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1 – 10 of over 1000This paper introduces a new approach to embedding employability by extracting from higher education curriculum the knowledge, attributes, skills and experience that employers…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper introduces a new approach to embedding employability by extracting from higher education curriculum the knowledge, attributes, skills and experience that employers value. The Extracted Employability concept enables academics to surface the innate employability value of what they already teach across all curriculums, disciplines and programmes, enabling students to prepare better for work and make more effective career decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
Manual textual analysis of all UK Quality Assurance Agency Subject Benchmark Statements surfaced a database of common descriptors for defining and articulating the innate employability value of higher education curriculum, enriching language in attributes and transferable skills.
Findings
Extracted Employability enables academics to articulate the employability value of their existing curriculum without sacrificing rigour or integrity, which is particularly of concern in research-led universities. Piloting the concept, a database of attributes and transferable skills enabled academics to surface significantly greater value for students from curriculum in the language employers recognise, addressing the perceived “skills gap”.
Practical implications
Students, particularly studying subjects not professionally-aligned, will find it easier to connect the extracted employability value of their curriculum with what employers are looking for. Academics can use richer language of skills for creating learning outcomes that also have employability value.
Social implications
Surfacing employability through curriculum makes it structurally unavoidable for all students to engage with, supporting social mobility and enabling students to realise more effectively the value of their higher education in work.
Originality/value
Research and practice on employability has derived from a position outside academic curriculum established by Knight and Yorke (2003), but this approach redefines employability from within academic curriculum.
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This paper introduces a new approach to extracting the employability value of school/further education (FE) curriculums, using textual analysis to surface the transferable skills…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper introduces a new approach to extracting the employability value of school/further education (FE) curriculums, using textual analysis to surface the transferable skills from UK curriculum documentation. The higher education extracted employability concept already established by the author is applied to help learners articulate the skills value of their knowledge-focused qualifications, closing the gap between the academic learning and the workplace. Proposals for additions to existing curriculum documentation would enable delivery of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD's) aspiration to embed skill development in school education.
Design/methodology/approach
Manual textual analysis of United Kingdom A Level, General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and Scottish academic qualifications surfaced a database of transferable skills, which are categorised, and their interrelationships were analysed.
Findings
Relatively few skills are explicitly articulated in curriculum documentation, revealing issues for learners recognising and articulating transferable skills. Extracted employability surfaces significant value from curriculum by identifying over 200 transferable skills, framed in the language employers recognise, thus closing the perceived “skills gap”. Comparisons reveal significantly greater diversity of skills innate to subjects perceived as “less academic”.
Practical implications
Learners will find it easier to recognise a comprehensive language of transferable skills, aligned with what employers need, and fundamental to career decision-making through understanding the relationships between academic qualifications and work.
Social implications
Learners who understand the wider value of their qualifications beyond knowledge focus, particularly in relation to transferable skills, are better able to be join, navigate and be agile in a challenging employment market.
Originality/value
Higher education (HE) concepts of employability are not well-established or understood in schools. This new approach articulates it through transferable skills within existing academic curriculum.
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This paper aims to explore a transdisciplinary approach to the careers and employability education of transnational education (TNE) students of higher education. It proposes that…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore a transdisciplinary approach to the careers and employability education of transnational education (TNE) students of higher education. It proposes that an approach which adopts three lenses of academic study, lived experience and career stage can provide maximum benefits to the TNE students' careers education, particularly in response to the modern workplace. The study aims illustrate the potential benefits of such an approach to multiple stakeholders within higher education.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts a viewpoint approach drawing on higher education career service practitioner-based experience of using a specific approach to employability with TNE students studying with a large university based in the UK. Student evaluation data from this practice are referred to in the paper.
Findings
This paper provides insights into how this approach to employability was received by higher education TNE students who participated in a pilot project led by a higher education careers service, which adopted the three lenses approach.
Originality/value
This paper illustrates how a transdisciplinary approach to the careers and employability education of TNE students can be of significant value to the higher education students themselves, the institutions within which they study and the graduate recruiters looking to attract future employees for the workplaces of the future. It is hoped that by sharing this approach more stakeholders within the TNE and careers and employability communities within higher education will adopt a similar approach.
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Renuka Mahajan, Pragya Gupta and Richa Misra
The paper aims at examining the employability skills relevant in the unprecedented times of turbulence in businesses due to COVID-19 in the Indian context.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims at examining the employability skills relevant in the unprecedented times of turbulence in businesses due to COVID-19 in the Indian context.
Design/methodology/approach
The study examined the recent skills model through an extensive literature review. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is conducted to identify the employability skills perceived as important by multiple stakeholders. ANOVA was applied to examine the differences in perceived importance attached to these dimensions by the three stakeholders.
Findings
The ten-factorial solution was extracted based on the results of EFA The findings offer a fresh perspective on digital competencies perceived as most important to ensure successful long-term employability, followed by business fundamentals and behavioral skills.
Research limitations/implications
The study has been able to map perceptions of employers, faculty and students based in Delhi-NCR regarding essential employability skills. It would be worthwhile to validate the proposed employability skills framework across different geographical sections of India and ascertain if the perceptions vary in the employment sector and employer size.
Practical implications
Although the study has put forth practical employability skills, there is a need for convergence between the business stakeholders and Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) to develop a broad skill-base for the fresh graduates. The study will prepare them for the volatile business environment.
Originality/value
Many previous studies have lacked the employability skill framework in the Indian context from the multiple stakeholders' perspective. The HEIs can rethink their current employability, including the most prominent skills required in succeeding in a technology-enabled business environment transformed by the pandemic.
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Drawing upon self-determination theory, this study investigates the direct and indirect impact of health-promoting leadership on employee engagement via workplace relational…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing upon self-determination theory, this study investigates the direct and indirect impact of health-promoting leadership on employee engagement via workplace relational civility and explores the moderating effect of employability on these factors.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected a total of 723 matched and valid responses from nurses in Guangxi, China. Data regarding health-promoting leadership, workplace relational civility, employability and employee engagement were gathered using a survey administered in two waves, 1 week apart. The authors utilised structural equation modelling and linear regression to test the model.
Findings
This study reveals that health-promoting leadership has both direct and indirect positive effects on nurses' engagement through workplace relational civility. Furthermore, the authors found that employability negatively moderates the impact of workplace relational civility on nurses' engagement but does not moderate the impact of health-promoting leadership on nurses' engagement.
Originality/value
This is one of the few studies that have examined the effects of health-promoting leadership within the nursing industry. The authors confirm the importance of health-promoting leadership and workplace relationship civility on employee engagement. In addition, this study demonstrates the moderating role of employability in employment relationships.
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Md Moazzem Hossain, Manzurul Alam, Mohammed Alamgir and Amirus Salat
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between skills and employability of business graduates. The study also examines the moderating effect of ‘social mobility…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between skills and employability of business graduates. The study also examines the moderating effect of ‘social mobility factors’ in the ‘skills–employability’ relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative positivist approach was undertaken to test the hypotheses. Business graduates from two universities in a developing country responded to a questionnaire about their perceptions of different sets of employability factors. Partial least squares (PLS)-based structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to examine the relationships between skills and employability of business graduates.
Findings
The findings show that both soft skills and technical skills are positively related to employability, which is consistent with prior studies. The findings also indicate that social mobility factors play a significant role in employability.
Research limitations/implications
The study is based on data from two public universities, and its findings need to be interpreted with care as universities differ in their size, area of concentration and ownership structure.
Practical implications
The findings advance the evidence of graduate employability of business students. Based on these results, university authorities, policymakers, teachers and business graduates will benefit from the findings related to students preparedness for the competitive global job market.
Originality/value
The study's findings contribute to business graduates' skill set development in the developing countries that share a similar education system, culture and values.
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Jawad Abbas, Kalpina Kumari and Waleed Mugahed Al-Rahmi
Based on the principles of the human capital theory, this study investigates the role of the quality management system (QMS) in higher education institutions (HEIs) in developing…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the principles of the human capital theory, this study investigates the role of the quality management system (QMS) in higher education institutions (HEIs) in developing successful employability attributes among graduates. Considering industry as a prominent stakeholder in academia, the authors took industry–academia collaboration as the mediating variable.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the European Foundation for Quality Management model, the author analyzed how QMS in public HEIs located in London, the United Kingdom (UK), impacts business management, computer science and engineering students' employability. Following the nonprobability convenience sampling technique, this study included data from 324 local and international students.
Findings
The structural analysis identified QMS as a significant factor in enhancing students' employability, and industry–academia collaboration is found to act as a partial mediator in this relationship.
Originality/value
The management of HEIs in developing countries can take valuable guidelines from this study and integrate QMS in their institutions in developing their students' employability, as it is being done by HEIs in the UK.
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Mahtab Pouratashi and Asghar Zamani
A graduate must be qualified in order to be successful in the labor market. Hence, embedding employability into higher education is a priority of policymakers and universities…
Abstract
Purpose
A graduate must be qualified in order to be successful in the labor market. Hence, embedding employability into higher education is a priority of policymakers and universities. The purpose of this paper is to promote students’ employability skills deal with the issue.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is accomplished in three phases, and qualitative and quantitative approaches were conducted. Data were collected from 14 entrepreneurs and experts in the field of business and 150 faculty members from the main academic categories (including: engineering, humanities, agriculture and veterinary, science, and art).
Findings
The findings revealed that employability skills of students could be totally classified in three categories (basic, intermediate and advance) and five levels. Also, factor analysis regarding university activities to develop students’ employability skills showed five activities including: support, cultural, informing, research and educational activities.
Practical implications
The results can be beneficial for universities’ plan activities and offer proper services that enhance students’ skills for their future career. Also, the findings can be fruitful for higher education policymakers to find the right way to foster employability issues at universities. Mechanisms such as employers’ participation in curriculum development and work-based learning are useful in ensuring a good match between the supply of skills and the demand for skills.
Originality/value
This study classified graduates’ employability skills in basic, intermediate and advance categories. Another important contribution of this study was the proposed paths for improving each level of employability skills, enabling universities to be aware of the proper activities for each skills enhancement.
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Aizhan Shomotova and Ali Ibrahim
The purpose of this study is to validate the psychometric properties of the Self-Perceived Employability Scale in the context of the United Arab Emirates (UAE-SPE) and to verify…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to validate the psychometric properties of the Self-Perceived Employability Scale in the context of the United Arab Emirates (UAE-SPE) and to verify the model fit of the UAE-SPE and University Commitment Scale (UC) (Rothwell et al., 2008) for undergraduate students.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional survey study was carried out to collect the data using a web-based survey tool (Qualtrics) at a public university in the UAE. The sample was 646 undergraduate students.
Findings
As a result of the factor analysis, the study validated three factors of SPE for undergraduate students in the UAE that explain their perceptions of their university reputation, their field of study, the state of the UAE labour market and confidence in their skills. Confirmatory factor analysis verified good model fit indices of UAE-SPE and the UC scale. In addition, the study found a statistically significant positive relationship between the UC scale and the three factors of UAE-SPE.
Originality/value
Currently, there is a scarcity of published research on self-perceived employability amongst undergraduate students in higher education institutions in the UAE and the Arab region. This article not only contributes to research on this topic but also validates two scales, allowing cross-cultural comparisons of SPE and UC of undergraduate students in the Arab region and worldwide.
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Fabian Jintae Froese and Lin-Ya Hong
The main purpose of this study was to develop and test an employability scale in a Chinese context. Moreover, the authors investigated how socioeconomic status indicators…
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this study was to develop and test an employability scale in a Chinese context. Moreover, the authors investigated how socioeconomic status indicators (education and occupation of parents, household income and hukou, i.e. household registration location) affect the endowment and development of adolescents' employability skills in China.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected via paper-based surveys from 1,146 vocational school students in rural and urban areas in China at two points in time one year apart. The authors developed a scale to measure employability skills in China and conducted general linear modeling to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The findings indicate that adolescents whose parents have more education, highly skilled occupations, relatively affluent household income and urban hukou are more likely to attain higher employability skills than those from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds. Moreover, adolescents with these background characteristics tend to improve their employability skills more than those without such characteristics. This suggests that social capital may further widen the inequality gap among adolescents.
Research limitations/implications
The framework of employability skills focuses on the general basic transferable employability skills of vocational students. Future studies could develop measures of employability skills for college graduates and widen the measurements of social capital based on the study’s findings. The findings suggest that higher education institutions should be encouraged to integrate resources to improve education inequality between rural and urban regions to the disparity in adolescents' employability skills development.
Originality/value
Building on Western frameworks, the study defines and develops an employability scale in the Chinese context that can be a practical measurement tool for researchers, educators and policymakers. The authors investigated the endowment and development of employability skills in relation to social capital. Exposure to social capital tends to affect an individual's skills and capability development at an early stage, and in the long term, this calls attention to access to quality education between rural and urban youth.
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