Opportunities to identify and develop people skills: What university students need early in their degree journey
Employability skills can be categorised as ‘people’ or ‘soft skills’ and ‘technical’ or ‘industry specific’ skills. Australian employers are increasingly seeking to employ university graduates with well-developed people skills. Evidence from industry suggests these skills, in particular communicatio...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Deakin University
2021-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability |
| Online Access: | https://ojs.deakin.edu.au/index.php/jtlge/article/view/1481 |
| _version_ | 1798027202763161600 |
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| author | Ros Sambell Lesley Andrew Amanda Devine Jill Darby Shelley Beatty Stephanie Godrich |
| author_facet | Ros Sambell Lesley Andrew Amanda Devine Jill Darby Shelley Beatty Stephanie Godrich |
| author_sort | Ros Sambell |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Employability skills can be categorised as ‘people’ or ‘soft skills’ and ‘technical’ or ‘industry specific’ skills. Australian employers are increasingly seeking to employ university graduates with well-developed people skills. Evidence from industry suggests these skills, in particular communication skills are lacking in today’s graduates. The aim of this study was to raise student awareness of the importance of people skills, assess their perception of personal competence across a range of these skills and support them to develop plans that will help them strengthen these skills in preparation for graduation. An online survey was emailed to 222 first year undergraduate students; 99 were completed. Analysis of quantitative data revealed students perceived themselves to be highly competent across a range of people skills. However, qualitative data found students also identified people skills that they needed to develop further. The study findings suggest that first-year students may have inflated and unrealistic perceptions of their people skills and highlights the importance of the introduction of these employability skills early in the curriculum. Recommendations from this study include the introduction of curriculum activities in the first year of their degree that raise student awareness of industry expectations of people skills upon graduation. The implementation of a people skills self-assessment tool for these students is also recommended as a benchmarking activity. Use of this tool can motivate students to engage with university support and industry opportunities that further strengthen these important skills. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T18:48:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-68af9c0a5a344294a7e8b747f0399175 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1838-3815 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T18:48:30Z |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | Deakin University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability |
| spelling | doaj.art-68af9c0a5a344294a7e8b747f03991752022-12-22T04:08:32ZengDeakin UniversityJournal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability1838-38152021-12-01122Opportunities to identify and develop people skills: What university students need early in their degree journeyRos Sambell0Lesley Andrew1Amanda Devine2Jill Darby3Shelley Beatty4Stephanie Godrich5School of Medical and Health Sciences. Edith Cowan UniversitySchool of Medical and Health Sciences, Edit Cowan UniversitySchool of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan UniversitySchool of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan UniversitySchool of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan UniversitySchool of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan UniversityEmployability skills can be categorised as ‘people’ or ‘soft skills’ and ‘technical’ or ‘industry specific’ skills. Australian employers are increasingly seeking to employ university graduates with well-developed people skills. Evidence from industry suggests these skills, in particular communication skills are lacking in today’s graduates. The aim of this study was to raise student awareness of the importance of people skills, assess their perception of personal competence across a range of these skills and support them to develop plans that will help them strengthen these skills in preparation for graduation. An online survey was emailed to 222 first year undergraduate students; 99 were completed. Analysis of quantitative data revealed students perceived themselves to be highly competent across a range of people skills. However, qualitative data found students also identified people skills that they needed to develop further. The study findings suggest that first-year students may have inflated and unrealistic perceptions of their people skills and highlights the importance of the introduction of these employability skills early in the curriculum. Recommendations from this study include the introduction of curriculum activities in the first year of their degree that raise student awareness of industry expectations of people skills upon graduation. The implementation of a people skills self-assessment tool for these students is also recommended as a benchmarking activity. Use of this tool can motivate students to engage with university support and industry opportunities that further strengthen these important skills.https://ojs.deakin.edu.au/index.php/jtlge/article/view/1481 |
| spellingShingle | Ros Sambell Lesley Andrew Amanda Devine Jill Darby Shelley Beatty Stephanie Godrich Opportunities to identify and develop people skills: What university students need early in their degree journey Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability |
| title | Opportunities to identify and develop people skills: What university students need early in their degree journey |
| title_full | Opportunities to identify and develop people skills: What university students need early in their degree journey |
| title_fullStr | Opportunities to identify and develop people skills: What university students need early in their degree journey |
| title_full_unstemmed | Opportunities to identify and develop people skills: What university students need early in their degree journey |
| title_short | Opportunities to identify and develop people skills: What university students need early in their degree journey |
| title_sort | opportunities to identify and develop people skills what university students need early in their degree journey |
| url | https://ojs.deakin.edu.au/index.php/jtlge/article/view/1481 |
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