scholarly journals Is it more than employability? Revisiting employers’ perception of graduates’ attributes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrícia Santos ◽  
Fátima Suleman ◽  
Teresa Pereira Esteves
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Holistic Education ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Recruitment Process ◽  
Learning Abilities ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
The World ◽  
Personal And Social Responsibility

Higher education is confronted with two broad missions, either prepare graduates for the world of work, or prepare well-rounded students that combine broad-spectrum qualities of citizenship, responsibility, and professional expertise. The employability skills have been widely studied, while the attributes related to holistic education are still scarcely investigated. This paper examines the skills and other attributes that employers seek when hiring graduates. It confronts the perceptions of employers regarding the skills associated with employability and the abilities and characteristics linked to holistic education. This is an exploratory research based on original and qualitative data collected in 2020 through interviews with employers (n=8) from different sectors in Portugal. Empirical findings indicate that all employers prioritise employability skills, such as communication, teamwork, and learning abilities. We found more dispersion regarding the attributes of holistic education and a large consensus was found for interdisciplinarity, self-reflection, and personal and social responsibility. The data show that the attributes that help to address society’s problems and challenges still seem to be regarded as quite irrelevant in the recruitment process.

Illuminating Transformative Learning/Assessment: Infusing Creativity, Reciprocity, and Care Into Higher Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 154134462110451
Author(s):  
Michelle Searle ◽  
Claire Ahn ◽  
Lynn Fels ◽  
Katrina Carbone
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
Learning Assessment ◽  
Process Of Change ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Jack Mezirow ◽  
The World ◽  
Holistic Assessment ◽  
The Individual

In this article, the authors speak to the paradox of assessing transformative learning (TL) in higher education. TL theory, developed by Jack Mezirow, is a theory of learning to describe the process of change in how individuals view the world based on previous experiences. Recognizing that the 10 phases of Mezirow’s TL theory are fluid and intertwined, three prominent aspects resonated within the individual narratives: the importance of a disorienting dilemma, the qualities of self-reflection, and liberatory actions. By exploring the complexities, challenges, and possibilities encountered in their classrooms, the shared narratives reveal how students were engaged in TL and embedded within are holistic assessment processes the authors enacted with learners. Throughout this dialogical narrative inquiry focused on assessment, the authors underwent their own TL in the presence of each other, confessing uncertainties and vulnerabilities, thus showcasing the potential to transform understanding with and through reciprocal learning.

scholarly journals AN EMPIRICAL REVIEW ON THE GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES AND READINESS FOR EMPLOYABILITY AMONG THE ENGINEERING GRADUATES IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS (HEIs)

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 8-25
Author(s):  
Masoud Rashid Al Hinai ◽  
Abul Bashar Bhuiyan ◽  
Nor Azilah Husin
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
Skills Gap ◽  
Graduate Attributes ◽  
Policy Guideline ◽  
The World ◽  
Source Of Information

The graduates’ readiness for employability has become a major issue for HEIs in the world due to growing concern from governments and industries on the quality of the graduates. As thus, this paper intends to determine the most required skills for Engineering graduate’s readiness for employability. Therefore, the main objective of the current study is to determine the skills required for Graduates’ Readiness for Employability for Engineering graduates. Specifically, this study intends to review the most current literature to specify the most required skills for the readiness of Engineering Graduates for Employability in the Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in the world. The study reviews the current literature on graduates’ readiness for employability especially for engineering graduates as the main source of information. The study is designed to analyze and determine the engineering graduates’ readiness for employability required skills. The literature utilized for this study covers the latest literature (from 2014 to 2019) extracted from Google Scholar, ProQuest, and Scopus. The three main keywords used were ‘higher education’, ‘employability skills ‘or ‘readiness for employability skills, and ‘skills gap in the world. The study determines the engineering graduates’ readiness for employability required skills for the HEIs in the world. It analyses the most influential required skills for the graduate readiness for employability that will be considered as an empirical study on the graduates of the engineering colleges in the world. The study conceptualizes graduate readiness for employability requirements from the latest literature and papers. The results of the study will fill the gap in understanding the main required engineering graduates’ readiness for employability skills in the world. This study is intended to determine the most required graduates’ readiness for employability skills for engineering in the HEIs in the world. Besides, it will be used to advise a policy guideline for HEIs and researchers for the understanding of graduates’ readiness for employability skills requirements in the HEIs in the world.  

scholarly journals Outcome-Based Study on the Effectiveness of PSMB Apprenticeship Scheme under 10th Malaysian Plan

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Shulgina ◽  
Sagaran Gopal
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sampling Method ◽  
Vocational Education And Training ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
The World ◽  
Future Direction ◽  
And Training

In Malaysia, as in many parts of the world, vocational education and training (VET) is frequently perceived as the solution to improving the opportunities of youths who lack the resources, skills or motivation to continue with higher education. The focus of the study falls on the effectiveness of the apprenticeship scheme during the 10th Malaysia Plan. This study may provide an opportunity to find out how the related parties react towards the apprenticeship scheme. This is important, as feedbacks are central to the success or failure of any scheme. It is expected that the relevant government bodies, private sectors, trainers and trainees will have a valuable insight on the progress this far and what need to be done in the future based on the outcome of the research. This study follows snowballing sampling method and gathers the information from apprentices from variety of industrial sectors. The findings indicate effectiveness at some types of training but lacks comprehensiveness and efficient use of resources and future direction, especially during the 10th Malaysia plan period from 2011 to 2016. This exploratory research is a first chapter of the deeper study in this niche.

Needed Methodological Emancipation: Qualitative Coding and the Institutionalization of the Master’s Voice

2021 ◽  
pp. 107780042110218
Author(s):  
Radhika Viruru ◽  
Ambyr Rios
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Discourse Community ◽  
Fake News ◽  
The World ◽  
The Voice

While qualitative research has been among the more open of academic disciplines, processes for analyzing qualitative data have remained dogmatic. Most qualitative data are “coded” by breaking it into pieces of information that stand alone or through contextualizing it as researchers see fit. Data analysis thus remains a process of deconstructing participant voices and reconstructing stories through sound bites, creating an acceptable form of “fake news” to obtain a seat at the research high table. This continues established traditions of denying “subalterns,” already less agentive in higher education spheres, the ability to speak as the voice of the participant is subjugated to the discourse community of the master. In this paper, we demonstrate how protocols for analyzing qualitative data represent the master’s voice as they draw from Euro-Western ways of knowing the world. Possibilities that foreground indigenous and critical epistemologies are presented as alternatives.

Students' Independent Professional Activity in Pedagogical Practice

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-58
Author(s):  
Aina Strode
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Criteria And Indicators ◽  
Study Process

Students' Independent Professional Activity in Pedagogical PracticeThe topicality of the research is determined by the need for changes in higher education concerned with implementing the principles of sustainable education. The article focuses on teacher training, highlighting the teacher's profession as an attractive choice of one's career that permits to ensure the development of general and professional skills and an opportunity for new specialists to align with the labour market. The empirical study of students' understanding of their professional activity and of the conditions for its formation is conducted by applying structured interviews (of practice supervisors, students, academic staff); students and experts' questionnaire. Comparative analysis of quantitative and qualitative data and triangulation were used in case studies. As a result, a framework of pedagogical practice organisation has been created in order to form students' independent professional activity. The criteria and indicators of independent professional activity have been formulated and suggestions for designers of study programmes and organisers of the study process have been provided.

AN INDUCTIVELY DERIVED RESEARCH FRAMEWORK FOR STUDENT SATISFACTION IN ODL: THE HIGHER EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-57
Author(s):  
Marry Mdakane ◽  
Christo J. Els ◽  
A. Seugnet Blignaut
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Specific Aspect ◽  
Written Narratives ◽  
Research Framework ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Education Environment

Student satisfaction, as a key psychological-affective outcome of tertiary education, is a direct measure of the success of Open Distance Learning (ODL). It is therefore vital for ODL Higher Education Institutions to assess and improve student satisfaction constantly. Existing theories on student satisfaction are mostly derived from deductive research, i.e. from research that considers the existing body of knowledge, followed by an investigation of a specific aspect or component, in order to reach a specific conclusion. We, however, maintain the inductive stance that a research framework for student satisfaction in ODL should be derived from students themselves. Accordingly, we purposively collected qualitative data from N=34 South African postgraduate ODL students, representative of various cultural language groups, with regard to student satisfaction. Supported by Atlas.ti, we composed an integrated dataset comprised of students’ responses to two focus-group interviews, as well as students’ written narratives in response to qualitative questions. Through meticulous qualitative data-analysis, we detected data categories, sub-categories, patterns and regularities in the integrated dataset. Theories and findings from the existing corpus of knowledge pertaining to student satisfaction in ODL illuminated our qualitative findings. This paper reports on the knowledge we gained from our participants pertaining to their student satisfaction with the Higher Education (HE) environment, the first of three main research components of an inductively derived research framework for student satisfaction in ODL.

Social Glocalisation and Education

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Hobelsberger
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Local Effects ◽  
Local Identities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Work Health

This book discusses the local effects of globalisation, especially in the context of social work, health and practical theology, as well as the challenges of higher education in a troubled world. The more globalised the world becomes, the more important local identities are. The global becomes effective in the local sphere. This phenomenon, called ‘glocalisation’ since the 1990s, poses many challenges to people and to the social structures in which they operate.

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