The Challenge of UAE Universities to Match Student Competencies with Available Jobs - Research Proposal Example

Running heading: The challenge of UAE universities to match student competencies with available jobs. The challenge of UAE universities to match student competencies with available jobs Name Course Tutor Date Introduction Competency refers to an individual’s ability, which is supported by documents, to undertake a certain relevant and precise function or part of employment (Pukelis, 2006, pp. 79). It also refers to the ability of an individual to solve professional problems in real work. During the education process an individual develops abilities based on the competencies stipulated in the professional standards and not the competencies. Initially higher education system was meant to fulfil two main functions, that is, prepare students for management jobs and to provide necessary resources to carry out a research. Now days the priority of universities have changed to preparing students well for future obligations (Cox, 2006, pp. 98). The number of graduates from the university has gone up tremendously with high number enrolling for higher education. This translates to increased number of job seekers in the market and only those with market oriented competences will be employed. The exist a perception that the success and endurance of a university rests in its ability to successfully market its prime competence by teaching and developing new courses coupled with coming up with quality research work that of great value to the industry. Through innovativeness the universities will be in a position to generate research ideas that are purely market centred. Therefore the proposed study seeks to examine the challenge of UAE universities to match competencies with available jobs. Literature review In the past university as an institution in the whole world’s in the minds of many individuals were looked at as a meet point of various scholars in the different spheres of knowledge. They share the different insight and subject matter about the new and existing knowledge. The sharing of this knowledge often involves both the instructors and the students. In the process the instructors are viewed as the professional with a overwhelmed competencies which they are expected to transfer to their students. The expected responsibility of the instructors has lapsed with them only providing shallow insight of the subject matter. This has lead to the production of half baked graduates who cannot competently fit into the requirements of the job market. When most of the graduates are put through an interview they exhibit less of the required knowledge in the market. The present competitive environment requires that graduates from the universities should be in possession of both the academic knowledge as well as professional skills that supports growing knowledge and technology advances. Nevertheless, the legitimate and vital aspect of the higher education system is the acknowledgement of job related learning; this will ensure that the system will develop in future. The are very many challenges that have been registered in the 21st century such as changes in educational policies, information era and the expectations perceived by the society. A study into job vacancies posted by different companies in the web indicated the requirements for a graduate to be employed which included possession of at least one degree, have relevant experience, exhibit analytical skills, problem solving ability, information technology and ability to manage information. Fallows (2000) described employability skills to include; presentation and communication, handling and retrieval of information, problem solving and planning plus interaction. Cox (2006) argued that different stakeholders view employability differently. It is viewed that the success of some university graduates in the job market is based on the reputation of the university which will attract a number of students to enrol in that university. According to Bennett (1999) employers no longer base their employment on the skills that are possessed by present graduates other they take them and offer training. This is because of the shift in focus where an adaptive and flexible workforce is a preferred choice for many institutions. In most cases students pursue those courses that provide them with a wider knowledge hoping that they will get the job as soon as possible. For them employability means having higher education which translates to the possibility of having their long desired job. According to Fallows (2000), the more time and resources that are incurred during the education process is just because of an expectation of a fair earning in the future. Cox (2006) classified employability skills into three broad ways. The classification is comprehensive enough and include; Key or core skills-this are general skills that are required in any job. They include personal skills such as communication skills, ability to comfortably work with others, self motivation, self organization ability, and the ability to employ information technology. Also include basic numeracy and literacy. Vocational skills- this are special skills that are needed in a group of occupations and certain occupations. They are confined to those areas of relevance but this that not limit the transferability of these skills across occupations. Job specific skills- this are funds of knowledge other than skills that are limited to a specific employment and individual firms. According to Gracia-Aracil (2008), competencies are classified as either generic or specific competences. Generic competencies are not context specific whereas specific competencies are bound to a particular context such as firms, tasks and economic sectors. Some concepts such as work related skills, key skills, technical skills, management skills among others are considered every time when describing generic competencies (Bridgstock, 2009, pp. 19). The match between job market and higher education can be enhanced through the development of competencies that suit the labour market requirements. However to realize flexibility, students should be provided with broader education together with generic competences. To develop competencies in higher education it is of essence to base the approaches of study on the doctrine of students’ self-organization. When a curriculum based on competency is developed it affects the approach and organisation of education and assessments (van, 2006, pp. 61). In this approach the student is responsible in career choice whereas the teacher just develops an appropriate curriculum. The stress on generic competencies generated in higher education system has achieved the significance over the previous years in research on education (Barth et al., 2007, pp. 27). One of the mainly significant reasons for the opt of the research into university graduates’ competencies resulting from the study programmes is to improve or maintain the learning results of offered programmes of institutions of higher learning. The aim in this situation, in accumulation to professional education, is to encourage personality improvement, making it possible for a person to be in a position to deal with complex circumstances, to be competent to take action upon reflection together with making decisions. In addition it is about being in a position of taking on responsibility, of considering moral standards when executing any thing and be in a position to evaluate consequences (Barth et al., 2007, pp. 421). The only way of establishing whether a learning program fulfils the requirements is clearly seen in the outcome of the program itself. The idea of learning results implementation in learning or teaching process offers human resources the required skills that are more suitable qualifications for information based social order development. On the other hand, competencies are connected with job exercise in a labour market, whereas learning output are connected with learning or learning environment, that is, an effort to replicate real job circumstances. For these reason institutions for higher learning stakeholders such as employers, graduates are in a position to evaluate if competencies necessary in labour market form part of the knowledge provided in the University, that is, .if study curriculum were made up of relevant learning output. Looking at the improvement of competencies in the institutions of higher learning, strategies of learning process apprehension have to be founded on definite ideology of students’ self-organization. The competency-based programme affects the move towards educational activities together with the establishment of learning. This shifts from what is known to being directed by what the student wants to attain. It also influences assessment in relation to its shift as of input to output coupled with the contexts and the processeses of the student (Van et al., 2006, pp. 29). Under this tactic the qualities of a learner is such as autonomous, active, responsible and curious for his or her prospect career. The responsibility of lecturers is to come up with a curriculum that is in suitable way, that is, to shore up and funnel learning of students with the help of suitable teaching techniques. The most universal and effective techniques are among others problem-based learning, this approach engages young students in looking at meaningful and important questions by means of a process of collaboration and investigations ( Krajcik et al., 4) (Deboer, 2002, pp. 407), project-oriented learning where instructors coaches learners and direct their own performance if need be whereas learners are liberated in their assignment which they arrange, investigate and carry out the interdisciplinary objective. In group work approach learners are encouraged to debate, to think critically, among others. The benefit of the using the above stated approach is that learners, working on a particular task, are well placed with the probability of acquiring a fund of distinct types of knowledge together with the development of not only generic but specific competencies as well. Since lively businesses require a different and new type of employee as part of its workforce, institutions of higher learning have had to act in response to these transformations in the lecture room by emphasizing cooperation, teamwork, and collaboration with the view of today’s trends in the workplace. This weight on incorporating human relation skills as part of the study course in most study programmes is new. As a result, teachers are supposed to relinquish the traditional lecture and stand-up method, in that, they are becoming advisors, facilitators and coaches of knowledge in a more interactive environment. This change ensures that new responsibilities are vested upon students as learners. Therefore being part of their learning process as active members. Statement of the problem In the study, two problems are being looked at, namely; I. What is the significance of competency-based curriculum? II. What are the impacts of competencies on the job market? Research aim and objectives The primary aim of the proposed study is to explore the challenges faced by UAE universities on matching competence with job opportunities. There is also the study of the following secondary objectives. First is to identify the effects of competence on job market. Second is to determine the perception of students concerning their competencies. Third is to encourage institutions of higher learning to adopt competency-based curriculum (Mathison & Finney, 2009, pp. 61). Limitations The study will be limited to both private and public Universities in UAE graduates, tertiary institutions graduates and the job market of the same country. It will also be assumed that any competencies that an individual possesses are as a result of the studies undertaken since studies are responsible for any further development of the learner. The study will also be limited in terms of finances hence may not be in a position to collect data from nearly every graduate of all the universities, therefore the respondents will be limited to a particular number but still hope that the outcome will represent the actual challenge that is being faced by the university of UAE. The study will only cover and be restricted to the four leading institutions of higher learning. Research hypotheses There are two hypothesis formulated in relation to the study. I. The competency based curriculum increases the chances of being employed. II. The competency based curriculum increases the productivity of graduates in the job market. Methodology The study will combine both the quantitative and qualitative methods of research. The secondary resources that can be used include scholarly journals, books, online sources and previous research. This will ensure that the study exhaustively explore the topic through analysis, gain and review of other information. In addition, interviews and questionnaires will be utilized in gathering more information from respondents (Garcia-Aracil, 2008, pp. 84). The questionnaires will be mailed to the respondent together with stamps to be used in sending back the filled questionnaire. Some other respondents will be required to use an on-line questionnaire as long as they have access to it and they believe it is appropriate for them. The questionnaire will be designed in a way that the respondents are in a position of evaluating themselves on the various competencies they have relative to those demanded by the job market. A rating scale will be provided with slots of 1 to 7, where 1 is the least ranking in the scale and 7 is the highest. Random sampling will be employed in ascertaining the population to be dealt with. The population will comprise of university as well as college graduates who have spent at least five years in the job market, that is, five years since the year of graduation. The university graduates will comprise the two levels, that is, those with a bachelor’s degree and those with a master’s degree. The number of respondents that will form the sample will be 6000 which include both the employed and the unemployed. Out of which 60% will comprise bachelor degree graduates, 25% will represents master’s degree graduates and the remaining 15% shall represents the tertiary college graduates. The potential respondents should be students who were in a position to study full-time in their last academic year. This will ensure that the distinctive characteristics of the target population are covered. Significance of the study The main purpose of the study is to come up with the best ways in which competency based curriculum can be employed in all the institutions of higher learning. Competencies to most companies are of essence in this twenty first century where products and services are tailored towards customer satisfaction and emerging trends in technology and globalization are the order of the day. The mismatch between the job market needs and the competencies of an individual is greater in some programmes compared to others. This indicates that some study programmes are of more relevant or significant than others in terms of individual self development. Therefore the learners pursuing this study programme have a lot of motivation and high achievements compared to others and consequently their mismatch in terms of the required and acquired competencies is minimized. The difference in the level of mismatch will necessitate the development of a competency based programmes where all the courses offered will be market driven and skills oriented to enable minimize the issues of some graduates being left out in the job market and yet they have wasted a lot of time and incurred huge cost to acquire those sort of education. The responsibility of the institutions of higher learning should be to ensure that their curriculum is reviewed every other time so as to ensure that it corresponds with the changing trends in the consumer or job market. In most cases work oriented learning will enable learners to be well conversant with the essential job doing skills which form part of the employers profile while looking for somebody to employee. References Barth, M., Godemann, J., Rieckmann M., & Stoltenberg, U., Developing key competencies for sustainable development in higher education 2007, Vol. 4, No. 4, p.p. 416-430. ISSN: 1467-6370. Bennett, N., Dunne E. & Carré, C. Patterns of core and generic skill provision in higher education // Higher Education, No. 37. pp. 71–93. Kluwer Academic Publishers,1999. Bridgstock, R. The graduate attributes we’ve overlooked: enhancing graduate employability through career management skills Vol. 28, No. 1, March 2009. Cox, V., 2006. Marketing education: constructing the future. New York: Emerald Group Publishing Deboer, G. H. Student-Centered Teaching in a Standards-Based World: Finding a Sensible Balance // Science & Education, No. 11, p. 405–417. 2002. Fallows, S., 2000. Integrating key skills in higher education: employability, transferable skills, and learning for life. New York: Routledge Garcia-Aracil A. et al. Competencies for young European Higher education graduates: labor market mismatches and their payoffs// Higher education, No. 55, 2008. Mathison, D. & Finney, M. (2009). Unlock the Hidden Job Market: 6 Steps to a Successful Job Search When Times Are Tough. Sydney: FT Press. Pukelis, K. Ability, Competency, learning/study outcome, qualification and competence: theoretical dimension// The Quality of Higher Education No. 6, 2006. Van, V. F. Youth, Education and the labour Market. European commission Brussels, 8 September 2006. Read More