‘Because Sometimes Your Failures Can Also Teach You Certain Skills’: Lecturer and Student Perceptions of Employability Skills at a Transnational University

This exploratory study investigates lecturers’ and students’ understanding of the concepts and language underpinning higher education strategies of developing employability skills. While a solid grounding in discipline-specific knowledge and skills is what most graduate degrees aim at providing, em...

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Main Author: Richard Paterson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hipatia Press 2017-10-01
Series:Qualitative Research in Education
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hipatiapress.com/hpjournals/index.php/qre/article/view/2583
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author Richard Paterson
author_facet Richard Paterson
author_sort Richard Paterson
collection DOAJ
description This exploratory study investigates lecturers’ and students’ understanding of the concepts and language underpinning higher education strategies of developing employability skills. While a solid grounding in discipline-specific knowledge and skills is what most graduate degrees aim at providing, employability skills are increasingly becoming an important factor when evaluating prospective employees. Embedding the acquisition of employability skills into higher education courses has emerged as a response to industry demands for work-ready graduates. The forces of internationalisation and globalisation mean that employers the world over are looking for graduates with additional soft skills, abilities and achievements. The context for this study is Westminster International University, Tashkent (WIUT), a transnational university in Uzbekistan. By means of a qualitative case study, the views of lecturers and students were investigated and common themes and perspectives identified. The main findings indicate that although students and lecturers share similar perspectives on the importance of employability skills, the purpose of employability focused pedagogy is not easily communicated to students. Furthermore, students feel that a more systematic approach to recognising and demonstrating employability skills would help them in their transition from education to work. 
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spelling doaj.art-bef01573f4544cb692b3cd9af97480082023-06-19T08:32:13ZengHipatia PressQualitative Research in Education2014-64182017-10-016310.17583/qre.2017.2583‘Because Sometimes Your Failures Can Also Teach You Certain Skills’: Lecturer and Student Perceptions of Employability Skills at a Transnational UniversityRichard Paterson0University of Westminster This exploratory study investigates lecturers’ and students’ understanding of the concepts and language underpinning higher education strategies of developing employability skills. While a solid grounding in discipline-specific knowledge and skills is what most graduate degrees aim at providing, employability skills are increasingly becoming an important factor when evaluating prospective employees. Embedding the acquisition of employability skills into higher education courses has emerged as a response to industry demands for work-ready graduates. The forces of internationalisation and globalisation mean that employers the world over are looking for graduates with additional soft skills, abilities and achievements. The context for this study is Westminster International University, Tashkent (WIUT), a transnational university in Uzbekistan. By means of a qualitative case study, the views of lecturers and students were investigated and common themes and perspectives identified. The main findings indicate that although students and lecturers share similar perspectives on the importance of employability skills, the purpose of employability focused pedagogy is not easily communicated to students. Furthermore, students feel that a more systematic approach to recognising and demonstrating employability skills would help them in their transition from education to work.  https://hipatiapress.com/hpjournals/index.php/qre/article/view/2583global higher educationemployability skillstransnational educationemployability pedagogy
spellingShingle Richard Paterson
‘Because Sometimes Your Failures Can Also Teach You Certain Skills’: Lecturer and Student Perceptions of Employability Skills at a Transnational University
Qualitative Research in Education
global higher education
employability skills
transnational education
employability pedagogy
title ‘Because Sometimes Your Failures Can Also Teach You Certain Skills’: Lecturer and Student Perceptions of Employability Skills at a Transnational University
title_full ‘Because Sometimes Your Failures Can Also Teach You Certain Skills’: Lecturer and Student Perceptions of Employability Skills at a Transnational University
title_fullStr ‘Because Sometimes Your Failures Can Also Teach You Certain Skills’: Lecturer and Student Perceptions of Employability Skills at a Transnational University
title_full_unstemmed ‘Because Sometimes Your Failures Can Also Teach You Certain Skills’: Lecturer and Student Perceptions of Employability Skills at a Transnational University
title_short ‘Because Sometimes Your Failures Can Also Teach You Certain Skills’: Lecturer and Student Perceptions of Employability Skills at a Transnational University
title_sort because sometimes your failures can also teach you certain skills lecturer and student perceptions of employability skills at a transnational university
topic global higher education
employability skills
transnational education
employability pedagogy
url https://hipatiapress.com/hpjournals/index.php/qre/article/view/2583
work_keys_str_mv AT richardpaterson becausesometimesyourfailurescanalsoteachyoucertainskillslecturerandstudentperceptionsofemployabilityskillsatatransnationaluniversity