R
EADY FOR THE JOB
?
M
IND THE GAP
A
STUDY ON HOW THE
M
ASTERS
SCM
&
TOM
CAN CONTRIBUTE
TO EMPLOYABILITY
Bernadette van Denzel
bvandenzel@gmail.com
s2240386
Supervisor: dr. K. Scholten
Second supervisor: dr. H. Broekhuis
MSc Technology and Operations Management
University of Groningen
2
A
BSTRACTThe aim of this research is to find out how the learning experience at a university can contribute to
the employability of students in an operations management context. By applying an exploratory case
3
P
REFACE4
T
ABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ... 2 Preface ... 3 1. Introduction ... 6 2. Theoretical background ... 8 2.1 Employability ... 8 2.1.1 Components of employability ... 9 2.2 Learning experience ... 12 2.2.1 Study programme ... 12 2.2.2 Extracurricular activities ... 13 2.3 Conceptual model... 14 3. Methodology ... 14 3.1 Setting ... 15 3.2 Case selection ... 16 3.3 Data collection ... 18 3.4 Data analysis ... 19 4. Findings ... 20 4.1 Communication ... 21 4.2 Numeracy ... 224.3 Critical thinking & problem solving ... 23
5
6.2 Limitations and further research ... 35
7. References ... 36
8. Appendices ... 39
8.1 Appendix A: interview protocol ... 39
8.2 Appendix B: excerpt of coding ... 41
6
1. I
NTRODUCTIONTechnical skills and subject specific knowledge determine only 15% of the reason why an individual gets and maintains a job, the other 85% of the reason are ‘people skills’ (Rao 2014). Hence, people skills is what makes a graduate employable. At the same time, universities tend to focus on technical skills and knowledge instead of how students should become employable (Clarke 2008). However, since universities aim for, among others, to prepare students for business life (University of Groningen 2016a), becoming employable should be an important part of a curriculum. While technical skills and knowledge are taught in courses, employability, as a learning outcome, is more a result from a holistic learning experience (Rae 2007).
The holistic learning experience is defined by Rea (2007) as the whole university experience combined with interactions of the wider ‘world of work’. Employability is a result of this cumulative learning from the study programme, in parallel with personal development, for example extracurricular activities (Rae 2007). Since several parts contribute to employability, it is hard to say where and how exactly employability is learned.
About employability much research has been conducted (i.a. Andrews & Higson 2008; Clarke 2008; Dench 1997; Yorke & Knight 2004; Rao 2014). There are multiple definitions and underlying factors for employability. In general employability is having the skills that allow an individual to obtain and retain a job. Employability consists of three components: personal skills, technical skills and personal attributes and attitudes (Dench 1997). While it is already known that employers are looking for the personal skills (Rao 2014; Archer & Davison 2008) and that these skills should be taught in higher education (University of Groningen 2016a; Rae 2007; The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Business Council of Australia 2002; Canadian Government 2009), it has not been researched thoroughly how these skills are incorporated in a programme or what contributes exactly to improve these skills during the learning experience at a university (Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz 2008). Therefore the aim of this research is to find out how the learning experience at a university can
contribute to the employability of students. To answer this research question an exploratory case
research will be conducted. And to ensure that interviewees will already know what is necessary in their job, interviews will be held with alumni.
7 can improve their curricula to align them more to the requirements of employees.
The second contribution is that in the tertiary education a lot of research has been conducted about learning outcomes at a course level, but this cannot assess employability as this is a result from a holistic learning experience. This research will therefore contribute to the research about employability in the learning experience in tertiary education.
As there are little systematic investigations into the links between employability and how that is incorporated into university education (Bridgstock 2009), the third contribution of this research will contribute to these links and tries to find out how employability can be incorporated into university education.
The practical contribution of this research is that it can generally be used by universities to check, and possibly enrich, their programs with respect to the employability of their students.
8
2.
T
HEORETICAL BACKGROUND2.1
E
MPLOYABILITYEmployability is not a static concept and changes over time. Murphy and Poist (2007) suggest that currently “logisticians should be managers first and logisticians second”. So for logisticians/people in the operations management this means that to become employable their ‘manager’ skills should be developed as well as their knowledge skills. This change is in general described by many authors (i.a. Clarke 2008; Bridgstock 2009). Hence, since employability is a dynamic concept, it is difficult to give one definition of employability. For this study recent definitions of employability are more applicable. In table 1 a list of definitions of employability is given. The aim of this table is not to give a complete overview of all definitions of employability, but to show the wide range on definitions of employability. What becomes apparent is that definitions focus either on skills (technical and personal skills) or focus on finding and retaining a job. However, they are all about that an individual should have the ability to succeed in work life.
Table 1: definitions of employability
Definition Reference
Employability is understood as the possession of basic ‘core-skills’, or an extended set of generic attributes, or attributes that a type of employer (discipline-linked, sector-related, company-type) specifies.
(Harvey 2001)
Employability skills are defined as skills required not only to gain employment, but also to progress within an enterprise so as to achieve one’s potential and contribute successfully to enterprise strategic directions.
(Australian chamber of commerce and industry 2002) A set of skills, knowledge and personal attributes that make an individual
more likely to secure and be successful in their chosen occupation to the benefit of themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy.
(Moreland 2006)
‘Proactive adaptability’ including career identity, personal adaptability and social networking skills (social and human capital).
(Fugate et al. 2004)
Broadly defined, employability refers to an individual’s ability to find a job, retain a job and move between jobs and/or industries should the need arise.
(Mcleish 2002; Brown et al. 2003) The capacity and the willingness to be and to remain attractive in the labour
market, by anticipating changes in tasks and work environment and reacting to these changes in a proactive way
(Sanders & de Grip 2004)
Employability is defined as the possession by an individual of the capacity to gain employment, sustain employment and make progress, in terms of personal and/or career development, while in employment. The individual’s
9 possession of this capacity is related to a number of interconnected
individual factors, personal circumstances and external factors.
For this research a definition of employability is chosen with respect to the aim of this research, focusing on the skills: “Employability is understood as the possession of basic “core-skills”, or an extended set of generic attributes, or attributes that a type of employer (discipline-linked, sector-related, company-type) specifies” (Harvey 2001). This definition implies that employability can have several components.
2.1.1COMPONENTS OF EMPLOYABILITY
There are several ways to divide employability into components. Dench (1997) divided it into three main categories: personal attributes, technical skills and personal skills. Bennett et al. (1999) made five categories: disciplinary content knowledge, disciplinary skills, workplace awareness, workplace experiences and generic skills. According to Dacre Pool & Sewell (2007), the most well-known and respected division is made by York and Knight (2004): understanding, skills, efficacy beliefs and metacognition. As can be seen from these models, personal skills is always named. And as stated in the introduction, 85% of why a employers hires someone is because of his/her personal skills (Rao 2014). The importance of the personal skills is also underlined by Murphy and Poist (2007) and Myers et al. (2004) who stated that skills are more important than knowledge, as knowledge is more complementary in the role of manager. So since the most important of these components are the personal skills, this research focuses on the personal skills.
PERSONAL SKILLS
As noticed above, personal skills can be found under a lot of different names: generic skills, core skills, key competencies, transferable skills or underpinning skills (Mayer 1992). These are all skills that are necessary at work and are transferable to multiple work situations (Bridgstock 2009). It is often difficult to define the boundary between personal attributes and personal skills, because some skills might be seen as part of the job, while in others it is just desirable to have, for instance, a pleasant working environment, like being capable of working with others (Dench 1997). However, personal skills are skills that can be developed over time (Dench 1997). They are usually also related to an individual’s innate abilities, but they can be developed and built on (Dench 1997).
Since a lot of different names and definitions of personal skills exist, lots of lists with personal skills can be found. Therefore a list is made out of several other lists, which can be found in Table 2.
10 Table 2: personal skills
Personal skills
Reference
Communication
Communicate and respond clearly, concisely and correctly in the written, spoken and visual form to fulfil the purpose and meet the needs of the audience
(Canadian Government 2009). Reading Writing Speaking Listening Presenting Visual literacy (Canadian Government 2009)
Self-presentation and a range of verbal and written communications skills (Rae 2007) Communicate well orally
Writing effectively
(Delaney 2004)
Numeracy
Execute mathematical operations accurately (Canadian Government 2009). Understanding and applying mathematical concepts and reasoning Analysing and using numerical data
(Canadian Government 2009)
Critical thinking & problem solving
Apply a systematic approach and use a variety of thinking skills to anticipate and solve problems (Canadian Government 2009).
Critical thinking Problem solving Analysing Synthesising Evaluating Decision making
Creative and innovative thinking Conceptualizing
(Canadian Government 2009)
Creative thinking and problem solving
Being able to take decisions and accept risks in conditions of uncertainty
(Rae 2007) Think analytically and logically
Formulate creative/original ideas
(Delaney 2004)
Information management
Use appropriate technology and information systems to locate, select, organize, document, analyse, evaluate and apply information from a variety of sources (Canadian Government 2009).
Gathering and managing information
Selecting and using appropriate tools and technology for a task or a project
11 Computer literacy
Internet skills Project management
Computer literacy and it skills
(Rae 2007) Use technology
Use quantitative tools
(Delaney 2004)
Interpersonal
Show respect for diverse opinions, values, beliefs and contributions of others. Interact with other in groups or teams in ways that contribute to effective working relationships and the achievement of goals (Canadian Government 2009). Team work Relationship management Conflict resolution Leadership Networking (Canadian Government 2009)
Interpersonal skills of relationship building, negotiation, persuasion and influencing
Leadership skills in a range of situations
Team working effectively to achieve results with others Participating in social and industry or professional networks
(Rae 2007)
Function effectively as team member Leadership ability
Relate well to different cultures/races Understand others
(Delaney 2004)
Life-long learning
Manage the use of all resources, including time, to complete projects. Take responsibility for one’s own actions and decisions (Canadian Government 2009).
Managing self
Managing change and being flexible and adaptable Engaging in reflective practices
Demonstrating personal responsibility
(Canadian Government 2009)
Personal organisation and time management Self-confidence
Finding opportunities and taking the initiative to act on opportunities Planning, setting goals and persevering to achieve goals
Working independently; taking responsibility for achieving results
Being able to apply academic learning in practical settings including the workplace
Being able to adapt and work flexibly in different contexts Taking responsibility for completing work to quality standards
(Rae 2007)
12 Drive to achieve
Intellectual self-confidence Social self-confidence
“Employability is not an outcome of any one module of a course, but rather a result of a holistic learning experience.” (Rae 2007).
2.2 L
EARNING EXPERIENCEAs stated above, Rea (2007) states that employability is a result of a holistic learning experience. This means that not only a study programme at a university influences employability, but rather the whole university experience combined with interactions of the wider ‘world of work’ (Rea 2007). This is also mentioned by Harvey (2001), who states that employability skills are only partially learned in the study programme. So the whole learning experience should be taken into account when investigating employability. This learning experience consists of two parts: study programme and extracurricular activities (Rea 2007).
2.2.1STUDY PROGRAMME
A study programme is defined as: “An approved set of modules or course units recognized for the award of a specific degree, which should be defined through the set of learning outcomes, expressed in terms of competences, to be achieved in order to obtain the specified credits” (Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz 2008) and it usually consists of courses, a thesis and possibly work placements (Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz 2008). Typically, an undergraduate study programme takes 3 to 4 years and a graduate study programme takes an extra of 1 to 2 years (Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz 2008) and credits are earned to show the time spent on specific parts.
COURSES
A definition of a course is provided again by Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz (2008) “A course unit is a self-contained, formally structured learning experience. It should have a coherent and explicit set of learning outcomes, expressed in terms of competences to be obtained, and appropriate assessment criteria. Course units can have various numbers of credits.”. In a study programme there are often compulsory and elective courses. The compulsory courses need to be taken and it is required to choose several of the electives courses (Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz 2008).
13 can be used to obtain certain skills. However, it is out of the scope is this research to look deeper into the courses.
THESIS
The definition of a thesis that Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz (2008) give is the following: “A formally presented written report, based on independent research/enquiry/project work, which is required for the award of a degree (generally a first or a second degree or a doctorate).”
In a thesis the proof of one’s academic ability is being given (University of Groningen 2016c) and one can rely on the knowledge and experience that is gained during the programme to demonstrate that the content and skills have been mastered (Bui 2013).
2.2.2EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
According to Valentine et al. (2002) ‘out-of-school-activities’ can be divided in six different categories: homework, employment, extracurricular activities, structured out-of-school activities, unstructured time alone and with family and peers, and sleeping. However, this definition is too broad for this research, as I only want to look at the learning experience at the university. The scope of this research is therefore limited to activities that can be linked directly to (parts of) the study programme and/or the university: the extracurricular activities. This also means that additional activities such as board membership in a student organisation or sports society will not be incorporated in this research. As described by Rae (2007), extracurricular activities are also part of the holistic learning experience. Extracurricular activities can contribute to a broad education of a student: it can bring several communicative and social skills (Bonger 2010). Extracurricular activities can be divided into 3 categories: educational, career building (Bridgstock 2009) and other.
Educational: activities that bring some extra education to an individual and is often awarded with
credits, like extra courses taken, doing a minor or attending honours college. This can for example contribute to one’s communication or critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Career building: activities that are preparing an individual for the working life, like
entrepreneurship, a study related (part-time) job or events to talk to companies, let your curriculum vitae check, etc. Career building activities can improves for example one’s communication skills and interpersonal skills.
Other: several other activities, like study related volunteering: being active in a study association
14
2.3 C
ONCEPTUAL MODELAs stated by Rae (2007) employability can be seen as a result of a holistic learning experience. Therefore, in this research, it will be investigated how a learning experience can contribute to the employability of the students. The learning experience consists of two parts: the study programme and the extracurricular activities. The study programme in its place consists of the courses and the thesis. Since the personal skills are very important, the focus in employability is on the personal skills. The conceptual model can be seen in Figure 1.
Figure 1: conceptual model
3. M
ETHODOLOGY15 The purpose of exploratory case research is to “uncover areas for research and theory development” (Voss 2009). The research structure recommended by Voss (2009) is in-depth case studies or unfocused, longitudinal field study. For this research in-depth case studies are chosen, because interviews with alumni are held to find underlying mechanisms that contributes to their employability skills. The unit of analysis is also defined as an alumnus.
3.1 S
ETTINGThe setting that is used for this research are two Master studies of the University of Groningen (RuG), Netherlands: Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Technology & Operations Management (TOM). These master studies are both one-year programmes. The aim of the Master Supply Chain Management is to educate graduates with respect to the design and coordination of supply chains and to planning and controlling logistics operations in order to deliver high quality products and services in a fast, efficient way (University of Groningen 2016d). The Master in Technology and Operations Management focuses on operations management aspects during the entire life cycle of products and services and on the introduction of technological innovations in organisations (University of Groningen 2016b). Both studies have four or five core (compulsory) courses and four or three elective courses. Besides that, a master’s thesis have to be written.
16
3.2 C
ASE SELECTIONIn line with the aim of this study to explore how a Master study programme can contribute to the employability of students, 14 cases have been selected, based on several factors, which are described below. For this research there has been chosen to try to incorporate as much differences as can be found in the scope of this research, because TOM and SCM are studies that prepare for a broad range of jobs and therefore the studies must include the skills that are relevant in all different industries, job areas, etc. Next to the differences, also attention is paid to get as close as possible to the real rates in, for example, the numbers of males and females and the number of national and international students. This all to ensure that a good representation of all students of TOM & SCM is made and thereby enhancing the external validity (Yin 2009).
To make a case selection, criteria have been worked out and applied to all alumni from TOM and SCM. The first criteria to exclude alumni from the list were: the alumnus should be graduated, should have a relevant SCM or TOM job right now and he/she should not have been unemployed for a longer time. After that first exclusion, a next selection is made to have as much variation between the alumni to get a more complete view. We want to know the alumni vision on the revised SCM and TOM programs from 2012 and therefore only alumni that graduated 2013 and later will be included. An even spread is tried to make over the years. Also an representative rate of male and female has been made. And since all courses are taught in English, a representative amount of alumni from other countries than the Netherlands are chosen. As TOM and SCM are master studies, students come from different background. Some did a HBO (at the university of applied sciences) and other come straight from their bachelor programme. This has also been taken into account. Next to that the industries of the companies alumni are working in has been divided and a representative amount of alumni is tried to make. Further a division is made in the size of the companies alumni are working in: small, medium and large. However, most of the alumni are working in a large company. Besides that, alumni are selected based on their position in the company: trainee, junior, middle manager. A representative amount for every position is being chosen. Moreover, there has also been looked at the area of their job, to make a division in that. For SCM the following categories are included: logistics, purchase, operations, consultant, management, transport, production, research, planning, supply chain and other. For TOM the division is a little different: consultant, development, engineer, IT, logistics, maintenance, management, operations, other, production, quality, research and supply chain.
17 Tabel 3: Case and interview details
Programme
Graduation
year ID M/F D/I HBO? Job area Position Industry
Size of company
Length of interview (minutes)
2013 1 M D n other junior Consultancy, research and other specialised business
services large 67
2 M D n other middle manager Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply large 62
3 M D n operations middle manager Consultancy, research and other specialised business
services large 44
4 M D y production middle manager Manufacture of machinery and equipment n.e.c. large 53
5 F I y research trainee Education large 49
6 M D n supply chain middle manager Manufacture of beverages large 55
7 F I n other middle manager Information and communication medium 37
8 M D y transport middle manager Transportation and storage large 98
9 F D n logistics junior Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles
and motorcycles large 57
10 M I y research trainee Education large 60
11 M D n supply chain middle manager Transportation and storage medium 56
12 F D n planning middle manager Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles
and motorcycles large 64
13 M D y planning middle manager Consultancy, research and other specialised business
services medium 53
14 F D n supply chain middle manager Manufacture of food products + C11 - Manufacture
18
3.3 D
ATA COLLECTIONMultiple methods have been used to collect the data: a short survey and an interview. Because of this triangulated approach, the research problem is examined from different angles and the reliability of the results are increased (Verhoeven 2011). Before the interview, a small survey is being filled in by the interviewees to gather some additional information about the interviewee and as input for the interview.
Between October and December 2016 the interviews with alumni are held. The alumni were contacted via email and volunteered to be interviewed.
Semi-structured interviews were held, because these can help to define the areas that need to be explored as they consists of several key questions, while at the same time it allows the interviewer and interviewee to diverge on interesting details or explain an idea (Gill et al. 2008). Also this might help to explore or discover areas that may not have been previously thought by the researcher (Gill et al. 2008). Besides that, a properly designed research protocol will enhance the reliability and validity of the interview data (Yin 1994). It can also facilitate data comparison when the main part of the interviews followed a standard set of questions, while at the same time it increases reliability (Voss et al. 2002; Yin 2009).
The interview protocol can be found in appendix A. The protocol is based on the initial literature study and established in cooperation with my supervisor and another student doing a master’s thesis about alumni as well. As this research is part of a bigger project, more questions are asked about other subjects than for this research only. The protocol has been pilot-tested and was changed were necessary. First some general question about the interviewee were asked with respect to his/her background and working experience. Next specific questions about the personal skills were asked. In the questionnaire alumni were already asked to name a top 5 of specific skills that are important for their job now. In the interview they are asked if it is possible to link them back to the master programme. Then a list with personal skills, divided in the different categories, was given to them and asked which ones are more relevant for them and also how they learned that in the master programme. This list is also complemented by alumni. These new personal skills are not shown to next interviewees.
19 Since alumni from two studies were interviewed, it is also very useful to have interviewees from both studies, as was the case in this research.
All interviews were recorded and afterwards transcribed verbatim. Then the transcribed interviews were validated by sending them back to the interviewees asking for feedback, if needed some clarification and their final approval (Yin 2009).
3.4 D
ATA ANALYSISThe analysis of the data is done with the three steps suggested by Miles and Huberman (1994): data reduction, data display and conclusion. First the data was reduced to quotes, sentences and paragraphs that were relevant for each skill category (first-order codes). Each quote was given a skill category and the name of the skill. In the second round the quotes relating to courses, thesis and extracurricular activities were coded. Then all quotes relating to a specific skill category were read to deduce underlying sub-mechanisms on how specific skills were learned. This was done for all skill categories. The mechanisms were then grouped together to create mechanisms: cooperation, evaluation, quantity (repetition), forcing, verbal contact, program use and real life cases (an excerpt of the coding can be found in Appendix B). It turned out that several mechanisms could be found in several skill categories. This is discussed further in chapter 4. In finding the sub-mechanisms all cases were compared in a cross-case analysis (shown in Appendix C) to look for patterns that explain how personal skills are learned in the learning experience.
20
4. F
INDINGSThe aim of this study is to find out how the learning experience at a university can contribute to the employability of students. In order to do so interviews with alumni were held to identify mechanisms that show how a learning experience can contribute to employability. During the analysis seven different groups of mechanisms have been found: cooperation, evaluation, quantity (repetition), forcing, verbal contact, program use and real-life cases. All mechanisms are identified over more than one skill category. In Table 4 the different groups of mechanisms and their sub-mechanisms are shown.
Table 4: mechanisms
Cooperation
With different people/cultures/ backgrounds Task division (in
combination with time pressure)
Disagreement/ different expectations
Evaluation
Teachers feedback Discussion (with peers) Self-reflection Quantity (repetition) Forcing Time pressure Limitations Individual work Verbal contact Presentations Pitches Persuasion Program use Excel Simulation programs Coding Real-life cases
21 Table 5: mechanisms identified in skill categories
C o o p erati o n Ev alu ati o n Q u an tity (repetit io n ) Fo rcin g Verb al co n tact P ro gra m us e Real life c ase s Communication ++ +/- ++/- +/- ++/- + Numeracy +
Critical thinking &
problem solving ++ +/- + ++ + Information management + + + + ++/- Interpersonal ++ - - +/- + +/- +/- Life-long learning + - ++
4.1 C
OMMUNICATIONSeveral mechanisms contribute to the improvement of the communication skills. Quantity (repetition) and verbal contact are most mentioned in communication, where presenting is mentioned most to improve one’s communication skills. Presenting is visible in both the courses and the thesis. For quantity (repetition) one alumnus stated: “I improved. Because we had a weekly presentations on
subjects, a lot of assignments and I always liked presenting, so I volunteered to present. It just gives you experience, making hours, so you get better at it.” (ID3). So by making hours, you get experience
and you will get better at it. This was also stated by 2 other alumni (ID7 & ID9). However, there were also two alumni that mentioned that they did not have to present that often (ID5 & ID10): “There was
not too much presenting required of us, but we would and if we wanted to we could improve our presentation skills.” (ID5). This difference can be caused by the fact that they both are in the research
area in education, where they might present now more. For verbal contact presenting is also often mentioned: “If you present something you want to share your information or persuade your audience.” (ID9). This is also mentioned by 2 other alumni (ID6 & ID13). So by having verbal contact one is able to improve one’s communication skills. Here, the same exception as above holds for ID5 and ID10. Also one alumnus mentioned that he learned extra to present via verbal contact and quantity in his extracurricular activity by being a teacher assistant: “The teaching assistant, it was a lot presenting of
22
to explain it to them.” (ID13). The third identified mechanism is cooperation and then in particular
disagreements/different expectations. Here all alumni agreed that this helps in improving one’s communication skills. One alumnus mentioned: “Sometimes I had an idea and all my other group mates
said: that is not a good idea, and then I had to agree with it because I was the only one who was not thinking that what I said was not true.” (ID14). Different expectations are mentioned by two alumni.
One said: “I think it’s good that the study is in English, but my previous study was also in English and I
have noticed that my Dutch was absolutely shit when I got back working in a Dutch environment.” (ID8).
So although he did learn how to communicate, it was mainly in English, which can give some trouble in Dutch companies. The fourth mechanisms found in communication is evaluation. One alumnus mentioned getting feedback from his thesis supervisor helped in improving his writing skills (ID4). Two other said that discussion (with peers) is very useful to improve one’s communication skills, but this was not done enough: “Get people to more discussing. In smaller settings where they actually have to
present and discuss the ideas in front of maybe smaller groups.” (ID5), although this is not used in the
study programme. The fifth mechanism found here is forcing. Limitations and individual work are identified as the sub-mechanism. For a course it was limited to send only one email a week to ask questions. This caused that people really started thinking about what they would ask and how to formulate that: “I actually learned about from that, to really think about your questions.” (ID1). Also limitations in writing are mentioned to improve communications skills: “I remember that one of the
things I struggled with was with the word count […] and I think that is important to learn that you cannot use 3000 words for a report because the people you write reports for during your job do not want to read many words.” (ID14). By limiting people tend to start thinking what is really important
and how to write that down. This improves one’s communication skills. Another alumnus mentioned that it is not stimulated and/or forced in the programme that a more shy or introvert person presents:
“It is not stimulated that a more shy person or introverted person also gives a presentation.” (ID8). So
here forcing is absent to improve communication. Then the last mechanism found in communication is to have real-life cases. One alumnus mentioned that because she had to present to a real company in a course, she felt it was very different from presenting only to peers: “You had to present it to the
business I think, that different then presenting it to the peers.” (ID7). This helped in improving her
communication skills.
4.2 N
UMERACYVery little about numeracy has been said in the interviews. As a result very few mechanisms have been identified as well. The only quote from which a mechanism could be deduced is: “Also there are
23 then is the use of problems that look like real business cases.
4.3 C
RITICAL THINKING&
PROBLEM SOLVINGFor critical thinking and problem solving the mechanism evaluation is mentioned often. The sub-mechanisms found here are feedback from teachers and self-reflection. In the master’s thesis alumni get feedback from their supervisor which improves their critical thinking and problem solving skills. As one alumnus said: “The supervisor supported me a lot and I could ask him questions and then he gave
me options, like you can do this or this or this, but he did not say what I should do, but just like: what do you think? And then I made something and then he said: oh, I like it or I do not like it. You learn a lot about thinking for yourself. […] Be critical to yourself and ask yourself the right questions.” (ID1). This
is supported by 3 other alumni (ID4, ID11, ID14). This same quote also shows the mechanism self-reflection. Students are encouraged to think by themselves and develop critical thinking and problem solving skills this way. This can be both in the thesis and during the courses. One alumnus also mentioned that the teacher in courses can help in improving critical thinking and problem solving skills in how they provide and give their lectures: “Like critical thinking is, I think, not related to one course,
but more to the teachers. And how they provide lectures and give lectures. So that's in all courses.”
(ID11). The next mechanism identified is quantity (repetition). Two alumni (ID1 & ID8) mentioned that in courses a lot of assignments needed to be solved, which gave them many opportunities to practice their problem solving skills. One of them also mentioned that in different courses the same problem was addressed, which gave him the opportunity to see the same problem from different angles: “Well,
there were a few topics in the master, that on different courses they had like the same topic. And I, maybe because it was a new programme or maybe because they did not talk to each other about what they were going to teach, but if you get the same problem from different angles, it is actually really useful.” (ID1). However, another alumnus said that not enough opportunities to practice effective
structured problem solving were given: “I think one reason could be that there was not enough practice
in that, maybe it was in some classes taught: when you encounter a problem you got to do like this and this, or really having that reflected in group projects.” (ID2). An explanation for this can be that ID1 is
from the first year that TOM was given (2013) and ID2 is from 2014. And after the first year the exact completion of the assignments can be changed a little. Lastly, one alumnus mentioned that he practiced his skills by doing an extracurricular activity, where he was in a committee from the study association organising an event: “We did not have that much experience with organizing and we did
the things for the first time. And you have to do it the first time right, there is no second event [… ]I did make some decisions.” (ID11). So by doing something you have no second chance for, you have to
24 problem solving. In forcing especially individual work can be found. For the thesis one is forced to work individually. One alumnus said that during her master’s thesis she had to analyse and synthesise a lot of literature, which she had to do by herself: “The master thesis, that required high amount of analytics,
it requires you to think in a different way. […] You have to analyse so many pieces of literature and combine them into a useful conclusion.” (ID12). This working individually contributed to her critical
thinking and problem solving skills. Then the fourth mechanism found in this category is program use. One alumnus expressed that the programs are the tools that one can use to analyse the processes and in that way learn how to analyse: “They try to improve and they are providing you with tools, for
example Excel, how to better work with Excel, how to use simulations to analyse your processes.” (ID5).
This is supported by two another alumni (ID4 and ID14). So simulation programs as well as Excel can be used to improve one’s critical thinking and problem solving skills. The last mechanism here is the real life cases. Two alumni mentioned that by working on problems that can also be used in real life, students can work on their critical thinking and problem solving skills, which are needed in real life:
“Excel and analysis […] you get the courses, it’s very applicable in real life because it is something you do non-stop.” (ID8).
4.4 I
NFORMATION MANAGEMENTFor information management, several mechanisms have been identified. The use of programs is mentioned most, which can be explained by the fact that computer literacy is part of information management. According to alumni Excel, simulation programs and IT/coding can be used to improve their information management skills. However, there are two different views on the use of programs: one group says that there is enough program use in the study programme and another groups says that there is no or not enough program use in the study programme. Three alumni mentioned that their information management skills were improved by the courses (ID4, ID5 and ID14): “Some of the
Excel skills, simulation skills... that's stuff that I worked on, cause we had to do a lot of Excel assignments. That was really nice.” (ID5). On the contrary ID9 mentioned that she found that she did
not learn enough about Excel and simulation software for her job: “Well, I've wrote down some skills,
but if we would really know Excel a little bit better it would help. Each company where you start they all work with Excel.” (ID9). So she finds she did not get enough practice and knowledge about Excel.
This is also supported by ID14: “I think Excel is important. And I have still contacts with a lot of other
students and we have discussed about it […] But we agree on it that Excel skills are really necessary during your job so I think I would introduce […] a mandatory course wherein you learn a lot of Excel skills.” (ID14). So although ID14 first said she learned about Excel, she later on explained that what she
25 focus is on the design and control of supply chains and logistics. Then the second mechanism that contributes to information management is forcing, especially time pressure and individual working. During the thesis, alumni experienced that time pressure can contribute in improving information management, especially in project management, as the thesis can be seen as a project. This was mentioned by two alumni: “For example even the master thesis, which in our studies does have a time
frame, I think. For us it was clearly half a year and after half a year if you did not finish, your work was lost.” (ID13) and “I made a deal with my supervisor, […] every first day I would deliver some part and then of course I did not have it ready on Wednesday, so I worked all night and on Thursday I delivered. […] I think you learn how to plan your own project.” (ID1). So by having a deadline, one need to plan
how to make it to the deadline and this helps in learning how to do a project, which contributes to information management. The last quote from ID1 also shows the mechanism evaluation: the alumnus gets feedback from his supervisor for his thesis, which also contributes to improving his project management skills. Then the next mechanism identified is quantity (repetition). One alumnus mentioned that he often looks things up on Google, which he experienced during his thesis: “I look
everything up on Google. […] And I learned that here, because I'm really lazy […] And that's something you learn with doing research.” (ID1). So here repetition is important to gain a skill. Another alumnus
mentioned that for his thesis he needed to get as much information out of people as possible, which can be learned be repeating: “I think what I learned the most by doing my thesis is getting as much
information out of people as possible.” (ID6). The last mechanism is cooperation, especially task
division. This is mentioned by one alumnus as important: “We had to write a report on it, which was a
group effort. Everyone did a little bit their own area that they were comfortable with […] I think that is also part of project management skills, that's part of life, if you want to succeed together, then other people do what they do best, […] you can look at it on different ways, but in the end, it is how you do a project in real-life as well I guess.” (ID13). So by dividing the tasks one can learn to manage a project
and improve one’s information management skills.
4.5 I
NTERPERSONALThe interpersonal skill group is the group that has been mentioned most in the interviews. There is a lot of consensus among the alumni. Because so much has been said that relates to interpersonal skills this chapter is divided in subsections, one for each mechanism that is mentioned (‘program use’ is not mentioned).
COOPERATION
26 people can differ, according to the alumni, are for example nationality, study or personal characteristics.
Because I can impossibly discuss every quote in this section I have to stress the number of alumni mentioning the skill teamwork. As much as 8 alumni (ID2, ID5, ID6, ID7, ID8, ID9, ID12, ID13) stress the importance of teamwork and 6 (ID1, ID4, ID6, ID7, ID8, ID12) mention the importance of working with people with different backgrounds. This is much more than on any other skill or mechanism. They all agree that working with different people is vital to develop your teamwork skills. Furthermore, they agree that because of the number of group assignment that had to be completed, the courses contributed heavily to their teamwork skills as well as their skills in working with people with different backgrounds. As one alumnus said: “An international course really helps you in life, in how to
understand cultural differences.” (ID8). Nonetheless, there are two alumni that think cooperation
should take place with even more people with different backgrounds. One alumnus mentioned that cooperation with people of different educational levels would be very beneficial, because when you start working “all of a sudden there are a lot of people who work 25 years at a single job and think very different. And to communicate with them and to interact with them […] it is a soft skill which is not taught, […] I think, it's very good to know a few things about that.” (ID4).
Secondly, it is suggested that teamwork should take place more with other studies, because people of the same study are “most of the time wired the same and they have the same background and they look on the process almost of the same way.” (ID6). Thus, group assignments are unquestionably very important for the development of interpersonal skills. It is felt that the study programme, courses in particular, have contributed to the interpersonal skills of the alumni.
EVALUATION
It is found that evaluating is important if a goal is to improve teamwork, because others can have different views on how an individual functions in a group. This is stated very clearly by one of the alumni: “That not everybody has the same idea of how motivated you are and how and which direction
you’re going. So everyone is reasoning from their own perspective, everyone has their own values and beliefs and well that leads to people functioning differently.” (ID2). Naturally, peer reviews are
important as a form of evaluation. The same person describes an example in which one person was freeriding. After a group conversation this issue was solved. Another alumnus binds the peer reviews to self-reflection. “I don’t really feel like they encouraged self-reflection during the master. I mean, you
work a lot in the teams and then nobody really asks you about: can you do it better, what would you do?” (ID7). So part of learning to work in teams is to apply self-reflection, in addition to peer reviewing.
Because evaluating was considered important there was one alumni that even mentioned that there should be some kind of workshop on how to work in groups: “You've got to work in groups, but you
27 importance of the skill to be able to work in teams and how that improves this skill.
QUANTITY
Quantity is an important mechanism for several skills in the interpersonal skill group. The skills that have been mentioned are leadership, working with people with different backgrounds and motivating. The alumni agree that these skills are obtained through repetition. This is put forward by two alumni. One alumni states that leadership is obtained by practicing: “That [leadership] is something you have
to learn in practice. […] it is very difficult to incorporate that in a course I think.” (ID8). He mentions
that leadership is difficult to learn from a course. However, motivating is obtained by following the courses. “It is more indirectly that you learn them [motivation skills] than directly from a course.” (ID8). So these skills are not taught in a specific course, instead, these are developed over time by practice. A third example of this is that one alumnus learned to work with people with different nationalities: “I
had to do some assignments with some people from Asia and they are really different in their way of teamwork. It's more like you can assign them work. And that part of the work is done and nothing more, nothing less. So that's what I learned from it.” (ID1). This is yet another example of learning by doing.
All in all quantity is an important mechanism for a range of interpersonal skills.
FORCING
There is one alumnus in special that underlines the importance of ‘time pressure’ as a mechanism through which she learned to work in teams. She explains it as follows: “It was difficult to plan a
moment in which everybody could work on the assignments. […] I liked to control everything, because I was busy myself I could not control anything anymore and I had to trust my groupmates that they were doing well.” (ID14). In others words, because of the time pressure students are forced to work in
teams which will then increase their ‘teamwork’ skills. The same alumnus then continues with “I think
I have learned as much that others can deliver good work as well.”. So time pressure is important for
improving ‘teamwork’ skills of students.
VERBAL CONTACT AND REAL LIFE CASES
Verbal contact and real life cases are two mechanisms that can increase influencing and persuading skills. Two alumni mentioned that presenting can contribute, though they agree that it did not so much for them. One of them provides a reason for this: “We had a business case where someone actually came from a real business and we had to try to sell our solution […] And that would be a good place for us to really have tried to influence him and see which solutions they will go for. We did not really get feedback from the business, we presented our solution, but we never really got to know if they considered doing it at the company.” (ID7). Although ‘real life cases’ contributes positively here, this development is hindered by a lack of evaluation. The second alumnus provides a very clear answer to the question whether the programme taught her to present ideas and persuade people:
28
from the master, but […] you have to be able to get your point across”. So she missed a chance to
practice her persuasion skills: “Looking back and working now, what I miss a little bit is the practical
aspect though, how would the real world look like?” (ID12). However, there is some difference in their
answers, they both agree that they would have liked more guided practice for their persuading and influencing skills. It is very hard to practice because all students in the program are of equal ‘level’, whereas in a business situation there often will be situations where there are people from different management levels. It has to be concluded that the program did not improve the persuading or influencing skills of students but several mechanisms are available to do so.
4.6 L
IFE-
LONG LEARNINGThe most mentioned mechanism through which life-long learning is improved is by force and then especially time pressure. As one alumnus mentioned: “In the course you have deadlines and you have
to make them.” (ID4). Time pressure was mentioned by 3 alumni (ID4, ID11, ID14) to be a contributing
factor. This applies to deadlines for assignments but also to the thesis, because they all have a deadline and one needs to make it. A second mechanism through which life-long learning is increased is cooperation. This especially holds when combined with time pressure. Because of this combination groups have to make a task division and this is considered to increase life-long learning as well. Although time pressure is mentioned to be a positive contribution, there is one person that elaborates on this: “You have to learn to give things priority upon others, that’s a thing I have learned and you
know how to deal with stress. It’s good to experience.“ (ID14). The third mechanisms is evaluation: “I don’t really feel like they encouraged self-reflection during the master. I mean, you work a lot in the teams and then nobody really asks you: can you do it better, what would you do? So you can’t really think about what you are really doing. You are working for a grade and that’s what you are trying to do.” (ID7). So evaluation can also contribute to life-long learning. However, the alumni agree that this
can be a contribution, but because there was a lack of evaluation during their studies, it did not contribute for them.
29
5. D
ISCUSSIONAs universities aim for, among others, to prepare students for business life, becoming employable should be an important part of the learning experience. The aim of this research is therefore to find out how a learning experience can contribute to the employability of students. New for this research is the use of alumni, in contrast to Welborn & Singer (2013), Jordan & Bak (2016), Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz (2008), Gammelgaard & Larson (2001) and Leckey & Mcguigan (1997). For this research alumni that are already working several years are asked what their opinion is on how several parts of the learning experience contribute to their employability.
Seven mechanisms through which personal skills can be improved are found. What is interesting in this is that some mechanisms or skills are mutually exclusive, for example that teamwork/cooperation can contribute to improve skills, but also individual work can contribute. So it is important to find a balance in the study programme. One other remark needs to be made, where one need to keep in mind that every step is taken very carefully and validated as much as possible, that, although it is found that a certain mechanism contributed to a certain skill of skill category, this does not imply that this is the only way to teach a certain skill or skill category.
Since all mechanisms can be found in several skill categories, the discussion is structured according to the several mechanisms.
COOPERATION
The first mechanism is cooperation, which is learned during courses. I found that it did not contribute in the thesis, since the thesis is individual work. Cooperation contributes to improving communication, information management, interpersonal and life-long learning. I found that working with people from different backgrounds, task division and disagreement/different expectations all three contribute to the improvement of the skill categories mentioned above. The most of these findings are in accordance with Ballantine and McCourt Larres (2007), Bourner et al. (2001) and Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz (2008). I explain the similarities and difference found below.
30 Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz (2008) it is a good idea to create situations that require students to interact with each other and where cooperation is needed, for example by preparing cases together, to improve interpersonal communication. Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz (2008) also said that lecturers can make multiple occasions for practicing conflict management and negotiation if they assign cooperative work to be done in pairs or in groups, which in my findings has not really emerged, because not much has been said about these skills by the alumni.
EVALUATION
The second mechanism is evaluation. Evaluation can contribute to communication, critical thinking and problem solving, information management, interpersonal and life-long learning in both courses and the thesis. However, it does not contribute in every skill category according to the alumni. Feedback from teachers is mostly given during the thesis and this helps to improve the skills. This matches with Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz (2008), who says that getting feedback on oral and written communication is important to improve one’s communication skills. This tells a student what was good and can avoid him/her making the same mistakes a next time. Discussion (with peers) is not present according to alumni, hence does not contribute to their communication and interpersonal skills. According to the alumni, this can be a mechanism that can contribute to the improvement of their skills. This idea is supported by Ball & Pelco (2006): they found that in a particular course peer assessments can help to improve group participation, which improves teamwork skills. And it also gives a good source of feedback for students. Although, they say that this way of teaching has not been tested properly yet. Discussion with peers is also a possibility to improve one’s critical thinking and problem solving skills by checking and examining one’s own viewpoint against others (Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz 2008). I found that self-reflection contributes to critical thinking and problem solving, but not to the interpersonal and life-long learning skills. In general Dacre Pool & Sewell (2007) and Duron et al. (2006) say that it is important to provide feedback, otherwise a student does not know how far he/she is in the development of either skills or knowledge and does not know what to work on next.
QUANTITY (REPETITION)
31 and problem solving (especially critical thinking, analysing and decision-making) can be improved by repetition (Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz 2008), by first starting with the more simple situations and then building up to the more complicated to improve one’s skills. A remark here is that alumni mentioned that they would like to be able to even practice more, which would have been beneficial to improve their communication, critical thinking and problem solving and interpersonal skills.
FORCING
The fourth mechanism found is forcing, found in both the courses and the thesis. Forcing contributes to all skill categories except to numeracy. Several sub-mechanisms contribute to the different skill categories. Time pressure helps to improve one’s information management, interpersonal and life-long learning skills by having deadlines for assignments in courses and the thesis. This is underlined by Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz (2008) and Holmes (2014): in time management and planning forcing is a good mechanism according to Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz (2008): it is important to make assignments that are bigger and call for making medium- and long-term tasks, as this will ask students to make a good planning and division of the big task. According to Holmes (2014) necessity helps to learn to prioritise, which can be the case when someone has multiple responsibilities, for example assignments or extracurricular activities. I did not found forcing in extracurricular activities.
Limitation contributes to communication by having limits for assignments: contact limits or page limits. Also being forced to working individually, at least in the thesis, but also for different assignments in courses, contributes to communication, critical thinking and problems solving and information management. This is a contribution to the finding of Villa Sánchez & Poblete Ruiz (2008), who mentions that for example for decision making one needs to keep practicing and needs to be forced by lecturers to keep making decisions. This improves in their critical thinking and problem solving skills.
VERBAL CONTACT
The fifth mechanism is verbal contact. I found that verbal contact can contribute to communication and interpersonal skills by having presentations in courses. Most of the alumni agreed that this was helping indeed, but a few found that not enough presentations were asked for and this did not contributed enough to their communication skills. One alumnus also mentioned that by doing extracurricular activities he gained extra communication skills via verbal contact (presenting).
PROGRAM USE
32 (2008). The alumni agree that it helped them a lot in improving their information management skills, but some would prefer to have even more program use to improve their skills.
REAL LIFE CASES
The seventh and last mechanism is real life cases. I only found this in the courses, not in the thesis. So although in theses real problems in real companies can be used, to alumni it did not feel like practicing for the real world. Real life cases can contribute to communication, numeracy, critical thinking and problem solving and interpersonal skills. In real life situations, alumni can practice their skills and see what can happen in the real world. These findings are in line with Hoidn & Olbert-Bock (2016) and Fish (2007), who also say that real life cases can contribute to the ‘transferable’ skills of students and gives students the opportunity to practice for real life. According to two alumni some evaluation/feedback and practice on the real life cases missed, which caused that the real life cases contributed less to their interpersonal skills.
33
6. C
ONCLUSIONUniversities offer students a learning experience, a programme with courses, thesis and extracurricular activities. To prepare students for business life, becoming employable should be an important part of the learning experience at the university. The courses, thesis and extracurricular activities not only contribute to technical skills and subject specific knowledge, but also to the personal skills like communication, numeracy, critical thinking & problem solving, information management, interpersonal and life-long learning. The aim of this research was to find out how the learning
experience at a university can contribute to the employability of students.
After the theoretical context was established and the methodology was defined, a series of interviews with alumni was done to collect data. These interviews were held to identify mechanisms that show how a learning experience can contribute to employability by more and better training personal skills as described above. Seven different groups of mechanisms have been identified: cooperation, evaluation, quantity (repetition), forcing, verbal contact, program use and real-life cases. In Table 6 it can be seen which mechanism can contribute for which personal skill category.
Table 6: mechanisms identified in skill categories
Co o p erati o n Ev alu at io n Qua n tity (repetit io n ) Fo rcin g Verb al co n tact P ro gra m us e Real life c ase s Communication ++ +/- ++/- +/- ++/- + Numeracy +
Critical thinking &
problem solving ++ +/- + ++ +
Information
management + + + + ++/-
Interpersonal ++ - - +/- + +/- +/-
Life-long learning + - ++
The findings more or less all align with the found literature. This makes the results of this research more reliable. This fact also gives more trust in the recommendations of the alumni how to improve the learning experience at the university to get a better employability.
34 and life-long learning. Cooperation can be stimulated in courses by creating situations that that require
students to interact with each other to be able to finish the task.
Evaluation can contribute to communication, critical thinking and problem solving, information
management, interpersonal and life-long learning. Evaluation can be stimulated by feedback from
teachers during courses. Discussions with peers is also a possibility.
Quantity (repetition) often can help in improving communication, critical thinking and problem
solving, information management and interpersonal skills. Quantity can be stimulated by more
repetition e.g. starting with simple situations and building up.
Forcing contributes to all skill categories except to numeracy. Time-pressure for assignments in courses and thesis helps student to improve on time-management, planning, prioritise and decision making.
Verbal contact can contribute to communication and interpersonal skills. Asking the students to make more presentations in the courses increases the communication skills.
Program use in courses improve critical thinking and problem solving skills and information
management skills. Lecturing more, and more intensive, programs improve the above skills.
Real life cases can contribute to communication, numeracy, critical thinking and problem solving
and interpersonal skills. More real life cases during the courses, including the absolute needed
evaluation/feedback increase a lot of the personal skills.
In general it can be said that the courses and thesis are contributing greatly to the employability skills according to the alumni. However, the extracurricular activities (that can be linked directly to (parts of) the study programme and/or the university) are not often mentioned and therefore not much contribution to skills have been identified.
This research is among the first to research how a holistic learning experience can contribute to the employability of students. So by taking a holistic learning experience, I was able to identify mechanisms and give valuable new insights in how employability can be learned.
6.1 M
ANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONSThe result of this research indicates that changing the courses a little bit by introducing some more of the above aspects into the courses can improve the personal skills that will give students a better employability after graduation. Some suggestions that were given by alumni to implement in courses to improve the education on personal skills are:
- Realise more presentations and discussions into the courses that student now already follow; - Give students more projects to exercise working together in groups;
35 automatically bring students almost all circumstances to practise all mechanisms that will increase almost all of their personal skills.
6.2 L
IMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCHAlthough I did my best to ensure the validity and reliability of this research, some limitations for this study can be found. The first is that during the interviews alumni were given a list with personal skills to help them in thinking about more than what they already thought of themselves. However, since a list have always a particular order, it is possible that alumni are biased by the order of this list. In analysing I only found that people tend to say less about life-long learning skills, which was at the bottom of the list. So I do not think that the bias was that big. The second limitation is that people tend to remember what stood out for or was special to them. This can give a bias as well. The third limitation is that there are a lot of skills and due to time limits it can be that little to nothing has been said about certain skills.
