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Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Finance Graduates’ Knowledge and Skills
Development: Graduate and Employer Perceptions
in United Arab Emirates
Abdulrahman Mohamed Al Shayeb
To cite this article: Abdulrahman Mohamed Al Shayeb (2013) Finance Graduates’ Knowledge and Skills Development: Graduate and Employer Perceptions in United Arab Emirates, Journal of Education for Business, 88:6, 307-313, DOI: 10.1080/08832323.2012.715096
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2012.715096
Published online: 26 Aug 2013.
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ISSN: 0883-2323 print / 1940-3356 online DOI: 10.1080/08832323.2012.715096
Finance Graduates’ Knowledge and Skills
Development: Graduate and Employer Perceptions
in United Arab Emirates
Abdulrahman Mohamed Al Shayeb
UAE University, Al Ain City, United Arab EmiratesThere has been considerable debate over the past decades concerning the extent to which finance education has fulfilled employers’ and graduates’ expectations related to knowledge and skills needed in a changing and challenging business environment. This study seeks to examine whether there are significant differences in expectations between finance graduates and their employers through examining the 3 dimensions of skills and knowledge: routine–technical skills, interdisciplinary skills, and interpersonal and development skills. The results show that graduates put more emphasis on routine–technical skills compared to employers, who emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary knowledge and skills from other areas of business education. Both graduates and employers, however, shared a belief in the importance of interpersonal and developmental skills.
Keywords: curricula, employment, finance education, finance profession
Preparing university students for careers in finance has been a critical challenge for finance educators as well as for em-ployers who are seeking well-qualified new finance gradu-ates. For educators, this challenge requires continuous re-view and improvement of curricula and internship programs, in addition to acknowledging employers’ needs for partic-ular skills for new finance graduates, especially in a small developing country such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where national graduates face harsh competition from expa-triates who represent more than 85% of the total population of the country. For employers, seeking professional, well-qualified, and knowledgeable graduates with leadership and communication skills becomes harder and time consuming. For new graduates, seeking an introductory, new job and se-curing it for at least a medium term requires them to acquire sufficient essential knowledge and skills for enhancing their employability chances. Therefore, this study seeks to exam-ine whether there are significant differences in expectations between finance graduates and their employers related to three dimensions of knowledge and skills: routine–technical skills, interdisciplinary skills, and interpersonal and devel-opment skills. The impetus behind this study are twofold:
Correspondence should be addressed to Abdulrahman Mohamed Al Shayeb, UAE University, Faculty of Business & Economics, Al Ain City 17555, United Arab Emirates. E-mail: [email protected]
to enhance awareness of finance educators for finance grad-uates’ and employers’ expectations related to the previous dimensions set of skills for successful introductory finance career as well as lay down the ground for a better communi-cation between finance educators, graduates, and employers with regard to the perceived important skills for preparing new finance graduates for professional life.
In the next section I review the literature on previous re-search, followed by the employability prospects of finance graduates in UAE economy. Research questions and method-ology are addressed subsequently. The discussion of the find-ings and the concluding remarks are addressed in the latter sections.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Prior studies in employment and student preparedness issues were scattered and confined more to graduates from all busi-ness majors in general (ACNielsen Research Services, 2000; Bennett, Dunne, & Carre, 2000; Crebret, 2002; Leggett, Kinnear, Boyce, & Bennett, 2004). Finance graduates, like other business graduates, sooner or later will figure out that they are required to not just use their technical expertise and skills, but also to develop interdisciplinary skills in the areas of economics, management, accounting, strategy,
308 A. M. AL SHAYEB
organizational behavior, and broader general skills such communication skills, problem-solving skills, and teamwork skills (Howiesen, 2003). They are required to amalgamate them in a meaningful manner to meet employers’ needs in terms of skills and fulfill their expectations.
Business schools’ curricula, on the other hand, have been accused of lagging behind business practices, by which their role become more reactive rather than proactive, which ends with ill-equipped graduates with mismatched skills with em-ployers and market needs (Albin & Crokett, 1991; Mathews, 2000). Grablowsky and Rowell (1980), for instance, reported that almost 40% of the practitioners thought that business schools were lagging behind business practices, while only about 25% thought that business schools led business prac-tices. Therefore, the calls for educators to broaden curric-ula had been loud during the 1980s and 1990s, as business schools were being criticized for graduating students defi-cient in critical skills (e.g., Accounting Education Change Commission, 1990; Adler and Milne; Collett, 2000; Inter-national Federation of Accountants, 1996; Nabi, 2003). In a world of globalization and competition, on the other hand, different professional and accrediting bodies produce guide-lines for building coherent business programs with expec-tations for cognitive and behavioral skills, leading to global citizens (Barrie, 2004; Bowden & Merton, 1998, Kavanagh & Drennan, 2008).
Finance graduates have been accused of having weak writ-ing skills (e.g., Grablowsky, 1998; Tanner & Cudd, 1999), verbal and communication skills (e.g., ACNeilsen Research Services, 2000; Albin & Crockett, 1991), interpersonal and critical evaluation skills (Friedlan, 1995), and math skills (Tanner & Cudd, 1999). In this respect, Cudd, Tanner, and Budden (1989), surveyed finance professors at universities of different sizes throughout the United States and found that finance professors perceived their students to be deficient in writing, verbal, and math skills. Another survey conducted by Tanner and Cudd, replicating the 1989’s survey, found that most deficiencies remained and some became alarming, with more effort to be exerted at high school level. More-over, finance professors, in the same study, criticized high schools for not preparing finance students in math, English, economics, and speech subjects.
Other studies examined the desirable qualities of busi-ness majors’ graduates (e.g., Knoblauch & German, 1989; Lafrancois, 1992; Raybould & Sheedy, 2005). For example, Raybould and Sheedy found that graduates should demon-strate a number of skills such as the ability to cope with uncertainty, to work under pressure, to demonstrate action-planning skills, communication skills, information technol-ogy skills, and teamwork skills, the readiness to explore and create opportunities, self-confidence, self-management skills, and a willingness to attract employers. In this respect, it is not only employers who are insisting on personal and communication skills, but also students who feel that posing personal transferable skills will help them not just in
employ-ment but also in their long life career (Haigh & Kilmartin, 1999)
THE EMPLOYABILITY PROSPECTS OF FINANCE GRADUATES IN THE
UAE ECONOMY
The UAE economy is the second largest Arab world econ-omy, and is striving to recover from the global financial crisis. It grew by 3.3% in 2011, relative to 7.4% and 2.1% in 2009 and 2010, respectively. The global financial crisis difficulties extended to private sector lending, which had been in the red in 2010 and 2011 as UAE banks grappled with the fallout from debt troubles in Dubai. The total number of the banking sector labor force has increased to reach more than 42,000 employees in 2013, leaving the negative impact of the global financial crisis behind.
It is noteworthy that the UAE population ranked third among Gulf Council Countries, and the UAE banking system hosts the highest number of Arab and foreign banks with an average of banking density of 2.41 per 1,000 people. The UAE banking system consists of 23 national commercial banks with 799 branches and 28 foreign commercial banks with 108 branches, 24 financing companies, and eight Islamic banks with 219 branches. The total number of the banking sector labor force reached 36,521 employees in 2010 with a relative decline of 2,000 employees in 2009 due to the global financial crisis.
As more nationals graduating with finance degrees from universities and colleges, the UAE government recognizes the importance of creating a steering committee to steer na-tionalization processes and strategies in the banking sector. Therefore, the Human Resources Development Committee in the Banking & Financial Sector (HRDCBFS) was enacted in 1996. The HRDCBFS has exerted significant effort to na-tionalize the banking sector with a rate of 4% every year. Latest statistics showed an increase of 1% on nationaliza-tion in 2010 in an accumulanationaliza-tion 35.4% with one third of the banks reaching 20%. Moreover, the proportion of women in the work force has increased to reach 70% of the total national power, accounting for 8,334 employees, which rep-resents 22% from the banking sector total power in 2010.
Despite the potential employability of more national fi-nance graduates in the banking sector, general education has been under attack from higher education institutions. Finance students, as other business students, face educational chal-lenges as they graduate from high schools where the learning language is Arabic, and have to struggle in the first year to learn more English skills in order to get acquainted with the language and methods of learning as well as communications skills used at the university. This deficiency is not restricted to language skills only, but also extends to other educational skills that are critical to successful academic study in higher education institutions as well as professional life such as
math skills and writing and communication skills. The de-ficiency reported in previous studies, for instance, Hunjra, Ahmed, Ur-Rehman, and Safwan (2010) argued that better quantitative skills become prerequisite for those students who would like to major in finance and accounting as these skills will impact their future studies and performance, confirm-ing Worthconfirm-ington and Higgs’s (2003) study. Such deficiencies force most higher education institutions to develop reme-dial bridging year in order to prepare students for academic study. Recently, general education has started to introduce the general requirement exam, such English and math profi-ciency exams, as part of the Ministry of Education’s effort to bridge the gap between higher education institution’s needs. However, the method of learning must be improved upon, departing away from traditional learning techniques.
METHOD
Research Questions
This study solicited the view of finance graduates and their employers concerning the knowledge and skills that must be possessed by finance graduates in the UAE. This study seeks to answers to the following questions:
Research Question 1(RQ1):Is there a significant difference
between finance graduates and employers with regard to the perceived importance of finance-routine-technical skills?
RQ2:Is there a significant difference between finance grad-uates and employers with regard to the perceived impor-tance of other business-interdisciplinary skills?
RQ3: Is there a significant difference between finance gradu-ates and employers with regard to the perceived personal characteristics of new graduates?
RQ4: Examine the significant impact of the factors in ex-plaining the dimensions.
RQ5:Is there a significant difference among employers and graduate groups?
Sample and Instrument
The findings of this study are the results of two different questionnaires. The construct of the two questionnaires is a result of an extensive review of published literature related to the subject under the study. The initial draft, then, was mailed to a number of finance professors in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the UAE University, an Associ-ation to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business–accredited businesses school, for review and modifications. Some sug-gestions were taken into consideration while constructing the final draft. All tested knowledge and skills grouped into three dimensions: routine–technical finance skills which are finance related skills, interdisciplinary academic skills that are interdisciplinary related skills, and personal and
commu-TABLE 1
nication skills that are nonacademic and other related skills. Each dimension consists of a group of subdimensions (the items of each dimensions and sub-dimensions are listed in the Appendix). A confirmatory factor analysis was done to check distribution of these items across dimensions. Except for a small number of items, there was a high agreement between the original classifications and the results from the factor analysis. The classification was amended according to the factor analysis when it is adequate.
A 5-point Likert-type scale was used with responses rang-ing from 1 (not required) to 5 (extremely essential). To ensure the applicability of the selected items, it was pilot-tested and some changes were introduced to reflect users’ comments. The mail questionnaire was mailed to 500 subjects, 250 ques-tionnaires for each survey groups. Both quesques-tionnaires ad-ministered in 2011. The average response rate was 66%.
Sample Demography
The first part of the employers’ survey sought demographic information related to the nature of their employers’ business and the size, while graduates’ survey sought information re-lated to the nature of program they were enrolled in and their current employers. The graduates’ survey was distributed to finance graduates from universities and academic insti-tutions offering degrees in finance. Other than the first part, both subjects share the same parts of the questionnaire, which solicited subject perceptions with regard to technical, inter-disciplinary, and interpersonal and development skills. The demographic profiles of both the employers and graduates surveys are summarized in Table 1.
Reliability of Instrument
The reliability of both questionnaires was ascertained through the calculation of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. A Cronbach’s alpha score of more than .70 is acceptable (Hair,
310 A. M. AL SHAYEB
Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 1998). The Cronbach’s alpha for items in the employers’ survey was .816 while for the items included in the finance graduates’ survey was .731. A total score of each dimensions and the subdimension is gen-erated by the average the items included. The independent samplesttest was used to examine whether there are signifi-cant differences existing between graduates and employers’ perception to the total score of three dimensions of skills and their subdimensions.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table 2 reports a significant difference (p=.002) between finance graduates and employers’ perceptions related to routine–technical finance skills dimension. Graduates per-ceived routine–technical skills as extremely important to en-ter job market relative to employers. Although knowledge and skills such as financial analysis, knowledge of markets and financial institutions, and knowledge of investment and financial instruments are pillars for finance graduates and ed-ucators; employers did not recognize knowledge and skills as extremely important relative to other skills. However, fi-nancial analytical skills, related to knowledge of finance ap-plications, financial analysis, and evaluation, are the only skills with mean values for employers to outweigh gradu-ates. In this respect, employers rated this factor extremely important suggesting that such knowledge and skills would be acceptable requirements to enter job market and career advancement.
The first finance career lesson, therefore, is that routine– technical knowledge and skills are not enough to win a job. Finance graduates must possess more of other skills. This lesson is consistent with previous research studies related
to business majors, which suggest that the need for students is to develop more skills than just technical skill to enter business career (Aikin, Martin, & Paolillo, 1994; Deppe, Sonderegger, Stice, Clark, & Streuling, 1991; Kavangh & Drennan, 2008; Watty, Cahill, & Cooper, 1998).
The interdisciplinary academic skills dimension reveals another significant difference (p=.000) between graduates and employers’ perceptions. Employers perceived interdis-ciplinary academic skills as extremely important relative to graduates. This suggests that employers prefer graduates with broad knowledge from other areas of business such as ac-counting, business ethics, business law, statistics, and infor-mation technology. This breadth may enhance the employ-ability and career development for finance graduates. The second job market lesson, therefore, is that interdisciplinary knowledge and skills are what will enhance the employability and career development for finance graduates. This result is consistent with previous studies that suggest the importance of other business subjects to develop business students’ skills (e.g., Elliot & Jacobson, 2002; Mathews, 2004).
Graduates and employers, on the other hand, share the same view with regard to the importance of interpersonal and development skills dimension (nonacademic and other skills). The results report no significant difference (p=.767) between the perceptions of both graduates and employers. Skills such as personal (workplace environment discipline), professional development and creativity, customer-oriented interpersonal communication, and problem solving oriented are equally extremely important for both graduates and employers. This result is consistent with a number of previous studies’ conclusions in finance and other business fields (e.g., ACNeilsen Research Services, 2000; Lee & Blaszczynski, 1999). For instance, Raybould and Sheedy (2005) suggested that in order for students to be attractive
TABLE 2
Summary of Dimensions and Factors Results
Students Employers
Dimension Factor M SD M SD t df p
Routine–technical finance skills Financial analytical skills 3.86 0.83 4.08 0.73 –2.60 330 .010
Financial markets and institutions 3.97 0.68 3.72 0.82 2.91 276 .004
Investment and financial instruments 3.79 0.68 3.41 0.84 4.53 272 .000
Overall 3.86 0.61 3.64 0.69 3.074 291 .002
Interdisciplinary academic skills Financial statement analysis 4.13 0.80 4.47 0.60 –4.32 329 .000
Business ethics and legal environment 3.99 0.83 4.38 0.70 –4.57 328 .000
Foreign language(s) 4.38 0.90 4.46 0.77 –0.82 326 .412
Overall 4.13 0.60 4.43 0.46 –5.20 330 .000
Interpersonal and development skills Personal skills (workplace environment discipline) 3.94 0.74 4.08 0.58 –1.98 330 .049
Professional development and creativity skills 3.78 0.77 3.78 0.73 –0.06 330 .955
Customer oriented skills 3.77 0.66 3.64 0.58 1.81 328 .071
Interpersonal skills 3.82 0.81 3.95 0.68 –1.59 329 .112
Communication skills 3.71 0.90 3.70 0.73 0.06 330 .955
Problem-solving-oriented skills 3.93 0.93 3.90 0.74 0.36 330 .717
Overall 3.83 0.59 3.85 0.45 –0.29 297 .773
TABLE 3
Summary of Spearman’s Correlations
Routine–technical finance skills’ dimension
Factors f11 f12 f13
Financial analytical skills (f11) —
Financial markets and institutions (f12) .391∗∗ —
Investment and financial instruments (f13) .451∗∗ .633∗∗ —
Overall .641∗∗ .814∗∗ .929∗∗ —
Interdisciplinary academic skills’ dimension
Factors f21 f22 f23
Financial statement analysis (f21) —
Business ethics and legal environment (f22) .216∗∗ —
Foreign language(s) (f23) .053 .285∗∗ —
Overall .621∗∗ .813∗∗ .496∗∗ —
Interpersonal and development skills’ dimension
Factors f31 f32 f33 f34 f35 f36
Personal skills (workplace environment discipline) (f31) —
Professional development and creativity skills (f32) .425∗∗ —
Customer-oriented skills (f33) .498∗∗ .445∗∗ —
Interpersonal skills (f34) .426∗∗ .370∗∗ .387∗∗ —
Communication skills (f35) .383∗∗ .490∗∗ .411∗∗ .561∗∗ —
Problem-solving–oriented skills (36) .473∗∗ .312∗∗ .419∗∗ .370∗∗ .476∗∗ —
Overall .778∗∗ .643∗∗ .758∗∗ .672∗∗ .714∗∗ .683∗∗ —
∗∗p=.01 level (two-tailed).
to potential employers they must be capable of demon-strating the ability to work under pressure, demonstrate action-planning skills, communication skills, information technology skills, teamwork skills, a readiness to explore and create opportunities, self-confidence, self-management skills, and a willingness to learn. Therefore, the third job market lesson is that interpersonal and development skills are crucial for employability and career development.
To examine the significant impact of the factors in explain-ing the dimensions a Spearman two-tailed test correlation has been conducted based on the total score of each dimension. The results shown in Table 3 reveal that the knowledge of investment and financial instruments factor,r=0.929, fol-lowed by the knowledge of markets and financial institutions factor,r=0.814, contributed significantly to explaining the dimension related to the other factor. Knowledge of business
TABLE 4
Kruskal-Wallis Test Results for Graduates’ Groups
Graduates’ mean rank Kruskal-Wallis test
Factor UAE University Sharjah University Higher CT Ajman University χ2 p
Financial analytical skills 94.61 98.38 91.27 89.91 0.609 .894
Financial markets and institutions 98.63 82.23 102.52 85.20 4.803 .187
Investment and finance instruments 100.94 80.82 100.92 85.70 5.288 .152
Financial statement analysis 81.23 78.32 115.21 109.74 18.794 .000
Ethics and legal environment 89.98 90.73 93.85 111.87 3.129 .372
Foreign language(s) 99.09 105.29 78.01 95.46 9.793 .020
Personal skills 98.83 71.07 110.85 87.54 14.762 .002
Professional development 107.57 72.99 97.95 90.91 11.811 .008
Customer-oriented skills 99.90 89.84 90.10 95.91 1.347 .718
Interpersonal skills 94.51 86.36 98.93 96.46 1.501 .682
Communication skills 93.23 86.55 101.72 92.83 2.109 .550
Problem-solving-oriented skills 92.73 90.40 94.15 104.41 1.141 .767
Note: df=3 andN=332 for all tests.
312 A. M. AL SHAYEB
ethics and legal environment,r=0.813, on the other hand, mostly explained the interdisciplinary academic skills dimen-sion, relative to other factors followed by knowledge of ac-counting analytical skills,r=0.621, while all factors related to interpersonal and development skills contributed equally to explaining the dimension, ranging from 0.643 to 0.778.
A Kruskal-Wallis test was used to examine whether there was a significant difference between employers and gradu-ates groups. Concerning employer groups, the results showed no significant difference in mean among the surveyed groups, which suggest that employers groups share the same level of expectations and importance of the underlying skills (the re-sults not reported but available on requested). On the other hand, Table 4 shows that there is a significant difference among graduate groups related to the financial statement analysis skills, foreign language(s) skills and personal skills, which suggests a variation in graduates’ expectations with re-gard to the three examined dimensions. For instance, related to financial statement analysis skill, the results showed that the means of both UAE and Sharjah Universities’ graduates were significantly lower than other graduates groups, sug-gesting that the graduates of these two universities pay little attention to this skill compared to the other graduate groups.
CONCLUSION
In searching for filling the gap between employers and fi-nance graduates’ expectations, in a developing country such as the UAE, the results show that employers are more con-cerned with graduate readiness to meet finance real life and day-to-day challenges while they are well equipped with more of interdisciplinary academic skills and interpersonal and development skills relative to routine–technical skills. A voice should be heard when employers express a desire for graduates with such knowledge and skills. More efforts must be exerted, therefore, while constructing–updating finance curricula, to make sure that both expectations of graduates and employers are met in one way or another. Moreover, efforts to enhance finance curricula are undeniable in the UAE, where most of the surveyed graduates graduated from an accredited professional body, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, by which financial programs are in line with an international set of knowledge and skills.
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APPENDIX
Dimension Factor Sub-factors
Routine–technical skills Financial analytical skills Knowledge of finance applications Knowledge of financial evaluation Financial markets and institutions Knowledge of banking management
Knowledge of Islamic banking and financial institutions Knowledge of corporate finance
Investment and financial instruments Knowledge of portfolio management Knowledge of financial instruments
(options/futures/derivatives) Knowledge of risk management Knowledge of financial markets Interdisciplinary academic skills Financial statement analysis Knowledge of basic accounting tools
Financial analysis and reporting Business ethics and legal environment Business ethics
Business law
Foreign language(s) English language proficiency Personal and communication skills Personal skills (workplace environment discipline) Ability to work under pressure
Accept organizational objectives Time management
Ability to work independently
Professional development and creativity skills Undergo ongoing professional development Ability to think creatively
Customer oriented skills Information seeking skills Client focused
Business analysis skills General work experience Interpersonal skills Ability to work as part of a team
Leadership potential Communication skills Oral presentation skills
Written communication skills Problem-solving oriented skills Problem definition skills
Problem solving skills
