Employability

For some time employers have identified that one of the most sought after graduate attributes is the ability to function as an effective member of a team. In the creative and performing arts disciplines, which are often individually oriented in nature, the development and implementation of curricula that enable students to attain high-level teamwork skills suitable for participation in multi-disciplinary collaboration is not only necessary but it can be challenging for both educators and students. Indeed the ability to evidence where and how students develop teamwork or collaborative skills will become increasingly critical, as a result of the impending standards framework that is soon to be implemented by the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA). This paper overviews the ways in which Creative Exchange, a multi-disciplinary teaching and learning capstone subject offered by the School of Creative Arts at James Cook University since 2009, provides direct evidence of the ways in which students develop strong teamwork skills and attributes. In addition to teamwork skills, students also continue to develop discipline-specific knowledge as well as insights into industry and community settings, given the work-integrated learning orientation of the projects themselves. Data obtained from creative and performing arts students and alumni who previously participated in Creative Exchange are analysed, in order to report on the extent to which they had achieved appropriate standards required for industry. In addition, ongoing benchmarking of the Creative Exchange model via consultations with national and international industry practitioners is presented to further contextualise the findings. The paper concludes by discussing future applications of the framework as well as a range of additional research directions and opportunities.

El propósito de nuestro artículo es analizar la manera en que operan las lógicas político-institucionales vinculadas a la gestión y producción del empleo juvenil, partiendo del supuesto que dichas intervenciones gubernamentales se estructuran a partir de la noción de empleabilidad, en tanto configuración de la cultura del trabajo. Para esto, abordamos el caso del Programa Jóvenes con Más y Mejor Trabajo (PJMyMT), implementado por el Ministerio de Trabajo, Empleo y Seguridad Social de la Nación (MTEySS), en Córdoba, Argentina. Para el cumplimento de nuestros objetivos, utilizamos una técnica cualitativa de recolección de datos a partir de entrevistas realizadas tanto a integrantes del equipo técnico del PJMyMT como a funcionarios del MTEySS, a lo largo de los años 2011 y 2012. Allí indagamos sobre las concepciones de éstos en torno al diagnóstico del desempleo juvenil, el lugar del Estado en su abordaje y el particular tipo de intervención que se propone desde la noción de empleabili...

This book describes and analyzes critical aspects of the labor market and social protection in the Arab world. The authors address the interrelationship between labor, human development, and social well-being in the Middle East and North Africa region -- an interaction that is viewed against the backdrop of a globalization process that is a crucial shaping factor in national and international relations alike. The authors scrutinize the implications for workers of the new forms of insecurity being ushered in by the globalization era. At the forefront is the issue of social protection, which creates several dilemmas for policymakers, since formal social security covers only a small percentage of the labor force. The idea of social reinsurance, which would integrate the informal sector and allow for social dialog, emerges at various levels, and there is general agreement that any such dialog, or new social contract, must include government, the private sector, and civil society.

A Workshop for Higher Degree Research Students at Griffith University
Produced & Delivered by Dr Robert Carr,
Griffith University
19th October 2017
Tweet: @robcarr09
E-mail: R.Carr@griffith.edu.au

WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES:
To understand ‘employability’ - beyond skills and qualifications
2. Strategically map out ‘your’ learning + personal objectives
3. Develop appreciation of periodically reviewing your objectives
4. Develop appreciation of a collegial approach to supporting each other as peers

BENEFITS & OUTCOMES OF WORKSHOP:
1. Take home a fresh list of objectives
2. Overcome ‘silo’ thinking - think outside the circle
3. Tools for your own undergraduate students to use
4. Assurance the workshop is grounded in research and practical experience

The nature and extent of the demand for research capable workers, is a topic of intense concern locally and internationally. With around 60% of graduates in Australia finding employment outside of academia on graduation, PhD programs are under increasing pressure to be relevant to the contemporary workplace beyond the walls of the academy. However, as yet there is very little research on exactly what industry needs are as often the discussion with industry results in recommendations based on anecdote rather than data. This study aims to fill this gap by analysing a large data set of job ads to see what employers outside academia really want from graduates.

Placements are integral to many university courses and to increasing student employability skills. Nevertheless, several complications, such as the assessment of placement experiences which often go against the principles of procedural justice, may limit placement effectiveness. For example, procedures are not applied uniformly across students; and evaluations of intangible qualities are susceptible to biases. As a result, effort and learning can be compromised. This paper advocates the use of developmental assessment centers to help solve these shortcomings. Developmental assessment centers are often used in organizations to evaluate capabilities of individuals and to facilitate development. Participants complete a series of work related and standardized tasks. Multiple raters then utilize a systematic approach to evaluate participants on a range of competencies, and consequently present constructive feedback to facilitate learning. Therefore, developmental assessment center princi...

This paper examines the importance of informal methods (especially social networking) to the job search strategies used by unemployed people. It compares three areas: a small rural town; a larger, more sparsely populated, remote rural area; and a centrally-located, peri-urban labour market. The analysis is based first on survey research undertaken with 490 job seekers across the study areas. Emerging issues were then followed up during a series of twelve focus groups. The survey research showed that job seekers in the rural study areas were significantly more likely to use social networks to look for work. However, those who had experienced repeated or long-term periods out of work, the unskilled and young people were significantly less likely to use such networks. Focus groups confirmed the perceived importance of social networking to the job search process in rural areas, in contrast to the more marginal role such methods appear to play in peri-urban settings. For many rural job seekers, formal job search activities conducted through Jobcentres were seen as largely symbolic, lacking the practical value of social networking. These results suggest that service providers seeking to assist unemployed people in rural areas need to address the problems faced by many disadvantaged job seekers who are currently caught between their lack of social network relations and the absence of local public employment service facilities in more remote communities.

As a new form of volunteering, Service civique is expanding among young people under 26 years old. With a mixed approach, this Master’s thesis proposes to question the construction of the employability of volunteers through this scheme and its valuable effects on the labour market. In a tense context for young people, Service civique is a new avatar of the professionalization injunction at their destination and constitutes a recent and intermediate space for professionalization.

Are mobile students expecting an international experience to have an impact on their career? This was one of the questions in a global survey, with over 150,000 respondents. The survey results showed that the transition from education to the world of work is of increasing importance for students. How to find a job upon graduation is apparently a big concern for current-day students, which dictates their international educational choices to a large extent. Moreover, are there differences between Europe and the rest of the world when it comes to student’s expectations of employability? This study found that opportunities for work upon graduation and earning money when studying matter more for non-European students.

This thesis examines the discourse of careers services in UK university websites. The notion of employability has been presented and promoted by powerful groups, such as governments, organisations, the media, employers, and higher education institutions, as the remedy to the social problem of unemployment. Careers services in UK universities were given the role of ‘expert’ professionals who are there to support and guide students towards developing their employability and skills. This study examined the ideas and messages reproduced and promoted by the careers services, which could affect the students’ understanding of the ‘job market’ and their role in it. The chosen methodology, that is corpus-based critical discourse analysis, combined qualitative and quantitative methods and tools for the analysis of 2.6 million words deriving from 58 UK universities’ websites, and more specifically the careers services sections. In general, this thesis highlights some of the problematic, common...

Many smart manufacturing / production engineers fail to get good jobs because  they don't succeed in interviews.
Why?
They never respond meaningfully and convincingly on the spot.
Why?
Two reasons: First, their preparation involves only 'technical topics'. Second, they are not aware of their own talking style and likeability.
This brochure is about world's first Mechanical Engineering Interview Simulator & Trainer. It provides infinite number of mock interviews with recording and training features.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive employability framework for management education. This study is a qualitative study and practical model used in a management institute. The gaps in management education in India are discussed, and after extensive literature review and a qualitative survey of B-schools, the employability framework is developed. The framework needs to be validated using empirical research with a large sample size and different B-schools. Also, this study has a valuable contribution to the management education in India and it provides the guidelines for policy makers, management governing bodies and assessment bodies in India to improve the employability in India. Moreover, this study makes the contribution to the society by providing employability framework for management education. This paper contributes to the extant literature of employability of management graduates and also provides the highlight on innovative teaching and training pedagogy for management institutes for holistic development of management graduates.

Tracing graduates has become an imperative for higher education institutions much more during the pandemic. This tracer determined the employment and employability status of the 2019 BSE graduates and identified the competencies they adequately acquired and deemed vital for work. It used descriptive design, and data were collected from the 103 graduates through a Google form with open and closed-ended questions administered between November and December 2020. Results revealed that most of the graduates had been employed in teaching and teaching-related jobs but mostly in contractual arrangements within the first and second six months after graduation. Many had their first jobs with meager salaries from the private sector. Communication, pedagogy, information communication technology, time management, and flexibility were the top competencies they adequately acquired and were beneficial in work. The study concluded that these graduates had acquired 21st-century skills in their respec...

本研究透過決策樹中的分類與迴歸樹（CART）分析方法，探討大專校院畢業生過度教育情形及其相關因素，並發現影響該群體易產生過度教育的因素。本研究以台灣高等教育資料庫為資料來源，有效樣本數為4982 人。研究結果發現：1.研究的模型預測正確率為68.9%，整體樣本過度教育比例為49%。在CART 模型中，公立大學又主修優勢科系的畢業生約有90%比例不會產生過度教育；公立技職和私立大學主修優勢科系，又具備有良好人際溝通就業力的畢業生約有69%比例不會產生過度教育；私立技職畢業生主修非優勢科系的畢業生約有76%比例會產生過度教育。2. 最優先能夠區分過度教育與否的變項為「學校類別」與「主修科系」，其他因素包括就業力中的「人際溝通能力」與「英文能力」；「文憑」對找工作的幫忙；工作價值觀中的「對社會貢獻與影響」。以上是本研究初探的重要發現，這些研究結果可以提供未來研究進一步驗證。

Pakistani IT industry is nascent and is less than 25 years old with most growth occurring at Dotcom boom in the 90's. Initially the industry was small and offering lucrative packages to the workforce due to which a lot universities and colleges were forced to offer IT programs for the students. By the year 1999 and 2000 there was ample supply for quality IT graduates in the industry and the IT industry showed remarkable growth and potential. After 2001 due to the back to back incident of 9/11 and Afghan war, the IT industry of Pakistan was badly shaken being heavily dependent on the IT exports to USA, the industry collapsed and majority of the IT companies winded up their operations in Pakistan and all the foreign investment were called off.  The banking and telecom sector came up as the most growing sectors in the country during last five years due to heavy foreign investment. These two sectors took away most of the human resources and as a result the fresh graduates were swapped from the market at a very high cost. These conditions lead to lack of enrolment in the IT programs in the universities and colleges leading to a severe decline in the enrolment in IT programs. This study analyses the reasons for the changing situation and investigates the extent to which the fresh graduates’ preferences are changing and what are the reasons behind them.
Done as an Independent Study, the first author of this research is MS student, Afiffa Naeem.

In the past generations, there has been an evident increase of people getting inked or having a tattoo in different ages. Tattoos in young adults, these days, are representative of different meanings in their life. The study investigated the relationship of perception of tattoos and employability amongst young adults. The study conducted a survey to 70 students who are currently studying in various universities in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The study found out that there is a undeniable stigma attached to the tattooed young adults. It is found out that tattoos can have a bias in the hiring process, can easily get judged, and colleague won't be comfortable working with them. Conversely, tattooed and non-tattooed young adults perceived that having tattoos cannot limit a person's employability and not a hindrance on job promotion. The study will benefit students, young professionals, and HR practitioners to be more open minded and adapt to changes in the workplace.

Employability is one of the important performance measures of higher education institutions and tracking of graduates provides substantial input to the student development program of the institution. This study aimed to determine the present employment status, competencies learned in college and work-related values of the respondents that contributed to their job placement and to determine the employer's feedback on the job performance of the graduates based on the leadership brand. Descriptive type of research method was utilized to analyze the result of the study. Findings show that the average employment rating of BS Computer Engineering graduates from 2013 to 2015 is 84.6 percent. Skills in information technology, problem solving and communication are considered most useful competencies they learned in college. Perseverance, love for God and hard work are the work-related values they considered with very high contribution to their job placement.

Artificial intelligence has been an eye-popping word that is impacting every industry in the world. With the rise of such advanced technology, there will be always a question regarding its impact on our social life, environment and economy thus impacting all efforts exerted towards continuous development. From the definition, the welfare of human beings is the core of continuous development. Continuous development is useful only when ordinary people’s lives are improved whether in health, education, employment, environment, equality or justice. Securing decent jobs is a key enabler to promote the components of continuous development, economic growth, social welfare and environmental sustainability. The human resources are the precious resource for nations. The high unemployment and underemployment rates especially in youth is a great threat affecting the continuous economic development of many countries and is influenced by investment in education, and quality of living.

This book provides a unique insight into negotiations around language investment for employability in the context of public employment services. Drawing on extensive ethnographical research carried out in Regional Employment Offices in Switzerland, the authors follow the stories of various job seekers. In doing so, they challenge the currently dominant assumption that investment in language competences leads to better employability. Arguing for a political economic perspective on these issues, this book will be of interest to anyone concerned with the connections between language and social inequality, as well as students and scholars of sociolinguistics and applied linguistics.

This article documents how job readiness programs-as anchors of the devolved organizational landscape of neoliberal poverty governance in the United States-endeavor to instill within the poor not simply the virtue of work, but the virtue of thrift, and thus orient them to "both sides of the paycheck." Using a comparative ethnographic study of two community-based, government-funded nonprofit job readiness programs, we show that this pedagogic focus on budgeting is central to the overall goal of conditioning clients to embrace and endure a degraded labor market. Recognizing that most participants will remain poor with or without low-wage employment, these programs suggest that it is as crafty consumers that participants may retake control of their lives. Despite the programs' differing target populations and racialized and gendered logics, both attempt to accommodate participants to the dictates of the neoliberal economic order: jobs are hard to find and, even if you get one, wages will not be enough.

The report outlines the missing links between the skills of graduates passing out of Pakistani universities, and their suitability for employment by the corporate Pakistan.

We have highlighted the issues raised by 212 corporate respondents who were canvassed, encompassing business owners, C-Level executives and HR leaders from a range of businesses, SMEs to Large National Corporations, and MNCs.

The findings clearly illustrate that the current skills development roadmap needs urgent enhancing: that a multi stakeholder engagement model covering policy makers, faculty, parents, learners, universities, school authorities, and corporate recruiters is best suited to resolve the challenges outlined.

Analizando los resultados parecen indicar que nuestr@s alumn@s identifican tres problemas fundamentales dentro de la búsqueda activa de empleo:
1) La desmotivación que se produce al estar un largo periodo de tiempo desempleado.
2) La pérdida de objetivos a corto y medio plazo para avanzar en su proceso de reintegración a la vida laboral.
3) La falta de retroalimentación, acceso a información, formación y asesoramiento, así como la sensación de  desgaste que se produce en dichas situaciones.
Para solventar estos problemas se propusieron principalmente tres tipos de soluciones vinculadas a la gamificación:
1) La creación de estructuras de refuerzos para aumentar la implicación del desempleado en sus actividades de búsqueda activa de empleo.
2) El desarrollo de redes sociales de ayuda para compartir información, recursos, actividades, etc., entre los desempleados, el SEPE y los exdesempleados, con especial atención a estos últimos en su figura de tutorización y guía.
3) El fomento de la participación activa de las empresas, el estímulo de una comunicación fluida y la visibilización de los elementos que llevan al éxito en las entrevistas.

Uitdagende werkafspraken, over bijvoorbeeld ontwikkeltaken of opleidingen, spelen een rol bij de loopbaanontwikkeling van medewerkers. Wanneer een leidinggevende en medewerkers uitdagende werkafspraken met elkaar maken, kunnen medewerkers laten zien dat zij meer in hun mars hebben. Dit kan het oordeel van de leidinggevende over doorgroeipotentieel positief beïnvloeden. In dit artikel presenteren we bevindingen van een studie naar de gevolgen van uitdagende werkafspraken voor het doorgroeipotentieel van medewerkers, zoals beoordeeld door leidinggevenden. We onderzochten in hoeverre uitdagende werkafspraken afhankelijk zijn van prestatie- en potentieelbeoordelingen door leidinggevenden en van het prestatietemperament van medewerkers. Ook onderzochten we of er mogelijk sprake is van een Mattheüseffect, waarbij medewerkers met een positieve potentieelbeoordeling in gesprek met hun leidinggevende meer uitdagende werkafspraken maken die maken dat hun leidinggevende hen in de toekomst een nog positievere potentieelbeoordeling geeft; i.e. ‘de rijken worden steeds rijker, en de armen armer’. Uit de resultaten blijkt dat een positieve potentieelbeoordeling door leidinggevenden de kans op uitdagende werkafspraken verhoogt, en dat vermijdingstemperament van de medewerker die kans verkleint. De uitdagende werkafspraken die medewerkers maken, hebben - na controle voor leeftijd, duur van de werkrelatie met de leidinggevende, eerdere prestatie- en potentieelbeoordeling en prestatietemperament - een directe relatie met hun toekomstige potentieelbeoordeling.

The socio-economic situation of people with disabilities is problematic both worldwide and specifically in Morocco.
On the one hand, families are subject to numerous constraints due to socio-economic and socio-demographic changes. The number of people who can take care of a disabled family member is reduced. On the other hand, services for people with disabilities are not yet able to meet the needs of those concerned for successful inclusion in society. Employability remains a major challenge for people with disabilities in Morocco.
Therefore, our work first aims to address issues related to the situation of professional integration of people with disabilities in terms of public policies in Morocco. In a second step, we will study how these people manage or not to look for and access a job. The third part will analyze the forms of discrimination suffered by people with disabilities in relation to working conditions and professional promotion. This examination will be based on the presentation of informal work situations of people with disabilities who manage to maintain a precarious but efficient economic activity by means of anchoring activities in open spaces such as the street or the neighborhood. This will allow us to study the social representations related to disability in relation to the expectations and the own perception of the people concerned with regard to the issue of employment.

Employers often claim that graduates are not ready for the world of work as they lack employability skills (Archer & Davison, 2008). One policy response to this claim has been to encourage students to undertake a work placement to enhance success in the competitive job market (The Dearing Report, 1997). The present research investigated whether psychology students, who were enrolled on an undergraduate degree programme that included a one-year work placement, understood the advantages and disadvantages of work placements and how they perceived its impact on employability. We present questionnaire data from 49 undergraduates at different stages of their degree programme – pre- and post-placement. Generally, students perceived the employability benefits of the work-placement. However, there were differences in how these were articulated by pre- and post-placement students, with post-placement students able to use more concrete terms. This suggests that there is some development throug...

Everton in the Community (EitC) is a charity located in Liverpool in an area rated to be in the bottom 10% on the Index of Mass Deprivation. EitC is run independently of but closely associated with Everton Football Club. They have two programmes within the Employability & Education strand of their work with the aim of working with NEET young people to progress them into employment or further training opportunities.
This report is the product of a Social Return on Investment (SROI) evaluation of the social value of these programmes. The report acknowledges the contested nature of SROI as a methodology and provides qualitative evidence for the results. It reflects on the nuances associated with the social contexts in which NEET young people are living their lives and the benefits that such programmes can provide when associated with the delivery of wider social interventions by an organisation associated with a professional football club.

Randeree, K., Chaudhry, A., Leadership: The Employee Perspective - A Study in Dubai’s Construction Industry, 5th International Business Research (IBR) Conference: “Strands of Development”, 26 - 27 April 2007, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Dubai is a regional leader in infrastructure development. Rapid growth has led to project management gaining tremendous importance in the construction sector. Employees are an important part of any industry and their job satisfaction and organisational commitment affects the turnover rate and productivity of a company (Benkhoff, 1997; Randeree and Chaudhry, pending). Leadership has a strong influence on employees' job satisfaction and organisational commitment (Lok & Crawford, 1999). Thus, it is vital to examine leadership styles in a rapidly growing industry in what is also such a cosmopolitan city. Hence, the research undertaken aims to study leadership styles in construction project management in Dubai. The findings show that employees feel that Consensus and Team Management leadership styles are predominant in the industry and employees have shown preference for working under these leadership styles.