Skill Gap from Employers’ Evaluation: The Case of Graduates from Vietnam National University, Hanoi
Main Article Content
Abstract
With globalization, the university-work transition has become increasingly challenging for graduates and employers. In the new context, the mission of university has shifted, and knowledge is no longer considered as singular [1]. The traditional role of universities in producing knowledge has changed to give more focus on the demands of society. The “codified knowledge” acquired from didactic teaching in universities can be at odds with the often “informal and tacit” knowledge required in the workplace. The development of information technology makes the nature of work changing very fast; graduates need to achieve attributes that help them not only do the work corresponding with their disciplines, but be able to learn new skills and new knowledge. This paper presents the primary results of a questionnaire survey among 25 employers of VNU School of Law’s graduates to explore employers’ evaluation of the employability of graduates from Vietnam National University Hanoi. Applying theories of graduate attributes [2], employability [3] and graduate transferable skills [4], [5], the survey explores the gap between university study and the requirements at the work market of graduates. This paper argues that there is considerable distance between university knowledge and skills and the nature of the work. Graduates lack transferable skills, those that allow them to acquire the necessary skills, to satisfy the requirements of the morden workplace, to transfer abstract cognitive skills. These skills are needed before the graduates enter the work market as the employers expect them to practice these skills competently at work. Although these skills can be generated through work, the employers do emphasise their importance for univesrity graduates. Therefore the university teaching and learning process should be reviewed and revised (if necessary) to develop these transferable skills during the time at the university.
References
[2] Barrie, S. (2006). Understanding What We Mean by the Generic Attributes of Graduates. Higher Education, 51(2), 215-241.
[3] Knight, P. T., & Yorke, M. (2002). Employability through the curriculum. Tertiary Education & Management, 8(4), 261-276.
[4] Bennett, R. (2002). Employers' Demands for Personal Transferable Skills in Graduates: a content analysis of 1000 job advertisements and an associated empirical study, Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 54:4, 457-476, DOI: 10.1080/13636820200200209
[5] Harvey, L. (2005). Embedding and integrating employability. New Directions for Institutional Research. (128), 13-26. doi:10.1002/ir.160
[6] Sen, A. (2002). How to judge globalism. The American Prospect Online. Online resource. http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/1/sen-a.html. Accessed on 30 March 2013.
[7] Giddens, A. (1990). The consequences of modernity. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
[8] Marginson, S., & van der Wende, M. (2009). The new global landscape of nations and institutions. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Higher education to 2030, 2(Globalization), 17-62.
[9] Altbach, P. G. (2010). The realities of mass higher education in a globalized world. In D. B. Johnstone, M. d'Ambrosio & P. J. Yakoboski (Eds.), Higher education in a global society (pp. 25-41). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
[10] Marginson, S. (2008). Global field and global imagining: Bourdieu and worldwide higher education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29(3), 303 - 315.
[11] Douglass, J., Thomson, G., & Zhao, C.-M. (2012). The learning outcomes race: the value of self-reported gains in large research universities. Higher Education, 64(3), 317-335.
[12] Eraut, M. (2004). Transfer of knowledge between education and workplace settings. In H. Rainbird, A. Fuller & A. Munro (Eds.), Workplace learning in context (pp. 201-221). London ; New York: Routledge.
[13] Hernández-March, J., Martín del Peso, M., & Leguey, S. (2009). Graduates’ Skills and Higher Education: The employers’ perspective. Tertiary Education and Management, 15(1), 1-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13583880802699978
[14] Harvey, L., Moon, S., Geall, V., & Bower, R. (1997). Graduates' Work: Organisational Change and Students' Attributes. Centre for Research into Quality, 90 Aldridge Road, Perry Barr, Birmingham B42 2TP, England, United Kingdom (5 British pounds).
[15] Holden, R., & Jameson, S. (2002). Employing graduates in SMEs: towards a research agenda. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 9(3), 271-284.
[16] Fallows, S., & Steven, C. (2013). Integrating key skills in higher education: Employability, transferable skills and learning for life. Routledge.
[17] Haigh, M. J., & Kilmartin, M. P. (1999). Student perceptions of the development of personal transferable skills. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 23(2), 195-206. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/214735353?accountid=39811
[18] Lowden, K., Hall, S., Elliot, D., & Lewin, J. (2011). Employers’ perceptions of the employability skills of new graduates. London: Edge Foundation.
[19] Suleman, F. (2016). Employability skills of higher education graduates: Little consensus on a much-discussed subject. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 228, 169-174. Paper presented in the Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Higher Education Advances, HEAd´16, 21-23 June 2016, València, Spain.
[20] Little, B. (2006). Employability and work-based learning. York: Higher Education Academy, 2006.
[21] Stephenson, J. (2013). “The Concept of Capability and Its Importance in Higher Education,” in Capability and quality in higher educationJ. Stephenson and M. Yorke, Eds. Routledge, pp. 1-13.
[22] Yorke, M., & Harvey, L. (2005). Graduate Attributes and Their Development. In R. A. Voorhees & L. Harvey (Eds.), Workforce development and higher education: a strategic role for institutional research (pp. 41-58). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
[23] Maclean, R., & Ordonez, V. (2007). Work, skills development for employability and education for sustainable development. Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 6(2), 123-140.
[24] De Weert, E. (2007). Graduate Employment in Europe: The Employers' Perspective. In U. Teichler (Ed.), Careers of University Graduates (Vol. 17, pp. 225-246): Springer Netherlands.
[25] Tran Quang Trung, & Swierczek, F. W. (2009). Skills development in higher education in Vietnam. Asia Pacific Business Review, 15(4), 565-586.
[26] Nguyen Thi Thanh Hong. (2008). “Factors influencing the self-study quality for education theory subject of the students at Universities of Education”. Vietnamese Education Review, vol. 182, no.2, pp. 22-24.
[27] World Bank. (2008). Vietnam - Higher education and skills for growth. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2008.
[28] Mai Thi Quynh Lan (2017). The ‘person-in-between’ role of young graduates at INGOs in Vietnam. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 8(1), 137-151. http://dx.doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2017vol8no1art626
[29] World Bank. (2013). Vietnam development report: preparing the work force for a modern market economy: Main report. Washington DC; World Bank, vol. 2.