Australian graduates’ work readiness – deficiencies, causes and potential solutions

Abstract

Purpose It is widely reported that there is a competence deficit between graduating from Australian higher education (HE) and becoming work ready and that the deficit is becoming more pronounced. The purpose of this paper is to examine the work readiness competencies of Australian HE and vocational education (VE) graduates. The reported competence deficits, the causes of these deficits and the potential strategies to overcome these deficits are discussed. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative, inductive research design was used to examine Australian graduates’ work readiness competence, potential deficits, their causes and possible solutions to gain some preliminary insights and help shape future research. A multiple case design was used comprising key stakeholders’ in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. In-depth semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted to gain insights from the key stakeholders. Findings The stakeholders reported that the Australian VE and HE sectors do not sufficiently prepare graduates in terms of their work readiness skills. Self-management skills, communication (written and expression), team-work skills, cognitive skills, system thinking and innovation and creativity were the main work readiness competency deficits reported by the stakeholders. Research limitations/implications The research has its limitations in terms of the limited sample and time frame, and the absence of input from graduates. The results of the study indicate the deteriorating state of the Australian graduate labour market and emphasise that an integrated approach is urgently required from all stakeholders to facilitate the transition and reduce the time taken from graduation to employment. Originality/value The focus of the study is located in the Australian labour market in terms of the competencies that reportedly are present upon graduation and the competencies that employers are looking for on recruitment. The requisite competency list and the deficits are examined through the lens of four stakeholder groups; government representatives, industry representatives and VE and HE representatives.

Psychology Education and Work Readiness Integration: A Call for Research in Australia

“…Further, such investigation would allow clear delineation of the skills that psychology graduates possess, which recognised by bodies such as APHRA and the APS are not understood or readily available by the general public or the industry base that hires graduates. Further, internationally, as commenced by the Bologna Process, understanding work readiness of graduates will permit international applicability and transferability of Australian degrees ( Prikshat et al, 2020 ; Department of Education Skills and Employment, 2021 ). Specifically, this work advances the cause of investigating work readiness within the confines of the discipline of psychology.…”

“…The ability to understand and describe skills that students learn during their tertiary education is growing in importance particularly in Australia with the adoption of the Bologna Process, which is intended to enable Australian award graduates greater international portability between European and Oceania nations ( Jackson, 2019 ; Department of Education Skills and Employment, 2021 ). Fuelling this debate are calls from the industry base to better understand the skills imbued to graduates through tertiary programs with a recent review by Prikshat et al (2020) reporting significant perceived deficits in Australian graduates understanding, which is steadily increasing in prevalence. The concept of graduate work readiness has emerged in the literature base in the last 2 decades with journals, such as Education + Training sponsoring special editions to focus exclusively on the topic ( Turner and Winterton, 2019 ).…”

New technology and work: Exploring the challenges

“…In the UK, one estimate suggests that over one-third of graduates are overqualified for their jobs (Office of National Statistics, 2017). Labour market mismatches and overqualified graduates or graduates with the wrong skillsets to access jobs have also been widely reported in other countries (Prikshat et al, 2019).…”

“…Research indicates that there are several problems associated with graduate transitions into full-time employment. These include mismatches between graduate education and the skills employers want (Prikshat et al, 2019) and the ‘family work history legacy’ concerning the influence of parental employment or unemployment. Mainstream theory argues that youth wages are set above the market clearing rate – other barriers include a lack of transitional support mechanisms, such as apprenticeships, traineeships (Dhakal et al, 2018: 112) and credentialism.…”

The importance of part-time work to UK university students

“…Here, employers lay blame to the educational provision of universities (Little, 2005;Rhew et al, 2019) for focusing on technical skills, rather than developing desired softer or social skills, such as communication, inter-personal relationships and teamworking (Abdullah-Al-Mamun, 2012;Ellis et al, 2014;Garner et al, 2019). Consequently, employers feel that universities do not adequately prepare graduates for the workplace (Konig and Ribaric, 2019;Prikshat et al, 2019). This has led to a number of proposed solutions being offered, with Herbert et al (2020) demanding more creative solutions from universities in developing appropriate student behaviours alongside academic studies and Jollands et al (2012) seeking greater emphasis on project-based learning.…”