Embedding generic employability skills in an accounting degree: development and impediments

This paper explores and analyses the views of, and effects on, students of a project that integrated the development of employability skills within the small group classes of two compulsory courses in the first year of an accounting degree at a UK university. The project aimed to build, deliver and evaluate course materials designed to encourage the development of a broad range of employability skills: skills needed for life-long learning and a successful business career. By analysing students' opinions gathered from a series of focus groups spread throughout the year, three prominent skill areas of interest were identified: time management, modelling, and learning to learn. Further analysis highlighted the complex nature of skills development, and brought to light a range of impediments and barriers to both students' development of employability skills and their subject learning. The analysis suggests the need for accounting educators to see skills development as being an essential element of the path to providing a successful accounting education experience

SMILE Project

Accessing information and evaluation of material is essential in today’s digital society. Employers are concerned that graduates leaving university do not have adequate employability skills (Braid 2007). University lecturers are also concerned that students are coming to university with poor learning skills (Shepherd 2006). Discussions in Higher Education (HE) are focusing on who should be developing student learning and employability skills, with the consensus being that it should be the responsibility of both employers and universities (Kosviner 2007). With modularisation, it can be difficult for study and employability skills to be embedded in subject-focused modules. These skills and competencies are frequently mentioned in the module specifications, but there is often little time set aside to teach the skills. This project was an attempt to combine the skills into an “information journey” and develop a module that could be delivered in a variety of ways. It was funded by JISC (Joint Information Services Committee) as one of 20 projects (collectively RePRODUCE) to “develop, run and quality assure technology enhanced courses using reused and repurposed learning materials“ (JISC, 2009). The project was a consortium of Loughborough University, Imperial College London and University of Worcester (the lead institution)

Shortlist Your Employer: Acquire Soft Skills to Achieve Your Career and Leadership Success to Excel as a CEO

This unconventional paper lays emphasis on soft and hard skills to shortlist your employer. It shares seven timeless tools to fast-track your career and seven time-tested steps to achieve your all-round success; explains career capital and outlines tips to build your career capital; differentiates between soft and hard skills with a plethora of examples and illustrations; and distinguishes between Indian and Chinese CEOs. It suggests that strong support from the C-suite leaders is essential to build career capital to keep leadership talent ready in the pipeline. It enlightens that there is no permanent employment, but only permanent employability. Lastly, it calls for equipping with soft skills to enhance your employability to grow as a CEO

Engaging with childhood: student placements and the employability agenda.

Employability is a particular organising narrative within the global, neoliberal economic discourse, with increasing relevance across different educational contexts. For universities in the UK, student employability, that is the readiness of students to gain and maintain employment and contribute to the economy, is a significant feature of accountability with employability outcomes increasingly used by students in making their decision of which university to attend. Yet little attention is paid to the organizing power of the employability agenda and to university students’ participation in that agenda apart from focussing on knowledge and skills relevant to gain employment. This is particularly concerning in university programmes that develop professionals who work with children. Placement, gaining knowledge, skills and experience in the places where children and young people are found, is a common aspect of employability being embedded within programme curricula. This article explores the organising power of the employability agenda for children and young people in a context of university placements. Focused on student experiences on placement in primary school settings in the north of England analysis considers students’ engagement with their own learning and the children who are essential to that learning

The employability skills of graduates at Kuala Terengganu community college and job placement / Faridah Mohamad

In the economic situation today, it is definitely essential on being employable. Equipping with extra skills and knowledge will help graduates in job placement. Awareness to this scenario, this study is conducted and discussed employability skills of graduates at Kuala Terengganu Community College (KTCC) and job placement. Delphi technique is adopted as a research methodology. This technique is designed as a group communication process which aims to achieve convergence of opinion. This study also emphasized on employability skills development and the relationship with course or programmed offered by KTCC and job placement. It is found that course or programmed offered by KTCC and job placement has a significant relationship with employability skills. This finding has concluded that academic qualification and technical knowledge is essential as well as employability skills to ensure graduates from KTCC have a good reputation in job placement in the future. KTCC and employers both have important role to play in assist the development of employability skills such as campus talk from employers and prepared specific employability modules in effort to providing job and work placement, internship and opportunities to graduates at KTCC

Testing a model of undergraduate competence in employability skills and its implications for stakeholders

Despite the development of employability skills being firmly entrenched in higher education’s strategic agenda worldwide; recent graduates’ standards in certain skills are not meeting industry expectations. This paper presents and tests a model of undergraduate competence in employability skills. It highlights those factors which impact on competence in employability skills and identify ways in which stakeholders can adjust curricula and pedagogy to enhance graduate skill outcomes. Data was gathered from an online survey of 1008 business undergraduates who self-rated their competence against a framework of employability skills typically considered essential in graduates. The data was analysed using multiple regression techniques. Results suggest a range of factors influence competence in employability skills. These include geographical origin, sex, work experience, engagement with the skills agenda, stage of degree studies, scope of relationships and activities beyond education and work and the quality of skills development in the learning programme. The implications for stakeholders in undergraduate education are discussed, highlighting their shared responsibility for ensuring undergraduate employability skills are developed to required industry standards. The model provides an important contribution to the multi-faceted concept of graduate employability, of which skill development forms an important part

A Bibliometric Analysis of the Employability Skills Research Trends in Vocational Education

Employability skills are the skills needed to acquire, retain, and do a good job. Employability skills are essential in helping prepare students to increase competitiveness and work productivity. The world of work wants graduates to be competitive and technically competent with skills relevant to technological developments. This study aims to analyze research trends related to employability skills in vocational education. We use bibliometric analysis procedures on 1123 published articles in the Scopus database. The results of this study reveal citation, co-authorship, co-citation, and keyword analyses producing a pattern of research maps in vocational education. The findings identify publication trends, widely cited articles, contributing countries, productive journals, and obtain information for future research on employability skill

Embedding graduate employability skills into health and social care course - a scoping review

This scoping review aimed to explore the graduates' employability skills required for employment in health and social care settings. Electronic literature searches were conducted to identify literature published from 1993 to 2018. The literature reviewed were research papers, educational reports and scholarly papers on graduate employability skills. The literature searches and the review were performed independently by the authors. Out of 121 articles only 42 met the inclusion criteria. The review found the perceptions of graduates, employers and academics who could contribute in developing graduates' employability skills. Service users’ involvement was not evident in the literature reviewed so inclusion of their views was recommended as essential in identifying desirable graduates' employability skills

Vocational Education and Employability: The Nigerian Situation

Vocational education is the form of education whose primary objective is the acquisition of skills and attitudes for gainful employment in a specific occupation or professional area. On the other hand, Employability skills are those essential skills required to secure and retain a job. These skills are required by young undergraduates to prepare them to meet the needs of various occupations after graduation. Today, the quality of graduates in terms of requisite skills development such as communication, technical abilities, human interaction, social, conceptual and analytical capacity, is on a rapid decline. This paper therefore seeks to look into the possible relationship between vocational education and the acquisition of employability skills. It also discusses basic requirements of employers worldwide in this regard. For our young graduates to be found as being employable, employability skills should be incorporated into the curriculum of Nigerian tertiary institutions. Keywords: Vocational Education, Employability Skills, Graduates  

Research Study on Factors and Strategies to Impart Employability Skills of College students in Tamil Nadu

Employability skills are essential for acquiring and pursuing goals of college students for their employment in the corporate sector. Educational institutions with the help of their teachers make all out effort to impart knowledge of employability. This study is aimed at factors and strategies which are vital for students employability in the Indian corporate sector