Higher Education in the 21st Century
Chomnapas C. (Amp)
Outline some of the main issues facing higher education in the 21st century. To what extent is higher education an effective means of both obtaining employment and learning the basic prerequisite skills for global workplace?
Since educational level has been essential in global society, there is an increase of higher education’s demands in labour markets. These are affecting both new graduates and existing workers who are looking for jobs. In addition, various companies today require a lot of skilled people to work in their companies. Interestingly, the unemployment situation is still occurring, even though the high educational requirement in the global work place is high. This essay highlights three main problems. First of all, it will address the role of higher education and competences in the labour market. The second part will consider mismatch between the number of job positions and quantity of graduates. The final level of the analysis includes the awareness of students in the higher education and skills.
There are some employers who are not interested in the level of education of graduates. Several main reasons are commonly given for this. Firstly, employers are concerned about some factor more than knowledge and skill such as the reputation of institutes because they actually think that they can train some necessary skill for each position that be required by job. As noted by Brennan et al (2010), “a student’s employment prospects may be more affected by ‘where’ he or she studies than by ‘what’ has been studied (…) there may therefore be more emphasis upon ‘on-the-job’ training and induction within employment” (p.2). Secondly, although some employers do not pay attention to the education level but they still focus on graduates’ capability while they are studying at university. According to Li et al (2008), “it may illustrate that employers do not care whether the field of job matches the field of study or not, but instead pay more
Outline some of the main issues facing higher education in the 21st century. To what extent is higher education an effective means of both obtaining employment and learning the basic prerequisite skills for global workplace?
Since educational level has been essential in global society, there is an increase of higher education’s demands in labour markets. These are affecting both new graduates and existing workers who are looking for jobs. In addition, various companies today require a lot of skilled people to work in their companies. Interestingly, the unemployment situation is still occurring, even though the high educational requirement in the global work place is high. This essay highlights three main problems. First of all, it will address the role of higher education and competences in the labour market. The second part will consider mismatch between the number of job positions and quantity of graduates. The final level of the analysis includes the awareness of students in the higher education and skills.
There are some employers who are not interested in the level of education of graduates. Several main reasons are commonly given for this. Firstly, employers are concerned about some factor more than knowledge and skill such as the reputation of institutes because they actually think that they can train some necessary skill for each position that be required by job. As noted by Brennan et al (2010), “a student’s employment prospects may be more affected by ‘where’ he or she studies than by ‘what’ has been studied (…) there may therefore be more emphasis upon ‘on-the-job’ training and induction within employment” (p.2). Secondly, although some employers do not pay attention to the education level but they still focus on graduates’ capability while they are studying at university. According to Li et al (2008), “it may illustrate that employers do not care whether the field of job matches the field of study or not, but instead pay more
References: list: Brennan, J. and Little, B., (2010). Graduate competences and relationships with the labour market: the UK case. In: Development of Competencies in the World of Work and Education. Ljubljana, Slovenia: The Authors, 24-26. Li, F., Morgan, W.J. and Ding, X., (2008). The expansion of higher education, employment and over-education in China. In: International Journal of Educational Development, 28, 687-697. Ramsden, P., (2008). The Future of Higher Education - Teaching and the Student Experience. The Higher Education Academy [online]. Available from: <http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/consultations/paulramsden_teaching_and_student_experience>