Doubting the connection: millennials’ perceptions of the link between higher education and workplace readiness

Purpose While Millennials are the most educated generation to date, the unique contributions of higher education as a source of vocational anticipatory socialization (VAS) for organizational success remains unknown. Thus, this paper aims to establish a formative understanding from the student perspective of how faculty help ready the youngest of the Millennial generation for industry. This also allows for a comparison to their older counterparts. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected via an online mixed-methods survey with nearly 400 Millennials (n = 353). Findings Two prominent themes emerged including the professor as a socialization agent, where Millennials report learning from faculty as they are “managers of the classroom.” Additionally, the data indicate that many Millennials doubt the strength of the connection between higher education and career socialization, though a smaller cohort reported using the university environment, and more specifically, their interactions with faculty to practice and refine future workplace behaviors. In contrast to parents and peers, faculty nearly always ranked as the lowest source of VAS information. Research limitations/implications Some Millennials demonstrate a keen awareness of the importance of relational communication, boding especially well for their relationships with future managers and for their leadership skills as they transition into positions of management. Practical implications Faculty should consider how to address three concerns: a potential lack of perceived relevance, workplace inferences based on college experiences and leveraging interactions to strengthen student practice of professional communication. Managers would be well served to anticipate how to address newcomers’ expectations that stem from interpreting communicative experiences in the college classroom as analogous to workplace interactions. Originality/value The data indicate that traditional ideas about the impact of vocational anticipatory socialization sources and messaging need to be rethought, and instead, it appears some of the most fruitful socialization experiences faculty can provide is in giving students space and opportunity to practice and refine future workplace behaviors.

Assessing the knowledge, attitude and perception on workplace readiness regarding COVID-19 among health care providers in Ethiopia—An internet-based survey

Background Healthcare facilities in Ethiopia are responsible for collecting samples for testing and treating COVID-19 patients, providing COVID-19 information to staff, establishment of response teams, and provision of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE). Working at the frontlines against the pandemic, health care providers’ level of knowledge about COVID-19, attitude towards their work, and confidence in the preparedness of their facilities are essential factors in mounting a successful response. Objectives This study investigated the knowledge level of HCP in Ethiopia on this novel coronavirus, and their perspectives on whether their workplaces have sufficient preparedness to handle this disease. Methods A self-administered online survey was conducted. Results The knowledge related to COVID-19 among HCPs was high, with an overall average of 91.5%. The majority of our respondents were supportive to the government’s measures to minimize disease transmission, but most of them were also frustrated by how COVID affected their day to day lives. The majority of them were worried about contracting COVID at work and transmitting the infection to their families. Most respondents did not feel safe going to work (P<0.001). Apart from providing adequate information on COVID-19, most workplaces did not have sufficient PPE (P<000.1) and medical supplies (P<0.001). Close to 50% of respondents agreed and disagreed that their workplaces had clear protocols for handling COVID-19 (P = 0.144). Those who handled known COVID patients were more likely to agree their workplaces had clear protocols (OR = 2.69, P<0.001). Conclusion Improving supplies of PPEs and establishing a clear communicating protocol in handling COVID patients are highly recommended.

Washington View: Preparing for the workplace of the future

Technological advances and increased global competition have led pundits and policy makers to worry about how well schools are preparing students for the workplaces of the future. Maria Ferguson looks at three reports that paint an uncertain picture of workplace readiness. Schools aren’t necessarily educating students in ways that will help them succeed in the future. And workers are unable to access the kinds of learning opportunities they need and desire as their workplaces evolve.

English Exit Test: An Analysis of the Test-Takers’ Performance in the Speaking Component

The workplace-readiness of the Malaysian graduates is unarguably an issue that the local employers and the Higher Education Providers (HEPs) have a consensus upon. It has been reported by the Malaysian Employers’ Federation that more often than not the disability or handicap lies in the poor communicative ability of the graduates who failed to impress their future employers despite their sterling academic performance. One of the hiring criteria for the future employers is that these graduates must be trained to be more verbally competent and eloquent. Hence, this study attempts to conduct a performance analysis of a group of local undergraduates in their English Exit Test (EET) that is made up of written and spoken assessments for them to be workplace-compliant. However, the result has indicated that the test-takers tend to be inhibited when it comes to expressing themselves verbally, which has resulted in a dismal performance in the speaking component. As such, it is a cause for concern to rectify the situation and figure out the solutions to tackle their weak performance. This study also analyses the different performance between the Engineering as opposed to the Hotel Management and Tourism undergraduates, in which a slight difference in their achievement of grades was found. The five dissimilar disciplines of speaking tasks also recorded a difference in their score means achieved by the test takers, which could suggest that treatments are in need to be tailored for those weak performers

Nurturing students’awareness of their behavioral competencies: The Competency Lab experience

Behavioral competencies, also defined emotional and social competencies (ESCs), are considered to be increasingly important for graduates’ workplace readiness. Drawing on studies that adopt the “whole person” learning approach and the Intentional Change Theory (ICT), this paper illustrates a teaching approach that higher educational institutions should implement, across different curricula and disciplinary fields, in order to improve students’ awareness of their behavioral compentecies and to direct their development coherently with the future professional and personal objectives. In doing this, we give an illustration of the lessons learned from an educational initiative, Competency Lab, designed by a research center of a public university in Italy, that was devoted to master’s students. From the analysis of the students’ learning outcomes, the paper shows the positive impact of : i) proposing the ICT approach, through which students assume personal responsibility for the development of ESCs; ii) integrating multiple learning methods and tools with a specific application of experiential methods to stimulate self-reflection and active experimentation; and iii) encouraging students’ engagement through web-based technologies. We provide implications for educators illustrating how students can self-define the ESCs to develop, following a rigorous method that is tailored to their specific level of maturity and personal motivation.

A theoretical framework for investigating the context for creating employment success in information technology for individuals with autism

There is limited research that addresses the inclusion of individuals with autism in the workforce. Autism employment in information technology (IT) is a new phenomenon and there is no established theory to draw from to investigate this phenomenon. In this paper, we review the existing literature on autism employment and present a theoretical framework to study information technology workplace readiness to equitably include individuals with autism. Our proposed framework extends Annabi and Lebovitz’s organizational interventions mitigating individual barriers theoretical framework to include Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior constructs. The framework will contribute to advancing the knowledge and understanding of the needs of individuals with autism, the knowledge and attitudes of neurotypical information technology employees, and organization and employment characteristics. Ultimately, this work will lead to discoveries that broaden participation of individuals with autism in the information technology industry and beyond.