Research Topic: Are business student work-ready?
Jackson, Denise. 2014. “Testing a model of undergraduate competence in employability skills and its implications for stakeholders.” Journal of Education and Work 27 (2): 220-242. DOI: 10.1080/13639080.2012.718750
The paper examines the ways in which the stakeholders can contribute towards the expertise of the undergraduates related to these skills and provides a model of business undergraduate competence pertaining to the employability skills. For conducting the research, the author used quantitative method for the collection of data by conducting an online survey on the 1008 business undergraduate students, who were accomplishing their core employability skills program from an Australian University (Jackson 2014). The researcher used a sample of 1232 business and law undergraduate students who were enrolled in a core employability skills program in an Australian University. The main findings of the research was the vital factors that influences the employability skills competence of the undergraduates and the joint responsibility, which the educators and the stakeholders possess in order to develop the employability skills of the undergraduates. The strength of the paper was that the sample size that was taken for the research was large and the proposed model of the research made use of the large number of parameters that provided significant amount of accuracy. The weakness of the paper was that the study made use of the self-assessed ratings of the students in order to measure the dependent variables of competence related to employability skills. The researchers concluded that the employability skills is just one of the key factors related to graduate employability , there are other factors like the mobility of jobs , market conditions of labour , learning transfer and disciplinary knowledge(Jackson 2014).
Wilton, Nick. 2011. Do employability skills really matter in the UK graduate labour market? the case of business and management graduates. Work, Employment & Society 25 (1): 85- 100. DOI:10.1177/0950017010389244
The paper examines the two rationales provide by the UK policymakers pertaining to the expansion of the higher education. One of the rationale aims to help the high-skill labour requirements of a knowledge economy and the other rationale aims to increase the employment and educational opportunities for the underrepresented groups. The research adopted a quantitative survey method by making use of questionnaires to the students who completed their under graduation in the year 1999 from the UK higher education institutions. Samples of 8571 undergraduate students were used, out of which 1060 students were from Business and Management (Wilton 2011). The research findings indicate that for the Business and Management graduates, the relationship between employability and employment is inconsistent and identifies the disadvantages related to the traditional labour market which acts as an obstacle for the achievement even if the undergraduate students develop their employability skills during their undergraduate studies . The strength of the paper is that the sample size taken for the research was large and wide range of factors were used in order to evaluate the employability skills. The weakness of the paper was that, for the research there were low response rate from certain minority ethnic group data, which hindered detailed analysis of the data. The researcher shed light to the fact that the contribution of the Business and Management degrees shows inconsistency with the development of skills (Wilton 2011). The research helps to conclude the fact that the relationship between employability and employment is not straightforward.
Answer:
Tymon, Alex. “The student perspective on employability.” Studies in higher education 38, no. 6 (2013): 841-856. DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2011.604408
The paper studies the views of the undergraduate students in order to evaluate whether the undergraduate graduate students are engaged with employability skills development. The researcher used the quantitative method of data collection. The researcher conducted a survey using questionnaires to the undergraduates students of UK universities, who were completing their majors in human resource, business studies or business administration and marketing. Samples of 400 undergraduate students were engaged for the research from various universities of UK (Tymon 2013). The sample consisted of 400 undergraduate students from various universities of UK. The research findings indicated that the first year students were hesitant about their contribution, the second year students were confident to express themselves. The final year students were showed great confidence to express their views. The weakness of the paper was that the sample size of the final year student taken for the research was very low. The strength of the paper was that the sample size for the first and second year student was large that provided useful contribution. The author identified that there is only limited alignment between the views of the students and the stakeholder groups (Tymon 2013). There were observed lack of engagement associated with the employability-related development, which resulted in the difference between the first, second and final year students. The paper suggests that the higher education institutions should make improvements by increasing the awareness related to employability.
Jackson, Denise. “Business graduate employability–where are we going wrong?.” Higher Education Research & Development 32, no. 5 (2013): 776-790.
The article examines the proposed model of graduate employability that includes the process of developing and transfer of non-technical skills, which are fundamental to graduate employability. The research adopted a method of qualitative analysis for gathering information and data related to the topic (Jackson 2013). For conducting the research, the author utilized the secondary sources of data that were related to the research topic. The researcher for the research used no sample for collection of data, the author made use of the secondary sources of data .The research findings analyzes the extent to which transfer occurs and it also highlights the strategies for the graduates and universities in order to protect environment of workplace that would facilitate transfer and help to make graduates work-ready . The strength of the paper was that the paper was very informative and used graphical interpretations in order to clearly depict the proposed model related to graduate employability incorporating transfer. The weakness of the paper was that the paper demanded more detailed discussion related to the research topic while proposing the model. The paper emphasizes the fact that the less attention has been paid to the measurement of the non-technical skills outcomes and to the transfer of the acquired skills to the workplace. The research contributed a model of graduate employability that would help to understand the factors influencing the transfers and its implications of the graduate workplace performance (Jackson 2013).
Spowart, Jane. “Hospitality students’ competencies: Are they work ready?.” Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism 10, no. 2 (2011): 169-181. DOI: 10.1080/15332845.2011.536940
The aim of the research was to identify the competencies or the soft skills for the hospitality management final year undergraduate students from the school of Tourism and Hospitality , university of Johannesburg. The research adopted a quantitative survey method where the respondents were asked to rate in four –point Linkert scale. The research also made use of the questionnaires that were provided to the respondents. 65 final year graduate Hospitality Management students at the University of Johannesburg took part in the research (Spowart 2011). The sample size for the research was small as only 65 final year graduate students took part in the research. Self confidence , achievement orientation ,ability and the willingness to learn , organization awareness , personal planning and the organizational skills wee the competencies that were identified before and after the training (Spowart 2011) . The strength of the paper was that the large number of factors were parameters were used in the ,model in order to provide significant degree of precision to the research . However, the weakness of the paper was that the size of the sample taken for the research was very small that would affect the result of the research. The research highlights that the both the management skills and the employability skills should be integrated in to the undergraduate curriculum which would enable the graduates to posses the skills required for them to operate professionally within the workplace (Spowart 2011). The paper also highlights the importance of the competencies that are needed in the workplace so that the students are flexible as well as self-confident.
References
Jackson, Denise. “Business graduate employability–where are we going wrong?.” Higher Education Research & Development 32, no. 5 (2013): 776-790.
Jackson, Denise. 2014. “Testing a model of undergraduate competence in employability skills and its implications for stakeholders.” Journal of Education and Work 27 (2): 220-242. DOI: 10.1080/13639080.2012.718750
Spowart, Jane. “Hospitality students’ competencies: Are they work ready?.” Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism 10, no. 2 (2011): 169-181. DOI: 10.1080/15332845.2011.536940
Tymon, Alex. “The student perspective on employability.” Studies in higher education 38, no. 6 (2013): 841-856. DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2011.604408
Wilton, Nick. 2011. Do employability skills really matter in the UK graduate labour market? the case of business and management graduates. Work, Employment & Society 25 (1): 85- 100. DOI:10.1177/0950017010389244