2.7 The Workplace as Learning Place for Employability
2.7.2 The Employability Skills that Employers Desired
OECD (2016) highlight the shortage of transparency that exists for the word “skill” which remains as an ambiguous word for all participants of the internship programmes. Employers and graduates also use the words “competencies” and “abilities” to test graduates' employability (Jackson, 2014). Many researchers have tried to group these words into families for reducing complexity and affording comprehensibility. They find the four concerns of graduate employability skills as intellectual skills that stem from tradition, key skills, organisations’
knowledge, and personal qualities. Employers so far have set their demands by including intellectual skills, knowledge, experiences, and behaviours of graduates as a basis. Table 2.1 below sets out the different literature on employers’ perspectives which categorises an employable graduate.
During their internships, graduates gain an extensive collection of soft skills that are the employers’ most preferred employability (soft) skills. These skills make an employable graduate in the eyes of many employers. Besides, graduates expect business awareness and wonderful
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Table 2.1. Employability Skills that Employers’ desired Traditional
Intellectual Skills
Soft Skills
Behaviours &
Personal Characteristics
Organizations’
Knowledge and Extra-Curricular activities
Knowledge skills–e.g., critical evaluation, logical argument,
Team working and co-operation
Interpersonal skills Relevant placements / Internships
Literacy & numeracy Analytical skills &
problem solving
Communication skills
Member of clubs and societies
Information and Communication
Technology knowledge
& skills
Self-organizing Motivation and drive
Volunteering participation
Technical knowledge Skills of a leader Adaptability,
flexibility and reacting quickly to change.
A representative of the student union
Subject to
understanding
Communication skills
Assurance Cultural awareness
Knowledge of principle
theories and
frameworks
Time management
& organisational skills
Positive attitude Commercial awareness
Intellectual ability and ability to learn
A willingness to learn Knowledge of the business
Written and oral communication skills
Entrepreneurial spirit Personal
independence (Adapted from Lowden et al. 2011)
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working experiences. The abilities that employers’ demands are an entire range of skills or aptitudes used in a particular field or occupation for a graduate to gain at the university.
Organisations wish to enrol graduates with competencies in a lengthy list of all skills. Nankervis et al., (2015) express concern when some employers enroll graduates in the various fields of study that differed from their career paths. In reality, graduates need an armada of skills that apply to a diverse group of employers. Employers are also concerned about the striking disparity between the results of higher education on quality, the profile of graduates, and the demands of the economy (Montague et al., 2018). In many countries, for example, the UK, Australia, America, South Africa, and others, employability programmes come together in a certain way.
The focus on government is a connection made between higher education and work in the workplace (Gupta et al., 2016). Government and employers are forcing HEIs to train and develop employable graduates (Jackson et al., 2017). Graduates who complete their university’s degree are considered having the credits, abilities, dispositions, and competences needed in the workplace.
The skills listed in table 2.1, display various weightings. Kinash et al., (2016) has made many researchers on graduates’ employability having skills and qualities desired by the employers.
The Confederation of British Industries and National Union of Students (2011) and the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (2014) also undertakes researchers to distinguish between many skills and abilities, in their importance, values, and efficacy. However, Cavanagh et al. (2015) argue that these researchers give inappropriate arguments on some skills. They argue that some employers are not coherent about their experiences with some skills. Mehrotra (2015) agrees that weightings of skills have unique values for every employer, and can even occur or exist without the knowledge of graduates.
Wibrow and Jackson (2016) argue that weightings are not the only cause to change the meaning of skills when discussed. However, there are also the stages that graduates have gained in these skills and the rigour of how they have developed these skills. Therefore, for a graduate to be employable, he or she must know the skills owned for employability. Many employers from different companies name many skills. The combination of abilities available and expectations by employers can also guide graduates in their choices of a career. From this research, I can show that graduates who have the highest capacities and skills would have better employability prospects.
51 2.7.3 Traditional Academic Skills and Knowledge
“Traditional academic skills and knowledge,” are skills that “form an enormous part of the degree programme to enable students to be an expert in their subject. They include critical analysis, subject understanding, and a developed intellectual ability” (QAA, 2007:3). They commit academic achievements inside the circumstance of the degree field where “graduates should be able to display cognitive skills and techniques specific to business and management”
(QAA, 2007:3). Employers are sometimes displeased and discontented with traditional academic knowledge and skills which graduates possessed (Clarke, 2017). Literacy and numeracy skills are grounds for adverse criticism by employers.
According to Finn (2016), the degree classification earned by graduates is by employers as the traditional academic skills and knowledge. As a result, there has been a rise in the contest for graduates’ employment. Leaders in companies recruit graduates holding degree classifications from 2:2 to 2:1 as a benchmark (ACT, 2013a). Several studies examining academic skills accept that employers are not satisfied with graduates’ basic numeracy and literacy skills (Business Magazine and Verde Frontier Employability Survey, 2016). The World Economic Forum (2016) agree that this finding affects employers. In her study, Jackson (2016) tells that in industry finds that written communication with literacy skills appears among the highest skills searched by employers. The author further elaborates on a UK research where the level at which graduates show literacy and written communication is not at the expected standard. Burgess et al., (2018) highlight that because importance is given to numeracy by employers, they include numeracy tests in their choice and enrolment. 581 employers of small, medium and large companies in different fields took part in a survey carried out by the CBI (2009). The findings point out that only 30% found that graduates performed well in numeracy skills. Large companies favour including numeracy tests in their recruitment. The recruitment of graduates from small and large industries varies (DJ&SB, 2018a). The Australian Government (2017) agrees with these findings and argues that small enterprises lack specific structures for their recruitment. There is a good chance of not using numeracy tests for their recruitment compared with big employers. The study of DJ&SB (2018a) shows that during recruitment, skills tested are performed at an early stage, while other employers are not applying these tests.
Various studies have reported that traditional academic skills develop at the university with the degree is recognised as a benchmark for employers (Majumdar, 2016). Employers use these educational qualifications as references when recruiting graduates. They also include prior work
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experiences, personality, behaviour and soft skills (ILO, 2016). A similar general direction is favoured by practitioners’ fields (Dhakal et al., 2018). Marketing practitioners believe that a degree in marketing is an excellent starting point followed by the personality of the graduate.
Such allows interviewers to choose one candidate in preference to another for the vacancy (ILO, 2016). Next will be a review of the literature on the transferable skills, personal characteristics, and behaviours of graduates.