Does the university provide enough employability skills to students? “When I went to my interview they were hardly asking me about my degree. They were asking me about confidence, how I react and leadership skills. That’s what gets you the job!” - Recent graduate in a CBI focus group.
RESULTS
Research4u
Comparisons
'We want to see all universities treating student employability as a core part of their mission. So we believe it is reasonable to expect universities to take responsibility for how their students are prepared for the world of work' - CBI Note
Graduate employers place a lot of importance on finding applicants with the right skills and experiences for their organisations. Depending on the career area and profession you choose to work in, there could be very precise skills, abilities and knowledge needed to do the job. However, accompanying these are general skills and behaviours that are essential for successful working. These are repeatedly overlooked by applicants, but they are the things recruitment professionals want to see evidence of. (Target Jobs) Further research was done on the 7 key employability skills where the respondents of the survey, were asked how confident they were with these skills before they had started university. We then went to see how embedded these skills were in their course routes.
According to a CBI report “Businesses feel very strongly that the education system must better prepare young people for life outside the school gates, or risk wasting their talents” The 7 necessary employability skills below show how strongly the students attending the University of Chichester are adapted to them.
Introduction According to a CBI report, students want universities to explain what employability skills are in order to gain a better understanding of this. A previous survey conducted in 2011 by the Institute of Directors recent graduates were asked to rate the significance of employability skills against specific skills related with their degree. 36% said that employability skills are much more important, 29% said that they were a little more important whilst 23% said that they were the same level of importance. Research4U decided to conduct a survey that looked into whether the University of Chichester provides enough employability skills in supporting students for Employment. The university currently provides different services such as careers fairs, cv help sessions, and a recent implementation of an employability module. To identify how these skills were being implemented into students’ learning, Research4U generated a survey seeking students views on how these skills were imbedded into their course route, and were asked what more the university could do to enhance these skills, In order to make an employable graduate.
From looking at these graphs, we can draw many different conclusions. One conclusion we can draw from this data is how strong the respondent believes they are in terms of Business and Customer Awareness. Business and Customer Awareness has a positive correlation with how embedded they believe Business and Customer awareness is in their course route. This could be due to many reasons such as respondents doing similar courses in their earlier education meaning they are more interested in course routes with Business and Customer Awareness embedded in.
The objective of the research project is to gain an understanding of how well the University of Chichester succeeds in shaping its students to gain transferable employability skills necessary for a working environment. To gain a better understanding of what students opinions are of employability skills embedment within course routes, and if there are any differences of these applications in different course years.
The survey was conducted by using the convenience sampling method. We did this by inviting students from the University of Chichester through the help of social media.
Businesses want the education system to better prepare young people with the attitudes and attributes they need to succeed in a working environment .
The CBI/NUS description of employability means having the following skills and knowledge: self-management, team working, business and customer awareness, problem solving, communication, application of numeracy and application of information technology. Qualities like managing time, working in teams, communicating, analysing, presenting facts and solving problems under pressure should be fundamental to all higher education courses through, for example essays, practical projects, experiments, seminars and taking exams.
When questioned in a CBI survey what universities should prioritise, 82% of employers chose ‘improving students' employability skills’, signifying that this should be a key centre for universities
A degree is not enough to give a graduate the assurance of a satisfying future career.
Studies suggest that students’ lack understanding of the skills employers want.
Students and employers’ value work experience in improving employability and many employers expect candidates to have appropriate work experience.
Too many young people leave education not well-equipped with enough knowledge of their chosen job/career (school leavers 56%, graduates 30%) or relevant work experience (school leavers 55%, graduates 37%). This reflects fears that careers advice is simply not good enough to help young people make informed choices (80%)
Nearly half of employers (44%) have planned training to tackle weaknesses in basic numeracy, literacy and IT for adult employees and more than a quarter (28%) for those who have joined straight from school or college.
52.1% of the respondents were male, whilst 47.9% of the respondents were female.
The results of the survey show an unbiased behaviour between the gender classes which suggests that we can compare our results without needing to worry about bias between genders.
The surveys respondents were students from the 1st (12.5%) , 2nd (52.1%), 3rd years (33.3%), and 4th years (2.1%)
The main focus of the survey was to aim more towards second and third years in order to make comparisons on how these skills have developed through the transition of the two years.
The survey consisted of a few international students (15%) with the majority being domestic students (85%).
The majority of the surveys respondents are following a business related degree.
Due to this being the case, we should expect to see a high percentage of business relevance.
This graph illustrates how engaged the respondents are in employability opportunities at the university. There was also section which allowed for comments The design of this question was inspired by The International Graduate Insight Group Ltd research paper in 2011. Within the paper they asked who is responsible for the employability of your students and graduates, “Academic staff are considered secondary, some way behind careers services and well ahead of the students/graduates themselves.” (The International Graduate Insight Group Ltd, 2011).
Conclusion The subject of employability has become more important in universities in recent years. Surveys like this one are become more frequent as universities and academics are trying to best prepare students for employment. The research from this survey has lead to the conclusion that overall the University of Chichester is at very least meeting its requirements to develop employability skills. In a number of areas the university is doing above average, for example 77% of respondent thought their course had above average business relevance. The total number of respondents for the survey was 50, however the final number of respondents was reduced to 48. 5,635 students were enrolled in the academic year 2013/2014 (Thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk, 2014), of these 85% were undergraduates. The 50 respondents to the survey therefore account for around 1% of the students who were enrolled in this year. Combined with the respondents year of study, the results of this survey may not be representative of the entire population. 2 responses from the survey were removed. The first response which was removed contained no valid data as they had only answered the first question. In the second case the respondent had answered all questions however their answers did not appear to be sincere. When asked about which course the respondent was on, they answered “To the top”. Employability development is best measured after a student has left the university, as the process has been completed. For example in most cases the professional placements will be taken after the second year, therefore it would be expected that their employability will develop further. The best population of respondents to ask would be the graduates of the university, but access to such a population would have been difficult and could have placed the survey with even less respondents. Limitations To Primary Data Size of sample:
Survey Bias:
We received
The majority of the questions were mainly answered by business school students, which is based in the Bognor Regis campus, whilst only 12.5% of the respondents were from the Bishop Otter campus.
Due to the relative small response that we received our data may misinterpret the larger population and the attitudes to employability skills and how confident they feel the university is helping them become more employable graduates. Time:
The above graph shows how well respondents felt the university used the listed incentives.
The intention of the graph was to see, from a students perspective how the well the university’s strategy came across. If the university had a successful employability strategy, the expected results would be each area is in the higher rankings. From the results we can see students think that some incentives are being used better than others. However we see some variance between the graphs, most notably in the employability module. This incentive has 42% of respondents at below 3. When comparing these results with the engagement graph, some interesting and useful conclusions can be drawn. The careers fair had the largest attendance however is not seen as the most well used of the incentives, instead the CV help sessions have the highest rankings. CV help sessions however had a majority of respondents not attending or planning, this suggests students think they are used well but do not want to attend them.
Teamwork in a working environment offers the company and the employees the ability to become more accustomed with each other and learn how to work together. One of the benefits of strong teamwork is that team leaders become capable at apportioning tasks so they are done by the most skilled employee. It also allows the teams to implement systems that allow them to complete tasks efficiently and quickly. (George N. 2015). According to the survey results 57% of the respondents mentioned that they were strong with applying team working skills before starting university, while 81% stated that this skill was embedded onto their course. One respondent stated that this skills was applied by the use of “group projects, and presentations” while another said that there were “lots of assignments that require group work.” This shapes how the university is preparing its students in order to become employable candidates.
This graph illustrates how much respondents felt their employability skills had improved over their time at university. This question was designed to test the university against what students from the CBI/NUS survey 2011, where they asked why students go to university. The results where that 79% went to improve their job opportunities. Based upon the undergraduate population of the survey, the expectation was that respondents would rank around the middle ground. This is most likely because they expect their skills to develop
· Despite this 47% ranked 4 out of a possible 5 suggesting their perceived development in the future is limited.
This graph shows how confident the respondent was in knowing what skills employers want.
This question was adapted from the CBI/NUS survey 2011 where they asked a similar question. Their question was students understanding employer requirements. Their results show that “Most students feel they have at least some idea about the capabilities that will be important for their future employment” (CBI/NUS, 2011)
According to the CBI report most businesses have confirmed that at least 50% of their employees lack the necessary literacy skills needed. According to the results generated from the survey conducted by Research4U, 31% of the respondents are not very confident in these skills, while 47% were not confident enough to agree that this skill was embedded onto their course route. (CBI, 2015)
Observing employer experience over a five year perspective shows no signs of consistent progress from school leavers. This highlights the need to ensure that this remains a key focus throughout the education system. According the CBI 2015 report, it shows that the development of IT skills need to be widely supported, with 89% of businesses still stating that it is at a satisfactory level. Most individuals need some IT skills to find work today. Obtaining basic IT skills and being accustomed with using a computer may open up a varied range of employment opportunities in the workplace. (CBI,2015) However, according to the results, 57% of the respondents were confident in applying the application of Information technology, whilst only 53% mentioned it being embedded onto their modules.
We asked our respondents what communication skills they were most aware of. The “wordle” shows the most shared words that occurred from the students perception of what they felt employability skills are. The larger words express the most frequent skills mentioned by the respondents. The top three words were, communication, teamwork and leadership. However there are words such as knowledge, honesty, and numeracy that have been mentioned by the minority of the respondents.
Not a lot of the respondents were aware of the guest speakers, and a few have emphasised on bringing more in, in order to receive crucial information that can help them as well as offering more workshops that provide the necessary employability support. There also appears to be some confusion of guest speakers, some respondents commented on the convince and consistency. Therefore the university should look at its schedule and perhaps give a greater awareness of the events. Often they are sent by email, which may not be checked very regularly. When a guest speaker event is approaching perhaps the lectures could explain the event during a lecture to give more information directly.
The careers fair was the most attended event, which is likely to be because it’s a compulsory element of the majority of business school courses. Our recommendation would be to try and make more events or guest speakers compulsory with a follow up in the lecture. This makes sure the students are engaging in the opportunities and would also benefit the events themselves as turnout would improve. However this needs careful consideration as some students may be reluctant to attend such events and therefore could disrupt the experiences of others.
In order to implement this the university can enforce stronger societies that will enable students to take part in and acquire accredited skills if it is not already embedded onto their course route.
However the reason behind such a positive result could be that the business school has a good strategy. This is because the vast majority of respondents are taking a business school subject. Elsewhere in the university the results may not be as positive as this.
“Accreditation of schemes makes you stand out” “Creates a better portfolio” “Looks better on a CV”
The results show some large variance between the opportunities. For example the largest attendance was at the careers fair. Looking at the 8 explanations, 2 say it was required as part of a module. This requirement may have contributed to such high engagement numbers, therefore showing it is embedded into the curriculum
Self-management is those skills that let an employee to feel more productive in a working environment. Well-developed self-management skills will help you powerfully communicate with co-workers, management and customers, as well as allowing you to make the right decisions by planning time more resourcefully, and therefore making you a more employable candidate. According to the survey results, 71% of the respondents feel that this is embedded into their course route with one respondent stating “deadline are set for the end, not weakly.” This would suggest that it allows student to plan and coordinate their time which prepares them to gain strong self management skills.
Another recommendation would be to offer more employability workshops. These scored on the lower end of both engagement and use of incentives. During the induction week at the business school a small workshop is part of the compulsory rotation. Offering a progression on this type of workshop would be useful as students in the first year could track progress throughout their time at the university. With tracking progress they are aware of their personal weaknesses and strengths which they can choose to act upon.
Before starting university, 55% of the respondents declared that they were strong in their problem solving skills. However, the rest were unsure. Whilst 26% of the respondents said they were not confident in exercising that this skill is embedded onto their course routes. Problem solving skills are between the top ten skills for recruiters of graduates. They want people who will take the individual responsibility to make sure targets are met. They want people to use the initiative to see that there might be a better way of doing something and those who are prepared to explore and implement change. Ideally, they also like people who don’t panic or give up when things go wrong but instead will seek a way around the problem. One respondent has mentioned “Improving on team work skills” in order to help them apply this skill better whilst another mentioned that “very little help was provided by lecturers” .
The CBI's head of education and skills, James Fothergill says: "Some universities are embedding employability skills throughout their courses. We want to challenge other universities to do more."
Survey Overview
“Better chances of securing a job“ “Looks better to employers” “Wider range of opportunities”
The result of this was very positive with 77% of respondents selecting a 4 or 5 rating. This result indicates that the curriculum of the courses is of good quality and therefore that the university is embedding the aspect of business relevance well.
Looking at these graphs, a conclusions that can be made is that before students started their chosen course route, the majority felt strong in being able to incorporate communication and literacy skills. The second chart is the respondents opinions on how much of these skills the university has embedded throughout the duration of their course. Again, the majority believe that this skill is embedded strongly onto their route. According to the literature, the talent to communicate both verbally and in writing with a wide variety of people, maintaining good eye contact, writing clearly and concisely, and demonstrating a varied vocabulary are all essential skills that employers strive for.
According to the literature..
Such a result could be due to the demographic of this surveys respondents. With so many respondents still at university this suggests their progression is not complete. In some cases the remaining time could focus on giving leadership and management.
When asked in the survey, “A growing number of colleges and universities are operating accreditation schemes to recognise those students who’ve built up their employability skills in a systematic way” Would you want a nationally recognised record of your skills?” Many respondents agreed, with a variation of responses being:
This graph illustrates how business relevant the respondents think their course is.
Research Methodology
The results show 54% scored a 4 or above. Therefore just under half think the university are doing average or below in giving them the skills.
Recommendations
Purpose
This graph shows how well respondents felt the university helped give them leadership and management skills.
Test Statisticsa
8Development Mann-Whitney U
255.000
Wilcoxon W
580.000
Z
-.717
Asymp. Sig. (2-
According to the CBI report, 85% of employers rate attitude amongst the most important factors when recruiting. The CBI report indicates that a lack of interest is seen as a worrying barrier. 25% of businesses have mentioned that pupils in schools or colleges do not appear to be interested in building relationships with business. However due to the majority of the survey respondents being specifically from business orientated routes, the results show the opposite. The results show that 69% of the respondents had adopted this skill before entering university, whilst 70% said it was embedded onto their course route with one respondent mentioning that “if a group is struggling, help is available.” This suggests that it is being embedded into the course through the support of lecturers. Those that gave this a lower ranking could be due to not gaining enough support from peers, or even being uninterested in a particular module.
tailed) a. Grouping Variable: Gender
.473
The graph on the right however shows 52% ranked 3 or below, suggesting average or below confidence.
When comparing development against gender, there are is very little difference between the genders.
57% of females ranked above 3, where as 44% of males ranked the same. Gender differences in academic performance have been discussed in numerous articles. One journal suggests “Overall, women are less likely than male students to get a first class degree but are more likely to graduate with an upper second. In this paper we have investigated why academic achievement differs by gender and, in particular, why female students are less likely to achieve first class degrees.” (McNabb, Pal and Sloane, 2002)
A Mann-Whitney U test was conducted to test whether there was a significant difference between the ranking of how much employability skills have been developed and gender. The graph suggests a small difference, but with a small sample size, a test was needed to see if it was significant.
H0: There is no significant difference between the ranking of development as compared with gender; development ranking is not influenced by gender. H1: There is a significant difference between the ranking of development as compared with gender; development ranking is influenced by gender.
After the test was undertaken, the data was analysed Mann-Whitney U=255.000, p>.237 (1 tailed). This data shows that the difference is not significant and therefore accept H0. There is no significant difference between genders when ranking their development of skills.
The time in improving the survey took longer than expected, so therefore the restriction caused us to close the survey early which caused the smaller responses.
Convenience Sampling: Convenience sampling was used, which meant that we selected people to complete our survey. Had we emailed students at he university, we would have generated a wider range of results.
Reflection
Creation of the poster and PowerPoint presentation was hindered by the quality of the survey. Upon reviewing the survey, a number of changes could have been made in the design stage to make the following tasks of greater quality.
The survey launched later than most other groups. By launching earlier than it would have allowed more time to analyse the data and collate it on the poster.
The number and quality of respondents was limited. The survey consisted of one student who had graduated, limiting the conclusions drawn from the survey. The number of respondents also impacted upon the difficulty in creating the poster as significant differences in the data are unlikely.
The questions started off by asking the respondents about their gender, and whether they were domestic or international students. It would have been useful to know what age category they fall in so that we could determine whether or not their employability skills is linked in with age.
Another useful implementation could have to include a work experience related question. It would have been beneficial to know whether the students work part-time, or any other unpaid work related jobs so that comparisons could be made between them and those that aren't working.
The survey questions were mainly answered by the business school students, it would have been useful to get more students from the Bishop Otter Campus to answer so that comparisons between the two campuses could be made to see if employability is embedded equally between both campuses.
We gave the respondents an option to not answer a question, which slightly caused confusion, and messed with the percentage figures. In future it would be beneficial to think through the questions more in order to avoid this.
There were mainly nominal questions in the survey, which hindered the statistical tests that we could do. In the future it would be helpful to structure questions more carefully which could generate better results.
The exporting of our survey caused major issues, as the format was not able to work instantly. A reasonable amount of time was spent deciphering and correcting the format before we could begin any analyse. Therefore if this was to be done over, some questions would be changed so they exported into a more usable format.
Some questions contained explain or why sections which were optional. This caused some issues as the response rate of these sections was significantly low. The reasoning behind this may have been in part the ability to skip it and save time, but also a few questions did have them which will have extended the complete time of the survey. If re done the time taken to complete the survey may need more consideration so all questions have a good response rate.
When creating our survey we struggled to see how it would effect the poster. For example we were focused on getting high quality questions supported by literature, that we forgot about some basic profile questions which we could use a grouping variable. Therefore next time it would be useful to look ahead at what needs to be included for all elements and not just the descriptive statistics.
More time should have been dedicated to selecting a topic. Employability is a reasonable topic, however it did not enthuse the group as perhaps a different topic. When deliberating topics, not many alternate topics were brought up and therefore we decided on employability as our strongest of what we had. Next time we would consider more options and of them options the amount of respondents we would have access to.
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