Meeting the Demands of the Workplace: Science Students and Written Skills

Over the last 15 years, surveys in a range of English-speaking countries, from North America and the United Kingdom, to New Zealand and Australia, have consistently shown that employers rank oral and written communication skills as highly as or more highly than any technical or quantitative skills. However, in New Zealand there has been very little research into determining exactly what is meant by the “written communication skills” employers state they desire. A further issue in this research to date has been a lack of differentiation between employers—no study has specifically targeted the requirements of employers of science graduates. This article reports the findings of ongoing research into the expectations of science students and of employers of science graduates, and centers around several key questions:

• What do New Zealand employers of science graduates specifically want in terms of their new hires' writing skills?
• How can information gained from employers of science graduates be used to motivate science students to take seriously the need to develop their writing skills?
• How can writing programs be evaluated and developed to help science students acquire communication skills that are important for their future learning and for their employment and promotion prospects?

Findings are compared with the findings of the 2004 National Commission on Writing's survey of American businesses.

     

Academics’ perspectives of the teaching and development of generic employability skills in science curricula

ABSTRACT

Graduate employability is a key issue for higher education as new graduates face a highly competitive and rapidly changing employment sector. To maximise their likelihood of employment, graduates need to be able to demonstrate the skills and attributes most valued by employers. Employers, however, have long criticised the ability of graduates to contribute effectively to the workplace, especially due to a perceived lack of generic employability skills. This indicates a possible mismatch between the skills required by employers and those possessed by graduate applicants. This study addresses a gap in the scholarly literature regarding employability skills – the perspectives of science academics at an Australian and UK university regarding the promotion of generic employability skills in the subjects they teach. More specifically, this article discusses academics’ perspectives regarding: (a) which of the targeted generic skills were developed and assessed through their science units, and (b) the approaches used to promote the targeted skills and any associated challenges in employing those approaches. The discussion explores how shifting from traditional transmissive pedagogies to more problem-based approaches and embedding reflection into pedagogy and assessment practices would contribute to promoting the skills employers increasingly demand from science graduates.     

美国文凭项目英语基准探究

始于2004年的美国文凭项目（简称ADP）旨在提高美国高中毕业生的质量,从当今社会对高中毕业生的实际期望出发,制定出毕业生在升学和就业两方面的必备知识和能力基准。2009年ADP更新了标准。本文主要探究更新后的ADP英语基准,从ADP项目实施的背景、英语基准的内容及其特点方面进行分析,希望能够引发教育者对我国高中毕业生素质的思考。     

Relating Higher Education with the Labour Market: Graduates’ expectations and employers’ requirements

The paper takes into discussion the issue of quality of higher education services, from the perspective of graduates and employers as main beneficiaries of higher education services, by putting face to face expectations of students at graduation with employers’ requirements. In the two surveys conducted in 2006 in Romania, both graduates and employers have been asked about skills and abilities developed through higher education programmes and the extent to which these correspond to their expectations and requirements. The discussion is relevant to the vast literature presenting the skills debate, employment and graduates transition to the labour market, as well as to the literature presenting students’ expectations from higher education.

     

Teaching Literature: the Oxford Education Research Group Project

abstract

Employers seek communication, problem‐solving and teamworking skills in graduates. The need for the last factor derives from an increasing use of teams to manage organisations and to solve problems. The use of analyses of personality styles to understand teamwork grows, and the models of Belbin and Margerison and Lewis (the latter based on the Myers‐Briggs analysis of personality type) are used particularly and illustrate the approach. Most programmes which develop personal skills in graduates include development of inter‐personal skills but appear to under‐use the insights of personality typing. There is a case for redressing this balance. Unstructured group work is of less use than it might be. Dangers to be overcome include stereotyping and superficiality. Other implications for higher education appear in the selection of students, understanding student learning and teaching methods, and the relative inability of institutions to use ideas and insights generated by research.     

Institutional innovations in higher education in central Europe: Agenda for research and co‐operation

Abstract

Research findings on graduate employment in the UK continue to highlight the importance that employers attach to the general knowledge, attitudes and social skills that graduates possess in addition to specific disciplinary knowledge and expertise. Additionally, work based learning is increasingly being viewed as an important vehicle by which undergraduates can develop personal and social skills, as well as gaining knowledge of how organisations work. In this paper I will argue that although developments in undergraduate work based learning do raise a number of issues for higher education institutions and for employers, such developments have much to offer the broader education policy of lifelong learning.     

Career Preparedness Survey Outcomes of Food Science Graduates—A Follow‐Up Assessment

Abstract: Fifty‐eight recent graduates (1998–2008) from the joint Washington State University (WSU) and University of Idaho (UI) BiState School of Food Science program and 27 of their employers participated in a survey assessing learning outcomes based on the 2001 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) core competencies for undergraduate food science programs. Parallel web‐based survey instruments for the graduates and employers using the WSU Skylight Matrix Survey System^© were employed to assess the attitudes of the respondents to the frequency of usage of IFT defined skills and the adequacy of the graduates’ preparation from the program. Graduates responded that they were generally satisfied with their education; however, they reported lower rates of adequate or better preparation in Success Skill involving group dynamics, processing and engineering skills, and government regulations. Most of these skills were also the least frequently used by graduates in their careers. Success Skills were the most frequently performed competencies, while food microbiology and safety, and some engineering and processing skills were used less frequently by graduates of the Food Science program. Greater than 80% of the employers reported that the graduates’ performance was adequate or better in all skill areas. The assessment suggested program improvement since a similar survey in 2004, but also illuminated areas for improvement in teaching and learning, particularly in light of the revised IFT 2011 Guidelines. Specifically, graduates and employers emphasized the need for more course work that weaves critical thinking skills, group dynamics, and government regulations into the classroom. Graduates also highlighted the importance of internships and extracurricular activities for career preparation.     

Project-based learning as a contributing factor to graduates’ work readiness

This paper explores what work readiness means for two cohorts of graduate engineers, one from a traditional curriculum, the second from a largely project-based curriculum. Professional bodies and employers have defined a set of attributes for engineering graduates so that graduates will be ‘work ready’. Problem-based learning (PBL) is claimed to be a suitable approach to develop such skills. The graduates were interviewed some months after starting work, along with their managers. All the graduates recognised the benefits of taking PBL subjects as well as vacation work, with success in communication attributed more to PBL. Both cohorts had similar learning outcomes, high skill levels in project management, problem solving, communication skills, research and sustainability. A skills gap in ethics was identified for both cohorts of graduates and their managers. Further work is planned to link skill development with undergraduate learning experience.     

涉外专业大学毕业生可雇佣性与社会需求差异调查研究

通过问卷和访谈对浙江省2117名涉外专业大学毕业生可雇佣性现状和605家涉外企事业单位人才需求进行调查。调查包含5个维度（专业技能、沟通技能、个人属性、人际技能、团队技能）共19项指标。结果显示雇主较为看重的可雇佣性技能是：诚信、与不同文化背景的人共事、外语水平、解决专业问题、团队合作。这与其对毕业生可雇佣性现状的评价中,解决专业问题、与不同文化背景的人共事、团队合作等能力评价不高形成差异。高校涉外专业在设计人才培养方案时应注意提升学生相关的雇佣性能力。     

Science for employment and higher education

The results of a survey of the views of employers and tutors in higher education on the scientific curriculum for 16‐ to 19‐year‐olds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is reported. The results show that a limited range of scientific ideas are seen as essential by representatives of all areas. Both employers and tutors in higher education believe that developing a student's capability in a wide range of generic skills (including mathematics skills) should be an aim of courses leading to advanced science qualifications. Higher education tutors tend to require higher levels of thinking in the use of the ideas than do employers. The implications of taking note of employmnent and higher education needs for secondary science education are discussed.     

Students' Perceptions of their Learning Outcomes

Abstract

This paper indicates students' perceptions of their learning outcomes, identified through group consultations in the author's University. These student generated outcomes were strongly orientated towards personal and professional skills and qualities, and the listing of them is compared to existing models of ‘transferable skills’. This might be of particular interest in the light of recent concerns about ‘graduateness’. The list was subsequently used as the basis for a questionnaire survey of students, and the findings of this survey are briefly reviewed. The student generated list differs in two main ways from the existing skills models reviewed. It is more context specific and is more concerned with values.     

Communication Skills and Veterinary Education

Veterinarians require effective communication skills for interacting with clients, colleagues and other people, but very little emphasis has been placed on these skills either in the professional literature, or in the curricula of veterinary schools.

In this study questionnaires were used to assess attitudes of Queensland veterinary students and recent graduates to various aspects of communication. These revealed that students entered the veterinary course with a relatively low appreciation of the importance to a veterinarian of the skills needed to interact effectively with people, but placed high importance on skills for dealing with animals. As the students proceeded from first to fifth year, they became increasingly aware of the relative importance to veterinarians of understanding and communicating with people.

Formal teaching of communication skills to veterinary students has recently been pioneered at the University of Queensland. This involves a sequence of subjects in the first, third and fifth year of the veterinary course. Emphasis is placed on factors that help and hinder both spoken and written communication, and on the desirability of adopting a critical, analytical approach to (veterinary) scientific literature. Surveys have indicated that the students appreciate the value of these subjects in relation to their future career, and feedback from employers of recent graduates has been positive.     

Linking the components of a university program to the qualification profile of graduates: The case of a sustainability‐oriented environmental science curriculum

A university Environmental Sciences curriculum is described against the background of requirements for environmental problem solving for sustainability and then analyzed using data from regular surveys of graduates (N = 373). Three types of multiple regression models examine links between qualifications and curriculum components in order to derive some conclusions about which qualifications are enhanced by which curriculum components. The underlying rationale of these models is that assessments of the importance of a certain component (and the time graduates think should be allocated to it) should increase with the workplace demand for the qualifications it provides. A comprehensive set of 19 qualifications was used, subdivided into three areas of environmental problem‐solving skills (A, basic scientific and technological skills; B, transformation‐oriented skills; and C, sociopolitical skills) and two areas of transferable skills (D, individual key skills and E, social and communication skills). Relationships identified by different regression models are discussed in terms of mutual consistency and with regard to the design, content, and learning goals of the curriculum components. Many plausible relationships were identified. Using such regression models is a promising indirect method that may be generally applicable for the explorative qualification‐oriented evaluation of university curricula and their fundamental components based on graduates' judgments. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 537–569, 2009     

Engineering graduates’ perceptions of how well they were prepared for work in industry

This study investigated how well chemical engineering graduates perceive they were prepared for work in industry. To this end, sixteen interviews were carried out with a purposive sample of recent University of Cape Town chemical engineering graduates. Qualitative analysis of the interview data showed that graduates felt that overall, they were well prepared for work in industry. They perceived their strengths to be their technical background, problem solving skills, formal communication skills and life-long learning abilities. The following areas of weakness were also identified: work in multi-disciplinary teams, leadership, practical preparation and management skills.

The use of interviews for data collection is a significant departure from the methods used in other studies in this area. The rich and contextual data gathered from the interviews justified this choice and contributed to the identification of issues not previously mentioned in the literature. For example, an unexpected finding of the study was that there was a clear link between the technical and non-technical attributes of engineering graduates, a result which has clear implications for the design of undergraduate engineering programmes.     

Employer and Educator Expectations for Youth: Fostering the Need for Greater Collaboration and Development∗

Abstract

The debate about the relationship of school to work has been constantly fuelled by reports and papers claiming to document the attitudes and expectations of the key parties. Typically the relationship is reported to be muddled by conflict, misunderstanding and disillusionment. Close examination of the values and expectations underlying sanctioned attitudes, attributes, knowledge and skills, indicates a greater degree of symbiosis between educators and employers than is traditionally acknowledged.

     

Diverse Expectations and Access to Opportunities: is there a Graduate Labour Market?

Restructuring of the labour market has led to changing demand for skills and concern about potential mismatch between needs of employers and competences developed in higher education courses. This paper extends analysis of the Great Expectations survey of UK final-year undergraduates in 1996 to explore the development of skills and competences in different disciplinary areas and the anticipated career trajectories of students. A detailed assessment is undertaken of the extent to which respondents appear prepared, both in terms of the employment-related skills they consider they have developed as undergraduates and in their expectations, for the changes which have taken place in the labour market in the latter part of the twentieth century. While findings from transitional early careers need to be interpreted cautiously, it does appear that expectations varied less than emerging outcomes for this cohort in the vanguard of mass higher education. Subject and gender differences in expectations and outcomes were significant and 'non-traditional' graduates were more likely than others to report that they were experiencing difficulties in the transition from education to employment. The graduates themselves had a flexible approach to the labour market but it seems that employers may have more inflexible recruitment graduate practices. Further research is required but there is clearly a danger that wider access may not lead to correspondingly wider career opportunities.     

Training Minds for Tomorrow's World: on Independence,Curiosity, and Effectiveness∗

Writing as the former Director of the Council for Industry and Higher Education of the United Kingdom, the author makes a plea for the shared responsibility of universities and industry to educate for change and growth. Thus, graduates of higher education, who will be confronted with a variety of opportunities, must be educated to face a post‐industrial society characterized by an automated economy, a quantifiable world, complexity, and rapid obsolescence. The author proposes that students confronted with a combination of practical training and humanistic subjects, who through their education develop good communication and numeracy skills, flexibility, and the ability to work in teams will be best able to survive and to prosper in the job markets of today and tomorrow. Producing this new kind of graduate will also require changes in the approaches to teaching; more students will have to learn to a high standard more efficiently with fewer staff members per student. The aim of producing employable graduates by means of state‐of‐the‐art instructional methods will best be achieved through creative dialogue between employers and educators.

     

Science and technology management: Designing an undergraduate course

This research focusses on the role of science educators in preparing technically educated graduates for their careers. A comparison was made between the skills and abilities in science and technology students desired by industrial employers and whether New Zealand graduates exhibit these qualities. To address some of the management-based issues identified by the research, the design of a new Science and Technology Management course is outlined. Specializations: science and technology education, co-operative education, development of professional skills. Specializations: co-operative education programmes.     

Graduate identity and employability

This paper develops the concept of graduate identity as a way of deepening the understanding of graduate employability. It does this through presenting research in which over 100 employers in East Anglia were asked to record their perceptions of graduates in respect of their employability. The findings suggest a composite and complex graduate identity, depending on employer size and sector. There is no one fixed identity for graduates. Nevertheless, certain themes emerged that seriously put into question the traditional model of graduate employability comprising skills, competencies and attributes. What emerges is a four‐stranded concept of identity that comprises value, intellect, social engagement and performance. Thus, when assessing the potential of graduates, performance is not the only criteria that employers take into account. Moreover, the four elements of identity are by no means independent of each other but are expected to interpenetrate producing a composite identity, with different employers emphasising different facets of this identity.

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