Search results

Based on an earlier policy‐capturing study of the Big Five personality traits and general mental ability, this paper explores and analyzes the hiring preference of Hong Kong employers across five important personal attributes, including not only personality but also practical skill dimensions. The preferences and trade‐offs of 300 experienced recruiters were obtained via conjoint analysis, a theoretically grounded statistical tool that is used to discompose and analyze decisions, for assessing the hiring decisions for entry‐level professional positions. Among knowledge, skills, abilities, and personality, the personality of a candidate has a relatively greater impact on the hiring decision. Three of the Big Five personality traits were elected from among five major hiring attributes for effective performance, with conscientiousness being the most dominant attribute across all eight major industries. The other attributes, in order of importance, include English communication skills, openness to new experiences, academic performance, and agreeableness. Discrepancies between intended and actual decisions were also addressed by comparing the results with self‐reported ratings.

This paper aims to assess the perception of the Ghanaian construction industry of the performance of entry‐level building technology graduates. Also, other non‐technical skills or attributes expected from building technology graduates are to be compared with the actual proficiency of the graduates.

The findings in this paper are based on a series of interviews and structured questionnaire survey of randomly selected contractors and consultants in the Ghanaian construction industry.

The overall performance of the graduates was considered acceptable by the construction industry. However, much more needed to be done in “coordination” and “scheduling” of site activities by graduates who work as site managers, and in “coordination of site activities” and “issuance of site instructions” for those who work as project managers for contractors. There was a considerable gap between the expectations of the construction industry practitioners and the actual proficiency of building technology graduates in “initiative and creativity”, “practical building knowledge”, “ability to define and solve problems”, and other equally important attributes. The graduates, however, met the expectations of contractors in “computer literacy”, “communication skills”, and “interpersonal skills”, and consultants in “computer literacy” and “leadership capability”.

The results of the study enable entry‐level graduates to realize their deficiencies for continual improvement, and the training institution to develop training curricula responsive to the needs of the industry.

Even though results from this study generally show a disparity in the expected and actual proficiency levels of building technology graduates, as frequently reported in the literature, it provides a new insight into this problem by providing evidence to the effect that the problem is only manifest in some specific non‐technical skill requirements.

The purpose of this paper is to identify skills and attributes that should be included in developing curricula, especially in the area of education. In this case, English Education Department of Ar-Raniry State Islamic University, Banda Aceh, is in charge of the preparation of English language teachers and English language professionals exceeding required standards and be competitive in the labour market.

This qualitative research involved 38 research participants consisting of government authorities, academics and students. Interviews and focus group discussions were employed to collect the data. Both interview and FGD results were analysed through thematic analysis.

The findings indicate that among the generic skills that need to be incorporated into the department curriculum in order to improve graduates’ quality and meet the requirements of the labour market are: information and communication technology (ICT), leadership, religious competencies, entrepreneurship and communication skills.

The paper has been developed through research conducted by the authors. Therefore, the authors confirm that the paper has been written according to the academic standard and is free from plagiarism.

Service quality and satisfaction in the ODL setting related to students’ accomplishments (performance, loyalty and career) were reconsidered. It was aimed at exposing the moderating role of satisfaction on service quality and accomplishment. It was also of interest to scrutinize how, in what routines determinants engaged interdepended. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study utilized an exploratory design. It was qualitatively identified first that service quality included tangible, empathy, assurance, reliability, responsiveness and referral factors. It preceded to satisfaction (perceived from academic, operational and managerial attitudes). Satisfaction led to accomplishment. Quantitatively, service quality, satisfaction and accomplishment were identified as independent, moderating, and dependent variables, respectively. Respondents, 500 Universitas Terbuka graduates, were randomly pursued to accumulate data by a survey. Methodically, importance-performance analysis (IPA) and customer-satisfaction index (CSI) were used to figure out satisfaction and their importance degree. Nine hypotheses were developed and examined using structural-equation modeling to visualize the loading factors.

Replies from 163 respondents were completed. Seven of nine hypotheses were validated. It was distinguished that reliability influencing satisfaction, they were empathy, assurance and responsiveness; excluding tangible and referral. Satisfaction influenced performance, career, and loyalty. IPA-CSI analysis recognized 15 (of 21) attributes as the pillars of service quality.

Despite the qualitative framework was improperly approved by quantitative procedure, they were methodically reliable. It was supported by the fact that nine cut-off values of goodness-of-fit requirements harmonized. Additional inquiry is therefore required to tail off variances by integrating a more appropriate approach, amplifying theoretical coverage, and/or extending population/sample size.

In Saudi Arabia, quality management receives a significant amount of attention in higher education. In medical education, specifically, Saudi colleges have been fully engaged with quality assurance and accreditation since 1992, under the supervision of the Saudi Council for Health Specialties. Along with the quality standards determined by accreditation agencies, the perspective of employers on the quality of learning and teaching needs to be acknowledged. The needs of medical employers can be translated into quality standards for medical education to help overcome the perceived deficiencies which lead to poorly equipped graduates. This chapter explores how employers conceptualize quality in medical education with an emphasis on learning and teaching and employers’ perspectives on the quality attributes of medical graduates. This chapter is based on interviews with 14 medical employers in Saudi Arabia. From the employers’ perspective, a high-quality medical education is marked by high quality educational systems, curricula, faculty members, and medical training. Additionally, medical graduates must attain a balance of soft skills, practical and clinical skills, and theoretical medical knowledge. Understanding employers’ perspectives on quality in medical education will complement our existing understanding of quality in medical education.

Based on generational theory, this research studies the preferences of French young graduates from Generation Y for job and organizational attributes of a future employer. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the inter- vs intragenerational differences and discusses the common stereotype of an intragroup homogeneity within the Generation Y.

Reviewing generation and job search literature, the paper update graduates’ preferences for job and organizational attributes in their initial job search by using conjoint analysis, a rarely used methodology in human resource management (HRM). To test the intragroup homogeneity and to overcome methodological difficulties inherent in examining differences within a generational cohort, the paper operationalized a homogeneous sample (n=592) composed of people of the same age, career stage, cohort and nationality.

The authors demonstrate that, even if on the whole young graduates from Generation Y prefer job security and a relaxed work atmosphere, their preferences are heterogeneous.

This research leads to discuss the relevance of the concept of Generation Y for recruitment. Additional research is needed to improve the external validity of this study which must be reproduced in other contexts and with different populations.

The results provide useful information to assist HR managers and recruitment specialists in improving the efficiency of the recruitment process and in considering the relevant segmentation criteria for recruitment.

Using an original methodology, conjoint analysis, this paper focusses on the heterogeneity of Generation Y and its consequences in terms of HRM.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the managers’ views on the characteristics which university graduates should have to obtain the job and efficiently perform in Chinese industrial organizations, and how are they performing in the industry.

Mix-method approach was followed to identify the key employability attributes, employers’ expectations and students’ performance. Analysis of interviews and literature provided the foundation for the development of the employability instrument used. In total, 11 identified attributes were grouped into four dimensions, i.e. knowledge, skills, abilities and professional attitude. Structural analysis was performed to test the hypotheses and theoretical model. The importance of the identified attributes was checked via the ranking technique, followed by an evaluation of students’ actual performance and a comparison between them.

Empirical analyses indicate that the managers in China consider “skills” as the most important dimension for employability in Chinese industrial organizations and “reliability” is the highly demanded subsequent factor. A significant gap has been found in all studied dimensions and 10 out of 11 sub-factors.

This study not only identifies key employability attributes, but also proposes and validates an instrument for measuring students’ industrial performance. It also highlights the factors where industry and academia should focus to improve graduates’ employability and their industrial performance.

The new economies of the twenty‐first century require new approaches to learning and teaching from higher education (HE). Accordingly many universities have gradually scaled‐up learner‐centred approaches, including flexible delivery and technology‐enhanced learning, from the domains of enthusiasts towards the institutional level. This paper seeks to argue that these new economies and styles of learning and teaching bring similar requirements for scaling of assessment practices in HE, in particular, that it is now time for many universities to consider change initiatives to scale‐up the assessment of experiential learning to the institutional level.

The need to scale‐up assessment of experiential learning in the Australian and international higher HE contexts is discussed and a variety of change initiatives to scale‐up assessment of experiential learning at the University of South Australia is described. These initiatives are explored in the wider context of change management in HE.

Assessment of experiential learning is at a tipping point where it needs to transition from the enthusiasts towards the mainstream of academics. Support for this process is a new challenge for academic developers, educational technologists, librarians and other stakeholders, akin to other recent challenges such as mainstreaming flexible learning and technology‐enhanced learning. It is argued that for change to succeed learners and academics require local or regional evidence that experiential learning and its assessment are both beneficial and manageable.

Taking assessment of experiential learning to the institutional level is a challenge that is reminiscent of the need to scale‐up flexible delivery and technology‐enhanced learning over the past decade. Information that can help universities to graduate large numbers of knowledge workers with appropriate graduate attributes developed through experiential learning should be beneficial to the graduates, the institutions and society at large.

The purpose of this paper is to outline four separate studies undertaken in two Australian universities between 2003 and 2012 on employer feedback on the quality of university graduates. Higher education has expanded significantly in the past decade. The expansion has been in student enrolments with a focus on increasing the participation of disadvantaged students; the emergence of new kinds of providers other than universities; new modes of education delivery; and the internationalisation of higher education. The diversity of higher education institutions and quality issues require the assessment of graduate quality based on feedback from employers. The lack of such assessment on graduate quality based on employer voice risks the production of graduates with focus on success (quantity) rather than excellence (quality). It also disconnects the engagement between higher education institutions and employers to assess trends and changes in various industries and professions that require employer input in course development and renewal to meet the changing needs of the industries.

A quantitative method using online survey to gather feedback from employers of university graduates was used. The survey tool has been previously used in other studies.

A decade of study using quantitative and qualitative methods with different employers in two different geographic locations clearly shows that employer views on the quality of university graduates in a range of capabilities have remained consistent. The study also outlines the challenges in gathering feedback from employers and how data are used in curriculum reviews and enhancements.

The study has a number of limitations, including gathering up-to-date employer data, and engagement of employers in the survey.

Practical implications could include the use of survey data in new course developments, review of courses and further enhancement to ensure course relevance.

This is the first longitudinal study undertaken using the same survey instrument in two universities. The study engaged 485 employers.

This paper aims to explore the expectations of relevant stakeholders in the engineering field to better understand the demands of the twenty-first century. As the number of unemployed continues to grow in Malaysia, it is evident that as industries continue to develop, demands and new requirements for skilled workers change over time.

Through face-to-face interviews, the study explored the expectations of accreditation bodies, industry operators and academics in the engineering field.

Three major findings were documented: mismatch of expectations in engineering field across the stakeholders; the expected “must-have-skills” from the perspectives of the stakeholders; and the need to reassess how information transmission is cascaded to all stakeholders and remains relevant to market demand.

It is recognized that the findings from this study may only be relevant to the engineering field and not to the other different disciplines, but the qualitative findings provide some key issues in understanding the gap between relevant stakeholders that may motivate future studies to further extend into the other disciplines.

With this mismatch drawn out clearly, all relevant stakeholders would be able to revisit and revaluate their existing strategy in addressing, cascading crucial information and equipping graduates with analytical skills to gain immediate employment in the market.

A clearer understanding on the expectations and the “must-have-skills” required in the engineering field in the twenty-first century.