Generic Skills of Prospective Graduates from the Employers’ Perspectives

Abstract

Past studies on employability of graduates have placed great emphasis on the supply side efforts in generic skills development which includes the tertiary curriculum design and delivery mechanisms. However, the responsibility of employers in providing training to prospective graduates and collaborating with universities in enhancing generic skills has been raised. On the demand side, there are numerous studies that have examined employer's perspective in the private sector but few studies have examined employer's perspective in the public sector. The objectives in this study are twofold: (1) to identify employers' perception of the ideal generic skills that graduate employees should possess, and (2) to elicit employers' perception of the lack of generic skills that prospective graduates (i.e. industrial trainees) currently possess. A qualitative research design was utilized, involving primary interview data collected through 16 key informant interviews of employers in the public sector in Kuantan and Johor Bahru. These key informant employers were selected from the UKM's social science industrial trainees who attended training at these two sites. These interview data were analyzed using content analysis. The findings indicate that there are specific generic skills in the area of information and social interaction skills that the public sector employers seek from the graduates. This study implies the need for a stakeholder-responsibility approach in prescribing a comprehensive normative solution to the employability of graduates. In addition, it also postulates that the culture of learning and gaining varied skills in different spheres of life need to be inculcated amongst students from early years.

Las Competencias Transversales en La Universidad: Propiedades Psicométricas De Un Cuestionario

“…Para ello, se efectúa una búsqueda bibliográfica de estudios sobre competencias transversales que recogen la opinión de los empleadores, con resultados generalizables a las distintas áreas de estudio de los graduados y realizados en los últimos 15 años (periodo coincidente con el comienzo de la Convergencia Europea en 1999 hasta la actualidad) tanto en el ámbito nacional (Accencture y Universia, 2007;Bajo, Maldonado, Moreno, Moya, Tudela, 2003;Alonso, Fernández y Nyssen, 2009;Freire, Tejeiro y Pais, 2013;Gómez Gras, Galiana, García, Cascarilla y Romero, 2006;Informe Delphi, 2001;Martín, Rabadán, Hernández, 2013;Mora, 2011;Nebrija, 2013 den, 2008;Humburg et al, 2013;Lowden, Hall y Elliot, Lewin, 2011;Mason, Williams y Cranmer, 2006;Mora, Badillo, Carot, y Vila, 2007;Stanciu y Banciu, 2012;Selvadurai, Choy, Maros, 2012;Weligamage, 2009). Al igual que en las referencias académicas se tienen en cuenta todas las competencias contempladas en los documentos consultados para la elaboración de la escala, en los estudios de opinión de los empleadores donde existe un ranking de competencias más requeridas, se escogen las cinco más relevantes.…”

Reliability index of critical thinking among electrical technology teachers

“…Currently, teachers in Malaysia only have moderate skills regarding higher order thinking [6]. Despite the wider range of studies conducted to understand more about higher order thinking skills in technical and vocational education, authors that reviewed previous studies on higher order thinking skills agree that there is still a gap in the application of higher order thinking skills among teachers when teaching [7]. Most teachers nowadays are not able to deliver higher order thinking skills such as critical thinking to unfamiliar scenarios and are not able to justify every action that they take in the process of solving problems [8].…”

A Human Capital Evaluation of Graduates from the Faculty of Management Sciences Employability Skills in South Africa

“…A growing body of research focus on graduate attributes or generic skills in relation with employability (Cummings, 2010;Nair, Patil & Mertova, 2009;Selvadurai, Choy & Maros, 2012). However, most research conducted on employability focus on the supply side perspective.…”

“…Omar et al (2012) suggest that from the employers' perspective employability refers to 'work readiness' subsuming skills, knowledge attitudes and commercial understanding that will enable graduates to add value to the achievement of organizational objectives after commencement of duties. Thus graduates should not only have knowledge of subject matter but also be able to execute what they have gained in the education process (Selvadurai et al, 2012) incorporating the skills mentioned by York and Knight (2006).…”