 4IR, where there is a full emphasis on digitisation, non-localised workspaces and is an ostensible playground for digital natives (Generation Z). This paper provides a systematic review of literature in the South African HE contexts that pertains to graduate attributes for employability within the workplace. The adoption of malleable secondary data will allow for an understanding of the relationship between changing workplace environments and expectations from graduates. This correlation is directly linked to graduate attributes which students need to comply with from year one. The paper will provide context to changes which are required for the future success of graduates, and whether graduate attributes are adequate preparation for employability. A clinical model is recommended with an intervention to manage the risk factors of decolonisation of curriculum, the 4IR and multi-generational workplace and responses to COVID-19.
{"title":"South African specific complexities in aligning graduate attributes to employability","authors":"A. Ramnund‐Mansingh, N. Reddy","doi":"10.21153/JTLGE2021VOL12NO2ART1025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21153/JTLGE2021VOL12NO2ART1025","url":null,"abstract":"South African higher education (HE) cannot be compared to any other country’s HE systems due to the unique political landscape and structural narrative that it has undergone. Subsequent to the reorganisation of HEIs in 2004, a number of complexities arose. These included accessibility to education across race and the alignment of the South African HEIs to global pedagogic benchmarks. With the changing political landscape, transformations within higher education, socio economic inequities and changes in the workplace, researchers failed to cognize the impact of these factors on graduate employability. Changing graduate attributes to align with a decolonised curriculum and Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) workspaces were transiently underway when COVID-19 set a new narrative for the future of employability. This paper seeks to identify the impact of workplace changes and its direct influence on successful graduate employment and integration into the HE curriculum. The work environment has cursorily moved from 4IR to an advanced stage of the 4IR, where there is a full emphasis on digitisation, non-localised workspaces and is an ostensible playground for digital natives (Generation Z). This paper provides a systematic review of literature in the South African HE contexts that pertains to graduate attributes for employability within the workplace. The adoption of malleable secondary data will allow for an understanding of the relationship between changing workplace environments and expectations from graduates. This correlation is directly linked to graduate attributes which students need to comply with from year one. The paper will provide context to changes which are required for the future success of graduates, and whether graduate attributes are adequate preparation for employability. A clinical model is recommended with an intervention to manage the risk factors of decolonisation of curriculum, the 4IR and multi-generational workplace and responses to COVID-19.","PeriodicalId":37004,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43980163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-30DOI: 10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no2art1002
B. Aboagye, J. Puoza
Although the Government of Ghana gives considerable attention to technical education to accelerate national development, some graduates remain unemployed for years after graduation. In this study, employability of mechanical engineering graduates from Sunyani Technical University of Ghana is presented. It assessed the employment status and duration of unemployment of the graduates, identified the factors that hinder their employability and the challenges that require attention prior to graduation of students, and made suggestions for improvement. Respondents of the study were 131 graduates from 2014-2017 graduation years, comprising 50% of graduates from each of the Program options in the department. The sampling techniques used were purposive and stratified random sampling techniques. A questionnaire was the research instrument used for data collection and it was administered using e-mails, WhatsApp and phone calls. The results revealed that the employment status of the graduates was about 84% with the duration of unemployment about 29%, 41% and 19% for one, two and three years after their national service respectively. The main factor hindering employability of the graduates was inadequate practical skills since more attention was given to theory at the expense of practical work. The main challenge which requires attention prior to graduation of students was the lack of job-seeking skills. The Department should therefore, focus more on the practical element of the Programs by increasing the practical hours and partner with industry for curriculum development, more internship opportunities and industrial tours, and organise seminars on job acquisition processes prior to graduation of students to enhance employability of the graduates.
{"title":"Study on employability of mechanical engineering graduates from Sunyani Technical University of Ghana","authors":"B. Aboagye, J. Puoza","doi":"10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no2art1002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2021vol12no2art1002","url":null,"abstract":"Although the Government of Ghana gives considerable attention to technical education to accelerate national development, some graduates remain unemployed for years after graduation. In this study, employability of mechanical engineering graduates from Sunyani Technical University of Ghana is presented. It assessed the employment status and duration of unemployment of the graduates, identified the factors that hinder their employability and the challenges that require attention prior to graduation of students, and made suggestions for improvement. Respondents of the study were 131 graduates from 2014-2017 graduation years, comprising 50% of graduates from each of the Program options in the department. The sampling techniques used were purposive and stratified random sampling techniques. A questionnaire was the research instrument used for data collection and it was administered using e-mails, WhatsApp and phone calls. The results revealed that the employment status of the graduates was about 84% with the duration of unemployment about 29%, 41% and 19% for one, two and three years after their national service respectively. The main factor hindering employability of the graduates was inadequate practical skills since more attention was given to theory at the expense of practical work. The main challenge which requires attention prior to graduation of students was the lack of job-seeking skills. The Department should therefore, focus more on the practical element of the Programs by increasing the practical hours and partner with industry for curriculum development, more internship opportunities and industrial tours, and organise seminars on job acquisition processes prior to graduation of students to enhance employability of the graduates.","PeriodicalId":37004,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46376085","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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