Identifying the trends and impact of graduate attributes on employability: a literature review

Tertiary Education and Management - Graduate employability has become an issue since there are broad mismatches between the acquired graduate skills from university and the required skills by...     

大学生就业能力培养:英国经验及其启示

英国与我国一样存在较大的毕业生就业压力,而在大学生就业能力培养方面存在对就业能力的认识不一致、相关活动不是高校教育的主要目标等矛盾,近年来高校采取改革教学模式、为学生提供个性化帮助、帮助学生增加工作经验以及加强校企联系等多种措施,提高学生的就业能力,相关做法对我国具有一定的启示和借鉴意义。     

Strategic institutional approaches to graduate employability: navigating meanings,measurements and what really matters

ABSTRACT

Despite ongoing efforts by universities, challenges and tensions continue to exist in academic discourse, policy and practice around graduate employability. These factors can militate against the sector’s capacity to prepare learners for life and work, because they promote unclear, and sometimes counterproductive and competing, courses of action. This article suggests that higher education institutions’ approaches to graduate employability reflect at least three aims. The aims relate to: (i) short-term graduate outcomes; (ii) professional readiness; and (iii) living and working productively and meaningfully across the lifespan. The commitment to each of these aims is often tacit and ill-defined and varies within as well as between institutions, and over time. This article attempts to navigate a productive path through the multiple aims and agendas, along with the definitional and measurement challenges, to identify, workable approaches. It suggests some actionable principles to enhance employability that address the tensions between the three employability aims.     

Marketing graduate employability: understanding the tensions between institutional practice and external messaging

ABSTRACT

Do the narratives of employability constructed by higher education institutions for marketing purposes differ from the conceptualisation and/or the realisation of employability within those institutions? The study reported here drew on interviews with 16 senior academic and student support staff who were tasked with developing student employability at one of nine institutions in Australia, Canada and the UK. We employed Holmes’ conceptions of employability as possessional, positional or processual to analyse how the interviewees conceptualised employability and the presentation of employability on the institutional websites. We found that most institutions’ employability marketing narratives were inconsistent with the institutional practice reported by staff. We explain this tension in the context of two competing characterisations of higher education: a university-student transaction view; and a learning view. We emphasise the need for internal and external narratives to align and advocate the need for engagement in a constructive and critical dialogue involving all stakeholders.     

Theorizing university identity development: multiple perspectives and common goals

Universities articulate their identities during moments of organizational change. The process of development of university identity is herein explored from multiple theoretical strands: (a) industrial/organizational psychology, (b) human development/social psychology, (c) marketing, and (d) postmodern sociological. This article provides an analysis of historic and emergent theories of identity development, suggesting commonalities such as: people seek positive self-identification with their universities; people use comparative like me versus not like me strategies; a view toward history and legacy is common, but need to be balanced by a view that identity is evolutionary, complex, and mutable. A case example of complex identity challenges for branch campuses is presented.     

Liberalism and Communitarianism: a response to two recent attempts to reconcile individual autonomy with group identity

This article is concerned with recent attempts to balance the claims for political citizenship in a liberal democracy (liberalism) with competing claims for cultural identity within traditional non‐liberal communities (communitarianism). Claims of the first kind are usually seen as universal in that they are based on what it is to be human, while claims of the second kind are seen as particular in so far as they relate to membership of a specific culture. Singh (1997) argues for discussion method as a means of reconciling the claims of democratic citizenship with those of cultural attachment in non‐liberal communities. In an earlier and related paper, Singh (1995) also seeks an accommodation between shared and particular values in a multicultural society. Halstead (1997) is concerned about the dilemmas faced by liberal educators and by Muslims with regard to the sex education curriculum and Muslim pupils. In an earlier paper, Halstead (1995) makes proposals for a curriculum which combines a communitarian commitment to the cultural integrity of non‐liberal communities with active participation in the life of a liberal democracy. I will argue that whether we begin from a liberal commitment to individual autonomy (Singh) or from a concern for the cultural integrity and survival of non‐liberal communities (Halstead), there are very real difficulties in achieving a reconciliation between liberal and communitarian perspectives.     

Arab graduate students in a teachers college in Israel: leaving their identity at the gate

This article examines the experience of Palestinian-Arab graduate students in an Israeli teachers college that describes itself as multicultural. By listening to the voices of the Arab students the article identifies the limitations of a liberal multiculturalism. The Arab students interviewed feel that they are treated fairly by their teachers, and they also note that they are treated well by the administration. While they acknowledge the progress made by the college when comparing the campus environment to that of other sites in the Israeli public sphere, their experience also teaches them to "leave their national identity at the gate" when they enter the college campus. They learn that giving expression to their national identity may jeopardize the social comfort zone that they manage to attain at the college—a comfort zone that is unlike anything they experience outside in the “real world.” While not quite feeling at home, the Arab students are left feeling like welcome guests. The research population included 52 male and female Arab students who studied in the college in 2015–2016. The data were gathered through semi-structured, in-depth interviews and analyzed using an open inductive coding method.     

Student and recent graduate perspectives on radiological imaging instruction during basic anatomy courses

Recently, faculty at Pritzker School of Medicine, The University of Chicago, have made efforts to improve the depth of radiological anatomy knowledge that students have, but no insights exist as to student and resident opinions of how clinically helpful deep anatomical understanding is. A single‐institution survey of second‐ and fourth‐year medical students and postgraduate year 1–4 residents from 11 specialties, composed of five‐point Likert questions, sample examination questions, and narrative response questions, was distributed in 2015. One hundred seventy‐seven of the 466 potential respondents replied (71 residents and 106 students), response rate 38.0%. No nonresponse bias was present in two separate analyses. Respondents generally favored a superficial “identification” question as more relevant to clinical practice, which was positively associated with increasing clinical experience ρ = 0.357, P < 0.001 by point‐biserial correlation. Students and residents most commonly used self‐directed methods to learn medical imaging during their medical anatomy courses (72.6 and 57.7%, respectively). Small group education was least commonly used by students and residents (45.3 and 39.4%, respectively), but most commonly recommended (62.3 and 69%, respectively). A total of 56.6 and 64.8% of students and residents, respectively, reported that having multiple learning methods was “quite” or “extremely” important. Respondents with more clinical experience were more likely to report that a superficial identification question was more clinically relevant than a question testing deeper radiological anatomy knowledge. Small group learning was preferred among students and residents but was the least commonly employed method of instruction. Both findings contrast starkly with current radiological anatomy instructional understanding and practices. Anat Sci Educ 11: 25–31. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Calling orientations of junior doctors and medical interns in India: cultural,occupational and relational perspectives

This study examines the factors that shape calling orientations within the Indian context. Based on the narratives of 72 junior doctors and medical interns, it is found that participants identify with harbouring a calling both prior and subsequent to occupational entry. Although factors such as self-recognition of talent and sensemaking of work as destiny play a role, familial communication is found to be particularly influential in the formation of a calling outlook. A relational view of callings associated with generativity and family legacy is thus highlighted. The study additionally compares the career stories of individuals who do (n = 29) and those who do not (n = 43) frame their occupation as a calling. Participants with a calling orientation are found to have a strong affective attachment to the profession, further influenced by familial communication and value internalization. The findings also demonstrate that the calling experience is malleable and can evolve through work/life experiences.     

The new engineer: between employability and social responsibility

The reasons behind the demand for what is sometimes called the New Engineer are critically examined and it is argued that a focus on employability alone is not sufficient to prepare socially responsible engineers. By examining issues around work organisation and sustainability it is proposed that engineers need to understand the wider social context in which they work. It is argued that the focus of ethics education should be broadened to focus on the social structure and the way it both enables and constrains socially responsible conduct. There is a call to refocus engineers’ attitudes towards the systems of regulation so they see them not only as constraints but as potential enablers supporting socially responsible engineering.     

A dialogue on employability skills: How can they be taught?

Robert Bhaerman is a Research and Development Specialist at the National Center for Research in Vocational Education at The Ohio State University. Rick Spill is an employment and training consultant working primarily with the United States Department of Labor, state JTPA divisions, Private Industry Councils, and local education agencies.     

Socialization to interdisciplinarity: faculty and student perspectives

Socialization has become a common framework through which to understand the doctoral student experience; however, the framework has predominately been used as a lens through which to understand traditional, single-discipline doctoral student experiences. Interdisciplinary doctoral programs are becoming increasingly common in both the United States and elsewhere but relatively little empirical research exists about this distinct experience. Through multiple interviews with 18 doctoral students and their 35 faculty members, we discuss differences in the socialization process for these students in regard to knowledge acquisition, investment, and involvement. Implications for practice and future research are included.     

Directed Time,a Year on: staff perspectives

This study is a follow up to a previously published article in this Journal (Vol. 8(3), 1988), which sought to examine the allocation and management of directed time from a headteacher's perspective. The purpose here is to consider the ramifications of imposed time budgeting for teaching staff and to examine the impact of directed time, a year after its imposition, on school systems.     

‘Collaborate to graduate’: what works and why?

ABSTRACT

Collaboration is recognised as valuable in enhancing students’ learning as well as their social integration and sense of belonging at an institution, which lead to higher retention rates. We investigate the informal, self-organised collaborative practices of military and civilian engineering students in out-of-class settings using a mixed-methods approach including a weekly survey and in-depth interviews. We find that these students collaborate frequently and pervasively and have developed informal codes of ethics around sharing. Most of the students believe that collaboration with peers is the most effective form of study support. However, we also find that some students may remain isolated. The aspects of the institution and the engineering programme that support these collaborative processes are identified. These aspects include the concurrent military training, which fosters a collaborative rather than competitive or individualistic culture, residential accommodation, and the type of assessment used in engineering. Implications for non-military campuses are discussed.     

The RA and TA experience: Impediments and benefits to graduate study

This study examines the growth and professional development of graduate students and compares these outcomes for students who have held assistantships and those who have not. In general, students perceive the assistantship to be a positive experience, but teaching assistants report less of a contribution to their professional development than do research assistants. Students with the without assistantship experience report the same growth in human relation and reflective thinking skills, but teaching assistants report the least growth in research skills, less even than students not having assistantships. Students with assistantships, both teaching and research, are more likely to be active within the external academic community by participating in professional societies and higher levels of scholarly productivity.This paper was prepared for presentation at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Boston, November 1991.