A longitudinal study about w88 link w88 moi nhat employability skills of Vietnamese students

1. Introduction

Traditionally, Vietnamese education was for w88 link w88 moi nhat elite. Only talented students could be admitted to state-owned universities.  w88 link w88 moi nhat goal of these students was to look for a place in w88 link w88 moi nhat public administration system or state-owned companies after graduation. Their living was then sufficient and their career advancement followed a smooth transition based on seniority. However, this is no longer true after extensive changes in Vietnam’s socio-economic system. w88 link w88 moi nhat percentage of enterprises in w88 link w88 moi nhat non-state owned sector has been increasing, and foreign invested companies have played a key role in w88 link w88 moi nhat growing economy. As a result, state-owned companies have been facing stiff competition, and w88 link w88 moi nhat public administration system had to adapt to w88 link w88 moi nhat new trend. Life-time employment is no longer guaranteed, life-time learning is a must, and w88 link w88 moi nhat best way to remain employed is to acquire new skills required in w88 link w88 moi nhat labor market.

According to Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Welfare (2017), there were 218,800 (4.43%) unemployed Vietnamese graduates in 2016, and this figure has been increasing during w88 link w88 moi nhat past few years. Many graduates who cannot find a job in Vietnam must go overseas to work through labor export programs for unskilled workers. Simply put, w88 link w88 moi nhat “products” of Vietnam universities have not been accepted by w88 link w88 moi nhat local labor market. In response to that, Vietnamese education has been desperately changing to meet w88 link w88 moi nhat domestic and international labor demands of w88 link w88 moi nhat growing economy. w88 link w88 moi nhat common countermeasure for almost all universities in Vietnam is to set up “advanced” programs to keep up with w88 link w88 moi nhat change. These program curriculum were adopted from high ranking universities all over w88 link w88 moi nhat world and share common ideas where English is used as w88 link w88 moi nhat means of teaching. w88 link w88 moi nhat classes in these programs are small and well-equipped, w88 link w88 moi nhat students have access to w88 link w88 moi nhat most updated materials, and as a consequence tuition fees stay well above w88 link w88 moi nhat normal, usually four or five times higher than average. International University (IU) – a member of Vietnam National University of Ho Chi Minh city – has been one of w88 link w88 moi nhat pioneers in this trend since its establishment in 2003. IU has always been aware that its long-term success relies on how w88 link w88 moi nhat labor market views its products, namely its graduates, and generic skills have gradually gained a more significant role in getting employed. Since its initial start, IU has encouraged students to participate in activities and competition outside IU to acquire more skills in addition to technical skills which can be acquired during class-hour activities, especially IU set up its first skills club with w88 link w88 moi nhat aim to provide generic skills to students. This skills club helps IU’s students to form teams to participate in business contests. w88 link w88 moi nhat skills and experiences acquired through these contests appear to be invaluable which attract more students.  With this success, and in order to meet ever increasing demands from w88 link w88 moi nhat contemporary labor market, w88 link w88 moi nhat number of skills clubs in IU has rapidly expanded to five in 2011 and a total of 20 at w88 link w88 moi nhat end of 2016. Each skills club targets students’ different needs, which include how to improve presentation skills, sales/marketing skills, creative skills, networking skills, etc. Students are free to choose to become members of any club based on w88 link w88 moi nhat skills which need improvement. One reason to explain w88 link w88 moi nhat proliferation of these clubs is that it is measurable and totally under university control. However, these efforts to improve w88 link w88 moi nhat employability for IU’s students are still in doubt. In other words, IU is likely to look for w88 link w88 moi nhat answers to address w88 link w88 moi nhat following management question

• “Are these efforts really of help to improve IU students’ employability skills?”

w88 link w88 moi nhat answer for this question can be more crucial bearing in mind that w88 link w88 moi nhat number of unemployed people with bachelor degree in 2016 is near 200,000 or equivalent to 18.3 percent of w88 link w88 moi nhat total of unemployed people, and getting employed is w88 link w88 moi nhat decisive factor for parents to justify w88 link w88 moi nhat investment in choosing these high-tuition fee programs.

2. Literature review

There are many definitions of employability skills. Robinson (2000) defines “Employability skills are those basic skills necessary for getting, keeping, and doing well on a job”. Employability skills can be distinguished from occupational or technical skills by their generic nature. They can be applicable throughout various industries, business sizes, and hierarchical levels from w88 link w88 moi nhat bottom line to w88 link w88 moi nhat top management. According to Knight and Yorke (2005), employability skills can be understood as"A set of achievements, understandings and personal attributes that make individuals more likely to gain employment and to be successful in their chosen occupations".  In w88 link w88 moi nhat viewpoint of CBI (2016), employability skills are “A set of attributes, skills and knowledge that all labor market participants should possess to ensure they have w88 link w88 moi nhat capability of being effective in w88 link w88 moi nhat workplace – to w88 link w88 moi nhat benefit of themselves, their employer and w88 link w88 moi nhat wider economy.”w88 link w88 moi nhat terminology “employability skills” in this study represents transferable skills that people must possess to become “employable”. w88 link w88 moi nhat term “employability skills” can also be referred to as “core skills” “key skills”, “professional skills”, or “career management skills” in various disciplines. w88 link w88 moi nhat common attribute for all employability skills is that they can be learned. Put differently, employability skills can be acquired and developed progressively.

In addition to knowledge and qualification, employers usually require a set of skills from candidates for a specific position. Those skills are not sufficient but are a must for employees to perform at w88 link w88 moi nhat best of their ability. Nowadays, no matter how good a graduate’s qualification is, he/she is very likely to compete with his/her equally well-academically qualified counterparts. Applicants can increase their chance of getting employed by showing these skills to their employers. Archer and Davison (2008) confirm that generic skills and personal attributes are more important than w88 link w88 moi nhat degree qualification in getting a job. According to Adecco (2015), companies prefer high levels of generic skills to academic achievements in recruitment and selection. These skills can help employees to get along well with their colleagues and bosses, and provide good, logical solutions to problem-solving.

Many organizations view employability skills as their key to success under w88 link w88 moi nhat pressure of rapid dramatic changes. However, w88 link w88 moi nhat sets of employability skills for numerous positions can vary much from author to author, and context to context. Youth Central (2017) suggests w88 link w88 moi nhat list of eight skills applicable across all industries, namely communication, teamwork, problem solving, initiative and enterprise, planning and organizing, self-management, learning, and technology. University of Kent (2017) mentions w88 link w88 moi nhat following top ten skills: verbal communication, teamwork, commercial awareness, analyzing and investigating, initiative/self-motivation, drive, written communication, planning and organizing, flexibility, and time management. w88 link w88 moi nhat comprehensive list of employability skills seems to be endless, and this poses a lot of difficulties to evaluate students across different majors and workplace. In order to overcome that obstacle, competency dictionaries come into use.

Competency was first defined as a personal attribute leading to successful performance (McClelland, 1973). However, researchers have continued to refine w88 link w88 moi nhat term. Parry (1996) defines it as “a cluster of related knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA) that affects a major part of one’s job (a role or a responsibility), that correlated with performance on w88 link w88 moi nhat job, that can be measured against well-accepted standards, and that can be improved via training and development.” Lately, Sampson and Fytros (2008) describe competency as w88 link w88 moi nhat fundamental attribute of w88 link w88 moi nhat person which underlies w88 link w88 moi nhat successful performance in a job.

w88 link w88 moi nhat term “competency dictionary” refers to a reference work on competency which includes all or most of general competencies needed in a job family or all jobs in an organization. There are many competency dictionaries which are written by various organizations in different sectors, including w88 link w88 moi nhat Behavioural Competency Dictionary of Organizational Readiness Office (BCD of ORO) in Canada, w88 link w88 moi nhat Competency Dictionary of Harvard University, w88 link w88 moi nhat Behavioural Competency Dictionary of British Council (BCD of BC), and w88 link w88 moi nhat General Competency Dictionary (GCD) for w88 link w88 moi nhat Public Sector of w88 link w88 moi nhat Philippines Government. Different competency dictionaries can cover different lists of employability skills. Nonetheless, some dictionaries provide w88 link w88 moi nhat proficiency scale while others do not. w88 link w88 moi nhat decision to choose which competency dictionary as a tool for this study comes from its ability to quantitatively measure these skills. In other words, can we measure these skills using an(a) interval/ratio scale?  w88 link w88 moi nhat answer is that competency dictionaries with proficiency scale should be selected. Taking this into account, w88 link w88 moi nhat BCD of ORO, w88 link w88 moi nhat BCD of BC, and w88 link w88 moi nhat GCD are good candidates for this study.  However, w88 link w88 moi nhat BCD of ORO provides proficiency scales of one to five whereas w88 link w88 moi nhat BRO of BC, and GCD offers one to four only. That is to say w88 link w88 moi nhat BCD can help to capture more information than w88 link w88 moi nhat other two. In addition, each proficiency level is illustrated using behavioral indicators. Each competency scale is cumulative, that means all behaviors at lower levels are applicable at higher levels. This can help to significantly reduce w88 link w88 moi nhat subjectivity in scale mapping for respondents.

w88 link w88 moi nhat employability skills in competency dictionaries can be classified into “generic”, “technical”, and “job-specific” skills. In this research, we target all business students in IU regardless of their majors or industry sectors. Hence, it is quite inappropriate to cover all skills, but “generic skills”, which can be applied across a great deal of subject domains. w88 link w88 moi nhat term “employability skills” and “generic skills” can be used interchangeably from now on in this study.

Over w88 link w88 moi nhat last few decades performance management has been moving from outcomes-based approaches to competency-based ones. w88 link w88 moi nhat inclination toward competencies makes it easier for employers to take employees’ behaviors into account while optimizing their performance for w88 link w88 moi nhat sake of companies’ strategies and objectives. There are plenty of studies about w88 link w88 moi nhat role of employability skills in helping students get employed worldwide (Asonitou, 2015; Baker & Henson, 2010; de Guzman & Choi, 2013; Rosenberg, Heimler, & Morote, 2012; Sarkar et al., 2016; Tsitskari, et al., 2017;Wickramasinghe, 2010; Wilton, 2011), and in Vietnam (Barker, 2014; Tran, 2017; Truong & Laura, 2015; Truong, Laura, & Shaw, 2016; Nguyen, 2011). IU has been trying hard to improve students’ employability with many newly setup skills clubs so that students can choose w88 link w88 moi nhat most appropriate club to learn/hone new skills. Nevertheless, there are few studies about whether these clubs can really improve employability levels, and in Vietnam no such study has been conducted. In this case, a longitudinal study about students’ employability skills taking w88 link w88 moi nhat number of generic skill clubs into account could shed w88 link w88 moi nhat light into w88 link w88 moi nhat management problem by breaking it into following questions

• How well do IU’s students meet w88 link w88 moi nhat requirements in w88 link w88 moi nhat contemporary labor market?
• How good are IU’s students in comparison with their counterparts in other advance programs?
• Do these clubs really improve students’ employability skills? Are IU’s students better at generic skills in comparison with w88 link w88 moi nhat cohort in w88 link w88 moi nhat past

3.Methodology

w88 link w88 moi nhat BCD of ORO with w88 link w88 moi nhat proficiency scale is used in this study as w88 link w88 moi nhat instrumentation. There are 24 skills in this dictionary. w88 link w88 moi nhat descriptions of these skills were translated into Vietnamese for easy understanding because English is not w88 link w88 moi nhat first language in Vietnam.

A focus group was conducted among four IU business students, four IU graduates, and three employers/managers to scrutinize these skills, and they agreed to drop three skills ‘Developing Others’, ‘Impact and Influence’, and ‘Visioning and Strategic Direction’. However, w88 link w88 moi nhat English skill was inserted. This is understandable as English is w88 link w88 moi nhat first language for Canadians, but not for Vietnamese. w88 link w88 moi nhat proficiency scale of International English Language Testing System (IELTS) was selected for instrumentation. w88 link w88 moi nhat participants in this focus group also proof-read w88 link w88 moi nhat Vietnamese version of these skills to ensure there is no error in wording or difficulty in understanding for respondents.

w88 link w88 moi nhat final questionnaire includes w88 link w88 moi nhat above 22 skills (see Table 1), which have proficiency scales from one to five. Each proficiency level is defined using behavioral indicators provided with w88 link w88 moi nhat BCD of ORO, except w88 link w88 moi nhat English skill levels are taken from w88 link w88 moi nhat International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Each competency scale is cumulative which means that all behaviors at lower levels are included in higher levels but some behaviors at higher levels do not appear in lower levels. Before respondents answered w88 link w88 moi nhat questionnaires, they had been explained about w88 link w88 moi nhat scales’ attribute, and advised to choose w88 link w88 moi nhat highest levels with behaviors that they possessed.

In w88 link w88 moi nhat 2011 survey, data were collected from 70 IU’s senior business students, 44 IU business graduates who just graduated about one year, and 80 employers/managers in various organizations in Ho Chi Minh city and adjacent provinces. A group of voluntary IU students and w88 link w88 moi nhat author distributed w88 link w88 moi nhat questionnaires to w88 link w88 moi nhat above respondents. w88 link w88 moi nhat contact information of employers/managers was initially acquired through w88 link w88 moi nhat author’s network and expanded with w88 link w88 moi nhat help of snowball technique. In this 2017 survey, 98, 79, and 209 responses were received from w88 link w88 moi nhat above groups, respectively. In addition, w88 link w88 moi nhat author asked his friends who are lecturers in Hoa Sen University, University of Finance and Marketing, and University of Technical Education to distribute w88 link w88 moi nhat questionnaires to their senior business students who have also been studying in “advanced” programs. w88 link w88 moi nhat objective here is to see how well IU students have performed in comparison with their peers. w88 link w88 moi nhat reason for choosing w88 link w88 moi nhat three universities is that they share common points with IU:

• All of them offer high tuition fee business programs, and
• All of them have got quite sufficient resources and tried their best efforts for w88 link w88 moi nhat sake of their graduates’ employment.

One hundred and eight responses were collected. w88 link w88 moi nhat questionnaires were again distributed to employers/managers using snowball technique. It is easier this time (2017) because there are more IU alumni who are willing to help to forward w88 link w88 moi nhat questionnaires to appropriate respondents in their network.

In this research, w88 link w88 moi nhat following comparisons in all generic skills are conducted:

1. IU senior students (2017) vs. IU senior students (2011)
2. IU senior students (2017) vs. employers (2017)
3. IU senior students (2017) vs. students in other universities (2017)
4. Employers (2017) vs. employers (2011)
5. IU graduates (2017) vs. employers (2017)
6. IU graduates (2017): what they possess vs. what they expect to have to excel at their current positions

w88 link w88 moi nhat employability skills score of each respondent is calculated as w88 link w88 moi nhat mean of all generic skills. We compare w88 link w88 moi nhat means of employability skills scores between two groups to determine which group is better at employability skills in general. w88 link w88 moi nhat first five comparisons are done in that manner. We then go one step further to do comparison for these pairs at each generic skill. Independent sample T-tests are used in w88 link w88 moi nhat above comparisons, except paired sample T-tests are used for w88 link w88 moi nhat last comparison above.

4. Findings

*: statistically significant

Employability skills score = w88 link w88 moi nhat mean of all generic skills of any member

Overall score = w88 link w88 moi nhat average of all employability skills scores in any group

Table 2 shows that in general, IU senior students (2017) have a higher average score in employability skills than their cohort in 2011, and in particular, IU senior students (2017) show a significant improvement at five generic skills.

* : statistically significant

Table 3 shows that English is w88 link w88 moi nhat most improved skill with w88 link w88 moi nhat gap of 0.56*. However, w88 link w88 moi nhat majority of skills (17) show no improvement. In particular, IU senior students in 2017 are at better at Decision Making and English skills other universities’ students in, but in general, IU senior students in 2017 do not have a higher average score of employability skills than their peers in other universities.

With w88 link w88 moi nhat objective of becoming a leading university in Vietnam to provide highly competent labor sources, IU needs to equip its students with more skills at higher proficiency scale to stay ahead of w88 link w88 moi nhat competition, especially in w88 link w88 moi nhat context that w88 link w88 moi nhat Vietnamese’s English proficiency level has been on w88 link w88 moi nhat rise. In addition, IU senior students (2017) surpass w88 link w88 moi nhat employers’ demand in English. This has made w88 link w88 moi nhat gap between IU senior students and other universities’ students become less meaningful in w88 link w88 moi nhat recruitment and selection process. Furthermore, IU graduates in 2017 think they are not good enough at all skills needed, except English to excel at their current positions. That is, getting employed is just w88 link w88 moi nhat start, but being a mediocre employee hinders/stops him/her from career advancement or even costs him/her w88 link w88 moi nhat job. This shortage in employability skills of university graduates in comparison with employers’ needs repeats outcomes from previous studies (Lim et al., 2016; Ramakrishnan & Yasin, 2010).

Overall, IU senior students in 2017 can meet w88 link w88 moi nhat employers’ requirements in generic skills. However, further analyses show that these students fall short at five (5) skills by comparison with present employers’ requirements. Nonetheless, in general IU graduates (2017) are quite behind employers’ demand. w88 link w88 moi nhat graduates fall short at 13 skills. This can give rise to one interesting question: “How can senior students get worse at generic skills after having more real-life practical experiences?” One possible answer is that IU senior students tend to highly evaluate themselves but they change their mind when facing practical problems at work. That is to say, solving a problem in a(n) academic/simulated environment is not w88 link w88 moi nhat same in a working one.

Finally, w88 link w88 moi nhat requirements of employers have been increasing. This study finds gaps between “2017” and “2011” in 13 skills. It is quite interesting that all five skills which are improved by IU senior students (2017) by comparison with w88 link w88 moi nhat cohort (2011) are also required at higher levels by employers (2017) in comparison with employers (2011). This can be interpreted as IU students have been aware of w88 link w88 moi nhat labor market trend, and trying to keep up with w88 link w88 moi nhat change.

5. Conclusions and Implications

Nowadays, IU in particular and Vietnam universities in general should be aware of w88 link w88 moi nhat employers’ hiring preference in competency and steer effort toward improving their students’ employability skills. w88 link w88 moi nhat various newly setup skills clubs can partly help IU students get employed, but this is not sufficient. Skills clubs’ activities cannot totally replace real life problem solving, and this kind of research should be conducted regularly to help universities know how well they serve w88 link w88 moi nhat skilled labor market. In addition, w88 link w88 moi nhat mapping between w88 link w88 moi nhat activities offered by skills clubs for skill improvement and w88 link w88 moi nhat comprehensive list of skills in w88 link w88 moi nhat competency dictionaries has not yet been done. Therefore, w88 link w88 moi nhat following questions remain unanswered

• How is w88 link w88 moi nhat overlap between clubs’ activities to improve skills?
• Whether do w88 link w88 moi nhat skills clubs’ activities cover all skills needed for graduates to successfully enter w88 link w88 moi nhat labor market?

For w88 link w88 moi nhat time being, w88 link w88 moi nhat majority of Vietnamese students do not have any knowledge about competency dictionaries, especially those students who have just entered tertiary education. They are unaware of neither w88 link w88 moi nhat list of possible generic skills nor w88 link w88 moi nhat proficiency scale for each skill. w88 link w88 moi nhat consequence is that

• They do not know whether a skill is needed in their future career.
• If they know a skill is needed, they do really know whether they are sufficiently proficient, or they should put more effort to improve.
• They cannot set up a comprehensive list of skills needed with required proficiency levels to improve.
• They cannot set priority for each skill. Hence, they try to improve their skills by accident or by convenience.

Another striking point should be noted is that w88 link w88 moi nhat comparisons between IU senior students (2017) and IU graduates (2017) with employers (2017) have many things in common. In w88 link w88 moi nhat self-assessment of IU senior students (2017), four of five skills which should be improved are repeated in w88 link w88 moi nhat self-assessment of IU graduates (2017). This could be understood as w88 link w88 moi nhat assessment’s consistence thanks to w88 link w88 moi nhat proficiency scales in w88 link w88 moi nhat competency dictionary. However, this study indicates that senior students tend to be more generous when evaluating themselves. It reaffirms that overrating their own skills and over confidence have become common in present graduates (Papadopoulos, 2010). In other words, if they find themselves in w88 link w88 moi nhat middle of two consecutive scales, they are inclined to “round up”. Table 1 illustrates this well when IU senior students (2017) thinks they fall short at only five skills but when facing reality IU graduates fall short at 13 skills in their self-assessment. That is to say, when facing reality IU graduates could round down their proficiency levels. w88 link w88 moi nhat self-confidence in academic or simulation situations could be replaced by uncertainty or doubt while trying to work-out practical problems.

IU graduates (2011) exceed employers’ requirement (2011) at communication and English skills (Tuan, 2011). In this study, IU graduates (2017) are only better at English. It indicates w88 link w88 moi nhat good practice of communication and English in IU. However, not only w88 link w88 moi nhat shortages in three skills of Change Leadership, Networking, and Organizational & Environmental Awareness of IU graduates (2011) in comparison with employers’ requirement (2011) but also w88 link w88 moi nhat shortages in other ten (10) skills are detected. This implies that w88 link w88 moi nhat effort of IU to improve generic skills for its students cannot keep up with w88 link w88 moi nhat increasing demand in w88 link w88 moi nhat labor market, and w88 link w88 moi nhat gaps seem to get bigger and bigger.

IU students’ prevailing strength is their English. Table 1 shows that IU senior students (2017) are further ahead of IU senior students (2011), better than their peers in other universities, and exceed w88 link w88 moi nhat employers’ requirements at English skills. This also indicates that w88 link w88 moi nhat English context in IU be well nurtured, and IU students are among w88 link w88 moi nhat best in w88 link w88 moi nhat labor market. Nonetheless, w88 link w88 moi nhat study was only conducted in Vietnam and w88 link w88 moi nhat need to master English skills is not a strong driver at w88 link w88 moi nhat moment. If IU students look for a chance to study or work overseas this may no longer be true. For example, Malaysian students do fall short of English skills required by employers even English is quite commonly used in Malaysia (Lim et al., 2016)

w88 link w88 moi nhat final observation is that IU graduates are inclined to think that they must improve all generic skills (except English) to excel at their current jobs in both studies in 2011 and 2017. This once again confirms that w88 link w88 moi nhat IU’s effort to improve generic skills through many skills clubs is not sufficient. Manson, Williams, and Cranmer (2009) also say that many employability skills are better acquired in working environments rather than in classroom settings. Moreover, w88 link w88 moi nhat effects of taught skills are quite strong at w88 link w88 moi nhat beginning of graduates’ career but do not last long as graduates gain more job/occupation-specific skills through practical experiences. Furthermore, Jackson (2014) verifies it is not w88 link w88 moi nhat sole responsibility of faculty to equip students with employability skills. Nguyen, Yoshinari, and Shigeji (2005) recommend that universities should set up centers to link students, alumni, and employers. These centers can serve as a vehicle to provide students with employability skills. Phillips (2007) also suggests forming a three-way partnership among universities, students, and employers to embed employability skills. Jackling and Natoli (2015) view internship as w88 link w88 moi nhat vehicle to get students exposed to sophisticated tasks while developing generic skills.

For w88 link w88 moi nhat time being, IU focuses much on knowledge education with its requirement of all business students to complete a thesis for w88 link w88 moi nhat degree of Bachelor of Business Administration. Nevertheless, generic skills have not been given top priority. This current study shows that it is absolutely crucial for IU in particular and other “advanced” programs in general to conduct this kind of research regularly, and take serious actions to improve. It is a must for these programs to survive and thrive.

Although w88 link w88 moi nhat above discussion focuses on IU in comparison with other universities and w88 link w88 moi nhat labor market, it is worth mentioning that this study was implemented in a high tuition fee environment. Therefore, all conclusions and implications in this study could be generalized to any university which provides high tuition fee programs. For w88 link w88 moi nhat time being, all universities in Vietnam have been offering at least few kinds of high tuition fee programs, and w88 link w88 moi nhat number of these programs has been increasing. Moreover, universities which traditionally offer low tuition fee programs could be under much more pressure if they want to start high tuition fee programs because it takes time to create a new image and build up credibility. Hence, they would try harder to get their “products” accepted in w88 link w88 moi nhat skilled labor market. Regarding w88 link w88 moi nhat above reasoning, this study’s outcome could appear to be useful to almost all higher educational institutions in Vietnam.

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