Developing employability skills via extra-curricular activities in Vietnamese universities: student engagement and inhibitors of their engagement

This article reports a study that investigated student engagement and inhibitors of their engagement with developing employability skills via extra-curricular activities in Vietnamese universities. Content analysis of 18 interviews with students and statistical analysis of 423 students’ responses to a paper-based survey showed that despite a variety of extra-curricular activities being frequently organised, students engaged in these activities just above a moderate level. The analysis revealed that students with different motivations as well as students from different university types, disciplines, and university years engaged differently with developing employability skills via this channel. Five inhibitors of their engagement were identified, including students’ working part-time, a lack of information about extra-curricular activities, students’ beliefs about participating bringing no benefits, competition with curriculum-based activities, and unprofessional organisation of these activities. The article discusses ways to improve student engagement with developing employability skills via extra-curricular activities.     

Social Justice and Job Distribution in Japan: Class; Minority and Gender

Japanese schools have a mechanism for helping their students to find jobs, rather than leaving this function to market forces. The system embodies three principles. First, it tries to ensure that every graduating student within a school obtains a job. Second, it gives special assistance to students who are seen as "vulnerable" in the job market. Third, it takes into account individual merit (i.e. academic marks, school attendance and extra-curricular activities). The system recognises that a young person's initial full-time employment is crucial in obtaining an adult identity; that high school graduates are still immature and vulnerable, needing professional adult assistance to find "suitable" employment, and that they have unequal access to such assistance in their families. A key role is played by the teachers, who strive to obtain what they consider to be the most suitable employment for all their graduating students.     

Empowering students by enhancing their employability skills

Recognising the importance of graduates being equipped with appropriate employability skills alongside their subject-specific skills, we have had transferable skills training embedded throughout our degree programmes for 30 years. More recently, a specific employability skills module for final-year honours students has been created. This module consists of a programme of activities supporting employability skills, which was delivered to final-year undergraduate students from 2012 to 2015. A key feature in the development and delivery of these activities was the involvement of external experts. Detailed questionnaires have captured student perceptions and thematic analysis has revealed key themes. The module has been perceived to be highly useful, resulting in significant increases in students’ confidence across key areas of employability skills. Furthermore, students may hold skewed perceptions of the relevance of generic employability skills to their chosen career path. This fact should be considered when delivering employability skills programmes.     

What to do next: an exploratory study of the post-secondary decisions of American students

Research on college choices is the new tool used by Higher Educational Institutions to help them identify the influences and factors affecting potential student populations. To measure the growing rate of working students in higher education, we propose to examine the decisions made after graduating from high school to current demographic changes. In this study, we use data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS: 2002) to estimate the influence of individual variables on post graduating high school choices using multinomial logistic regression analysis. Untangling the individual choices allows us to examine, four possible after high school life choices—students who decide to pursue post-secondary education (student); those who decide to work while attending a post-secondary institution (working student); those who decide to enter the workforce (worker) or high school graduates who neither work nor enroll in postsecondary education (unemployed). Results suggest that aside from socioeconomic status and achievement, interesting patterns for gender, ethnicity and family composition and its effect on the likelihood of a high school graduate’s life choices emerged. As an example, Asian students are more likely to enter their next phase in life as a student than a working student in comparison to white ones. That result is a clear example that not all high school students are alike in their life choices; therefore, for a better understanding in the needs and decision making ways of high school graduates, this paper addresses different factors that lead to a post-secondary decision in order to accommodate their transition to HEI.     

The effects of student aid on recent college graduates

Using college graduates from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (N=3,136), this study reviews the relationships between student financial aid received during college and the types of activities pursued by students after graduating. Four areas of graduates' lives were examined: attending graduate school, choosing a job, forming a family, and forming personal values. Three types of student aid were included: loans, grants, and work, with emphasis on loans. Despite the expectation of a negative impact of loans, the results showed no support for this, and in general, the findings suggested that college graduates who received aid as undergraduates were little different from other graduates. The major implication is that the self-help forms of aid (loans and work) are not detrimental to the future plans of recipients.This paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Washington, D.C., April 1979.     

高校辅导员能做工作时间的“主人”吗？

高校辅导员工作时间属于思想政治教育时间范畴,存在着特殊性与不确定性。辅导员正确认识工作时间的必要性取决于其职业属性、工作要求和工作职责。灵活掌握工作时间符合自身职业发展需求、学生成长成才诉求、辅导员队伍建设需要和相关制度安排要求。实现合理运用工作时间的有效路径是:分析优化工作时序、准确把握工作时机、科学提升工作时效、强化时间管理能力。高校辅导员工作是一项较为复杂的系统性工作,因而辅导员运用工作时间受到主客观因素的影响。追本溯源,辅导员要成为工作时间的“主人”,关键在于既要充分发挥自身的主观能动性,做到科学安排和合理利用工作时间,又应扎实推进辅导员队伍专业化、职业化建设。     

The Effect of a Community College Promise Scholarship on Access and Success

Based on a mixed methods case study design, the current study reports on a Promise Scholarship program offered by a community college and its affiliated foundation to graduating students at a nearby high school located in a low-income neighborhood of a large city and with a high proportion of African American and other students of color. Using a mix of government and private funding, all graduating students, regardless of financial need or academic achievement, were offered free tuition at the community college for one year. The promise of a scholarship plus an intensive outreach effort resulted in the majority of graduating seniors submitting scholarship applications and a four-fold increase in the proportion of graduates from the high school who subsequently matriculated at the community college. Once at college, the student recipients demonstrated a high rate of quarter-to-quarter retention. However, few placed into college-level courses in English and math, and their academic progress at the end of the first year was modest.     

高职旅游管理专业课程设置分析——基于毕业生比较优势的视角

为了提高毕业生的就业能力和就业质量,使之不被其他专业的毕业生轻易替代,高职院校必须培养学生的比较优势,即培育院校自身的专业特色,形成有别于其他院校的专业优势;培养学生的特长,形成有别于同类专业的本科生、中专生的职业优势。为此,高职院校要围绕打造毕业生比较优势的培养目标设置课程。     

高师院校非师范生就业能力提升路径论析

与普通高校毕业生相比,高师院校非师范生的就业存在着社会认同度不高、培养质量参差不齐、缺乏明确就业定位等方面的问题,要解决这一问题,根本措施是要从学校和学生这两个层面出发,努力提高非师范生包括个人品质、核心技能和过程技能等三个基本要素在内的就业能力。     

Who is responsible for employability? Student perceptions and practices

The paper examines to whom Portuguese students attribute responsibility for the development of employability, and what extra-curricular activities they undertake to improve their employability. Particular focus lies upon how far students internalise responsibility for employability and if/how they seek to position themselves in the job market. The data was obtained through a survey of 828 Portuguese students. The analysis explored differences among student groups (higher education sector, gender, age and discipline). The attribution of responsibility was primarily to students themselves and to higher education institutions as key vehicles for employability development, echoing the theoretical conceptualisation which sees employability as an individual ability/responsibility. Yet, the observed variations provide empirical support for the conceptualisation of employability as complex and multi-dimensional. The study also revealed relatively high engagement with extra-curricular activities, evidencing that students not only assume responsibility for employability, but are proactively seeking to gain positional advantage in the job market.     

课外体育在学校中的地位和作用及建设策略

课外体育是学校体育的重要组成部分,在学校体育系统和学校教育系统中占有重要的地位。重审课外体育在学校中的地位,分析课外体育的特点和作用,在开展课外体育活动方面,提出加强校园体育文化建设,丰富学生课外生活,强化学生体育锻炼意识;加强硬件设施建设,改善学生的运动环境;完善体育管理,落实对课外体育的组织和领导。     

全人教育理念下的体育育人体系及内容构建——以湖州职业技术学院为例

文章阐述了在“全人教育”理念下构建一套体育育人的运作体系。一是通过建立体育网络信息服务中心,服务学生体质测试和体育课、俱乐部、业余训练、竞技比赛等学校体育活动,形成一套体育育人运作体系;二是以竞赛为驱动,在娱乐和健体的基础上,促进参与体育课、俱乐部、业余训练的学生追求更好的运动成绩,挖掘其个人最大潜力;三是借助体育游戏公平竞争和评判成绩实力优先的原则,在提高学生运动技能的同时,培养学生知法守法、尊重对手、完善人格魅力、最终完成个人价值实现的全人教育理念。     

Students’ perceptions of an interdisciplinary global study tour: uncovering inexplicit employability skills

ABSTRACT

For higher education graduates to be effective in the workplace, they require strong technical skills and the capability to operate across diverse knowledge landscapes to solve real world problems. At an Australian university, an interdisciplinary, short-term study tour programme was utilised to enhance students’ inexplicit employability skills with a focus on managing complexity while developing agility and creativity. To investigate the effectiveness of such a programme, we examined students’ perceptions of an interdisciplinary teamwork assessment task that was undertaken in an international context via a study tour model. We achieved this by, first, introducing a purposely designed interdisciplinary teamwork assessment task, which focused on students presenting innovative ideas to peers and industry members. Second, we elicited student responses via a case study approach that incorporated mixed methods, utilising several data collection instruments prior to, during, and after students participated in a study tour. The findings suggest that integrating a purposely designed interdisciplinary teamwork assessment task, via a short-term study tour model, uncovered certain inexplicit employability skills, namely managing complexity, developing agility and creativity. We make specific recommendations to support this insight, contributing to the mobility teaching and learning research field.     

The effect of extracurricular activities on academic performance in secondary school: The case of Azerbaijan

Extracurricular activities play an important role in the school lives of students. To understand this effect, the authors of this article consider public schools in Azerbaijan and analyse the effect of extracurricular activities on students’ academic performance. They conducted a study investigating three groups of extracurricular activities: sports, fine arts and student clubs. For data on academic performance, they used results of a centralised state school examination which assesses students in two subjects: language of instruction (either Azerbaijani or Russian) and mathematics. The results of this study show that some extracurricular activities have a positive effect on students’ academic performance, while others show no effect. Moreover, the authors consider the number of different extracurricular activities a student takes part in and analyse the significance of this number in predicting student success.

     

Regulatory mechanism of self-determination involvement in higher education: assessing Chinese students’ experiences

Investment in higher education facilities in terms of both hardware and software has witnessed significant growth on a yearly basis since the reintroduction of the college entrance examination known as the NMT in 1977. However, a social assessment of graduates’ qualities seems to indicate that the improvement in skill levels and graduates’ general qualities has failed to keep pace with the growth in investment. As a bridge to relate college environment to student gains in learning, student self-determined involvement in educational activities plays an important role in analyzing the educational effects of colleges. Based on a conducted through the survey of Chinese College Student Experience Questionnaire, with data collected from 647 valid respondents, universities can observe and evaluate the levels and quality of students’ involvement in the educational process. The students’ involvement of educational activities can be investigated through data analysis, employing statistical methods of a structural equation model. In observing student involvement in the educational system, it becomes apparent that the students’ capacity for building on and playing a key role in the improvement of the quality of education they receive is largely controlled by their involvement activities in the learning process. In addition, both of the college environment and student motivation have a combined and significant effect on student involvement behaviors. Student involvement can be divided into three gradual but distinct levels (controlled, identified and integrated involvement) in accordance with the varying degrees of internalization. Student involvement will exponentially magnify the positive effects on student gains when colleges invest in new and additional resources, particularly when students become more deeply involved in the educational environment. In addition, when colleges make a concentrated effort to recognize the importance of student involvement, and they encourage and incentivise students to become involved, the college itself will benefit greatly from the improved university environment. This combination of mutually beneficial activity, therefore, represents a virtuous circle of promotion between college and students.     

论校企合作在高职学生职业化修炼中的作用

高职学生在成为职业人时应该具备从事职业活动的能力,这种能力来源于他们自己的职业心态、职业道德、职业技能和职业形象素质,这四项职业素质的形成过程即职业化修炼的过程。根据国内外积累的经验,发挥校企合作在高职学生职业化修炼中的作用,有助于高职学生成为社会和企业欢迎的高技能实用型人才。     

普通高校俱乐部制体育课程的构建

借鉴俱乐部教学模式优秀的管理方式和组织方法,构建高校课内外一体化俱乐部制体育课程。俱乐部制体育课程符合高校体育思想发展趋势和时代对高校体育的改革要求,包含体育教学俱乐部、课余体育锻炼俱乐部、体育训练俱乐部、综合体育俱乐部四种类型,实施俱乐部制体育课程要从整体上把握课程结构的布局,得当把握教师与学生的关系．并对现有学校运动场馆设施进行科学管理和适度开发.     

Mapping generic skills curricula: outcomes and discussion

Generic skills development is increasingly being embedded into UK higher education curricula to improve the employability and lifelong learning skills of graduates. At the same time universities are being required to benchmark their curricular outcomes against national and employer standards. This paper presents and discusses the results of a study mapping the outcomes, delivery, learning and assessment of an embedded generic skills curriculum and benchmarking these against externally agreed standards. By collecting data from students, supervisors and curriculum documentation across the whole five year course in a UK medical school it evaluates the success of the generic skills programme in achieving its objectives. It goes on to discuss how data from the maps might also be used to encourage student learning. It recommends the adoption of this methodology to map embedded skills curricula with the aim of highlighting skills delivery for curriculum designers and skills development for students.     

传统文化促进大学生就业能力的思考

大学生就业影响到学校、家长、社会与国家发展,因此,提高大学生就业能力意义重大。大学生就业不但要有良好的专业技能,更要有为人处事、身心健康、自我管理与社会实践等能力做保障。传统文化精华可以促进大学生就业所需要的这五种能力,从而促进更好就业。     

Employability and Employment Outcomes of No-Fee Preservice Students

This study used interviews and questionnaires to survey 770 no-fee preservice students. Its findings were as follows: (1) Their employability encompasses five dimensions: teaching skills, ability to learn specialized knowledge, ability to grasp elementary and secondary teaching materials and methods, communication skills, and ability to apply for a job. (2) Teaching skills scored highest as the most important aspect of employability. Men scored higher than women on overall employability and ability to apply for a job, while women scored higher than men on ability to learn specialized knowledge. Students who had been student leaders scored higher than nonleaders on overall employability, ability to apply for a job, communication skills, and ability to learn specialized knowledge. Students from well-off families scored higher than poorer students on overall employability and communication skills. There was no significant difference on employability or communication skills between students from families in average economic circumstances and those from poor families. (3) Employability, internship experiences, popularity of specialty, employment opportunities, and being in the no-fee program directly predict the employment outcomes of no-fee students; outstanding personality traits and significant others (e.g., family members and personal networks) affect their employment outcomes indirectly through employability, and the same holds for their internship experiences.