Employability of Engineering Graduates

Internships are becoming more relevant to universities as they provide students with practical skills that can be aligned with their career aspirations. Typically, successful undergraduate internship programs depend on the efficiency and design of the university internship program; the student commitment to the internship; and host organization’s level of resource commitment to the program. Currently, there is very little empirical research conducted to examine how host organization based factors influence the quality of a good internship from a student interns’ perspective. The Transaction Cost Economic (TCE) model was the theoretical lens used to address this research. The study used a survey (n=83) of an undergraduate internship program at a university in Australia. The findings indicate that the host organizations’ resource commitment has a significant positive influence on the interns’ perceived success of the internship. Findings from this research can help to align organizati...

The accelerated adoption of emerging technologies linked to Industry 4.0 has reshaped professional environments, requiring engineering graduates to master advanced digital competencies while demonstrating welldeveloped soft skills. In Latin America, however, technological adoption is uneven, and the systematic development of soft skills remains insufficient within university curricula. This dual gap-technological proficiency and interpersonal competence-compromises the professional development of graduates, limiting their adaptability and career progression. This study investigates the combined influence of soft skills and the use of Industry 4.0 technologies on the professional development of Peruvian engineering graduates, incorporating psychological well-being as a mediating variable. Employing a quantitative, cross-sectional, explanatory design, data were collected from 301 graduates across engineering disciplines. Validated instruments assessed soft skills (communication, teamwork, adaptability, leadership, conflict resolution), technological use (digital competencies and enabling technologies), psychological well-being (self-acceptance, autonomy, positive relations, environmental mastery, personal growth, life purpose), and professional development (self-development, organizational commitment, human quality, openness to change). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), applied using the Lavaan package in R, confirmed a strong, significant relationship between soft skills, Industry 4.0 technologies, psychological well-being, and professional development. The final model showed excellent fit (CFI = 0.960; RMSEA = 0.068; SRMR = 0.056), providing robust evidence that technological and emotional competencies jointly enhance psychological resilience and career outcomes. The study contributes to competence theory, positive psychology, and Industry 4.0 literature, highlighting the importance of integrated education strategies that foster technical mastery, emotional intelligence, and adaptive well-being to prepare graduates for technologically intensive careers.

This paper examines the dataset of work placement supervisors’ feedback from 2014 to 2017 on the skillset of Master in Research Psychology students during their first and second placement periods. A total of 47 placement feedback reports were analysed. The analysis included frequency counts and qualitative content analysis using Microsoft (MS) Excel software. The study reveals that placement supervisors place significant value on soft skills, notably a willingness to learn, and frequently rate students favourably on interpersonal skills. The results highlight the importance of viewing placement supervisors as co-educational partners. By evaluating supervisors' ratings of research psychology students on work placement holds significant value in improving educational programs, enhancing student outcomes, aligning with employer expectations, and contributing to the broader understanding of work-integrated learning in research psychology. For students, it entails identifying areas of strength and areas for improvement in their performance. For the university program, this feedback can inform teaching and learning approaches by providing insights into the specific skills, competencies, and knowledge that students need to develop during their program. It can also help tailor feedback and support by understanding supervisors' feedback, leading to more effective guidance and constructive feedback for students. For the placement organisations, the research can contribute to supervisor training and development, ensuring they have the necessary skills to guide and evaluate students, while also improving work placement design and coordination to align with program learning outcomes and provide meaningful experiences for students.

The study examines the perception on the quality of education and employability among postgraduate students in Bangalore, highlighting the need to bridge the gap between academic learning and workplace expectations. The research indicates that employability is positively influenced by quality education, skill-based training, and industry connections. The study reveals differences in faculty availability, career guidance, and internship participation rates, with 90% of students participating in internships, but 50% were uncertain about their chances of finding employment. The study reveals that institutions must prioritize the development of students' employability skills, quality education, and industry connections to enhance employment opportunities. Additionally, the research emphasizes the importance of India maximizing its demographic dividend through education, job creation, and economic development. ". Given the significant youth population in India, addressing education quality and employment opportunities is a necessary step towards improving the country's future prosperity. The findings have implications for educators, policymakers and industry leaders as they seek to highlight the importance of working together to improve education quality and employability for postgraduate students in India.' India can achieve its demographic dividend, education and job creation, and economic growth and success by addressing these challenges. This study adds to the existing literature on employability, which stresses that quality education, skill-based training and connections with industry are key factors in boosting postgraduate student employability in India.
Key words: Quality Education, Employability, Skill-based Training, Industry Connections, Job Creation.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted life, leading to travel restrictions, social distancing, remote work, and home schooling. During its peak, many in-person, international work-integrated learning (WIL) programs, such as study tours, shifted online. As higher education evolves post-pandemic, online WIL remains popular for its flexibility, inclusivity, and scalability. This study applies an evaluation research framework to investigate participants' perceptions of an online international WIL program co-designed with a third-party provider, Make A Difference Travel (MAD). A case study methodology with mixed methods was used to evaluate a single Australian university program focused on social entrepreneurship and sustainability in the Philippines. Originally an in-person experience, the program was redesigned for online delivery. The results highlight challenges faced by participants and employability skills developed, leading to key recommendations to enhance online, short-term international WIL.

This paper discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic can shift the conversation of paid and unpaid placements from an economic to a pedagogical and goodwill perspective During the pandemic lockdown many placements were cancelled or postponed Some continued as agreed but with students working from home, while other placements became unpaid We build on the pertinent literature that raises legal, ethical, economic and pedagogical implications of paid versus unpaid placement models and what motivates placement organizations to offer placements Four interdisciplinary trans-Tasman case studies are discussed to better understand the complex situations for placement organizations and universities to sustain WIL placements during this pandemic Conclusions include recommendations to be vigilant and ensure goodwill is not used to mask the exploitation of students, but rather, positively influence the motivation behind offering placements during these trying times and beyond © 2020 International Jour...

Graduate employability is a critical issue in Higher Education. Employers are expecting not only the subject knowledge from the students to compete with the current industry demands, but also additional skills to face corporate battles and challenges. The aim of this research is to identify the skills demanded by the employers and to incorporate them in the learning outcomes of higher education. This research aims to review and analyses all the papers published from 2010 until now regarding the evaluation of graduate students from employers' perspectives. This subject has been rarely touched in literature and needs more focus regarding to its importance for both education institutions and employers. Papers were collected from different databases and carefully analyzed by the authors. Different classification methods were done. The results were analyzed. The results indicate that there is a gap between the learning outcome and the employability skills.

Socioeconomic factors such as unemployment among young adults have influenced graduates' perception of the labor market and their career planning. In this context, education plays a central role and in particular there is the need to understand which are the most important soft skills and competences that universities should promote to enhance employability among students. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to investigate engineering student perception of labor market and career planning. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire administered to engineering students of the University of Padova and analyzed by applying suitable machine learning models to investigate the relationship between student perception of the labor market and career planning, and some other factors, i.e. general information, self-perceived employability, career proactivity, and career control. Results of the analysis and their educational and social implications are presented and discussed.

The challenge of providing work-related learning within the confines of an undergraduate curriculum generates considerable discussion. The University of Glasgow’s BSc Environmental Science and Sustainability addresses this by offering students the opportunity to undertake a 60-credit placement in lieu of a dissertation. Engaging employers and students in this way has proved not only to enhance dialogue between the two organisations, but further benefits: THE STUDENT: through enhanced employability, real work experience, linking graduate attributes with work, employment offers, putting theory into practice, networking; THE EXTERNAL ORGANISATION: through recognition of the student’s transferable skills and up-to-date knowledge, employee recruitment, opportunity to utilise the student’s skills e.g. social media, academic writing, computing; THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW: through enhanced organisation engagement, voluntary/paid work offers to students, requests to have another student, fiel...

This study investigates the impact of vocational skills acquisition on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Gombe metropolis, focusing on the relevance of training to career goals, business outcomes, and challenges faced by participants. A sample of 103 SME owners who had undergone vocational training was surveyed using a structured questionnaire. The data was analyzed using SPSS software to generate descriptive statistics, including means and standard deviations. Results indicate that while vocational training moderately improves employability and income generation, significant external challenges, such as limited access to capital, markets, and modern technology, hinder the long-term success of business ventures. The study concludes with recommendations for aligning vocational training programs with market demands and providing additional support to address external barriers.

This article reports of a study of workplace supervision and student experiences and outcomes through insights from semi-structured interviews with 21 graduates who had previously supervised work placement students. The study focused on questions framed from the perspective of the interviewees’ work placement experiences as a student and then as a supervisor (e.g., impact, motivation, insights for future students/supervisors, and graduate attributes). The findings from this study indicate importance of workplace supervisors setting expectations and engaging in initial planning and organizing for effective management of the work placement. Findings also suggest that the supervising can usefully take the form of mentoring, and that this provides the supervisor with professional development in self-management, effective communication and leadership. Implications for future WIL practice include utilizing workplace supervisors, particularly those who are themselves WIL graduates, to help...

Work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences rely heavily on the development of relationships between the university, industry and often community organizations. As participation in WIL is increasing, the issue of sustainability becomes paramount, requiring processes and practices for effective collaborations and partnerships. This paper reports on an action research project to develop a framework to represent the critical success factors for sustainable WIL relationships. Drawing on reflections from WIL practitioners on what they considered were the critical success factors and a review of literature, a framework was developed, prioritizing three key themes: communication, commitment and compatibility. Within these themes, nine key factors were identified and then evaluated by academic and industry stakeholders in New Zealand, Canada and Australia. Trust, expectations, reciprocity, coordination, vision, learning, resources, reputation, and recognition were confirmed as important fact...

The intention behind introducing English communication skills to engineering students is to make them industry-ready in two ways: one - to present the technical knowledge gained in their engineering course and two - to carry out the internal and external communication (orally and written) with the decency and decorum required for the corporate life. However, at the time of recruitment, most of the companies complain about the students’ inability to communicate their technical knowledge and also exhibit their communication competence. Hence, it is proven that there is a gap between the industry expectations and the inputs given to the students as part of their professional courses.

This paper is based on the extensive research done on the industry requirements as a single statement “students do not have enough communication skills” is vague and wide to be addressed in a classroom. The opinions of different MNCs (Multi-National Companies), which include pharmacy, software and hardware industries and HR (Human Resource) Managers involved in the recruitment process were collected in the form of questionnaires. We executed a questionnaire for 24 HR Managers of different companies. The areas covered were teaching methodology, materials used for language teaching, students’ background and industry requirements related to language training. The paper presents the rationale behind the research, the data collected from industry and the implications of the study.

At the current juncture of China's economic development, the mismatch between the supply of university graduates and contemporary organizations' staffing demands is becoming increasingly evident. Thus, student participation in internships and their use by organizations, as means to recruit and select graduate talent in China has undergone rapid expansion over the last three decades, to the point where today, as in many other national contexts, both interns and host organizations regard internships as a preferred pathway into entry-level professional positions. However, internships in China take place against a contextual backdrop which is generally regarded to be distinct from many other national contexts. Hence, this paper will situate the practice of internships relative to the Chinese context, and advocate the conceptualization internships, as a recruitment and selection tool capable of contributing towards addressing the contemporary staffing demands of organizations operating in China. (Asia

Importance of education and skill formation for econtomic gr owth anil dev eloPment As Bertrand Russell (1,91,6) observed 'the power of education in forming character and opinion is very great and verygenerally recognised'l. Accotding to him education infuses respect, gives coufage to pfotest against institutional anomalies, it helps to promote vitality, sensitiveness and intelligence' So a souncl education is a strong force in the process of social, econclmit: developmenr, in the pfocesses of political and psychologic',rl freedom (Russell, 2OO2).According to Amartya Sen (2013) 'thc role of basic education in the pfocess of development and srlcid pfogfess is very wide and critically impottant'2. Education helpr* to ,uir. the quality of life, lengthy and sustainable' Se:r"rntl educarion helps to build human capital and expand hurnnlt capabilities and 'freedom' (Drcze and Sen, 2002)' It helps lrr ,.do." deprivation, destitution, inequality and oppression tttttl creates a meaningful dignified life, it helps to generatc new RorE or Eouclrroru nruo Sxtrr CulrtvnrtoN TowARDs Ecoltot,ttc DeveLoptuenr opportunities, innovation, income, development, and freedom (Sen,2000). Dteze and Sen Q002) further noted five distinctimportances

Assessment in work integrated learning (WIL) programs typically involves workplace supervisors rating student performance against criteria based on employability skills. Yet investigations of differences in employer ratings that may impact on student outcomes are rare. This paper reports on a pilot study that examined supervisor evaluations of the performance of tourism and hospitality management students undertaking a mandatory capstone internship, either paid or non-remunerated. The descriptive and exploratory statistical analysis examines data derived from over one hundred supervisor evaluation forms. A few significant differences in supervisor ratings of performance in paid and unpaid groups and in the relative importance of skills were found. Overall, the study affirmed that supervisors generally rate students highly on all skills. The skills that students are prepared for and assessed on in our WIL program were found to be of high value to local hosts. Implications for debates regarding supervisory input into assessing student performance are explored.

Internships play a vital role in shaping the career paths of graduates,
particularly in the hospitality industry. Internships are commonly seen as a
valuable opportunity for students to gain practical experience, develop skills, and establish professional networks. This case study aims to examine whether internships in the hospitality sector provide a career advantage or a precarious experience for graduates. By analyzing the perspectives and experiences of hospitality graduates, this study sheds light on the benefits and challenges associated with internships and their impact on career development. However, concerns have been raised regarding the precarious nature of internships, including issues of exploitation, low wages, and limited career advancement. Internships have long been considered an essential part of hospitality education, offering students the chance to gain hands-on experience in the industry. In recent years, internships have become more of a requirement for academic credit rather than an opportunity for career development. This study investigates whether internships in the hospitality industry provide a genuine career advantage or if they perpetuate a cycle of
precarious employment for graduates.

During the last decade, the tertiary education sector in New Zealand moved from compliance driven audits to a model of quality assurance focused on evaluative conversations. In 2011 the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) recognised Otago Polytechnic as a top performing institution by confirming high confidence in educational performance and high confidence in self-assessment capability under the external evaluation and review process for Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs). In this presentation we report on the steps involved, and the cultural shift needed, to embed systematic and robust self-review and evaluation throughout all levels of the organisation using evaluative conversations. We also outline the role of senior management and quality assurance staff in creating the impetus for change. Achieving the shift required a sustained and enhanced focus on evaluative conversations based on the analysis of multiple sources of evidence based data and self-reflect...

The Covid pandemic has required a more flexible delivery of student internships, but how do international students think about what they have learned from their internship experience? This article follows a mixed-mode pragmatic approach to explore student perceptions of internship as a form of experiential learning. The views of a cohort of applied management undergraduates were investigated soon after the completion of different types of internships: company placement, offshore, blended and student-run Green Office projects. Surveys and focus groups were used to gain insight into students’ motivation as interns, what they felt they achieved and the capabilities they valued the most, as compared to earlier research into the perceptions of business employers. Findings indicate that, as with employers, verbal communication, teamwork and problem-solving are among the most valued capabilities. More surprising, however, is the learners’ regard for independence, responsibility and ethics....

There is a growing need for nutrition graduates to fill diverse roles that will address emerging health priorities including community-based chronic disease prevention, personalised nutrition, digital health, and innovations in food and agriculture. Little is known about  how well universities are preparing nutrition students to fill these roles. The aim of this study was to explore undergraduate nutrition students’ career awareness, confidence, and preparedness. A secondary aim was to explore their perspectives regarding employability initiatives within the university curriculum. A mixed methods approach was used, including semi-structured focus groups to gain in-depth insights and surveys to expand and diversify the study population, enhancing validity and transferability of the findings. Results of the focus groups were analysed thematically using an inductive approach. Initial themes informed the survey with closed questions analysed using descriptive statistics and open questions analysed thematically. Seven students participated in focus groups and 73 completed the survey. Common themes arising from the focus group and survey responses included a lack of awareness of roles available to nutritionists, lack of placement experience seen as a link to understanding what nutritionists do and getting that first job, and life experiences and personal circumstances influencing career pathways. Practical opportunities for nutrition students to develop their career awareness, confidence, and preparedness should be a key consideration in the design of the undergraduate nutrition curricula.

If graduates from STEMMscience, technology, engineering, mathematics and medical sciencesare to successfully navigate the labour market, they need diverse capabilities alongside selfand career awareness. The focus of this study was STEMM students' perceptions of self, career and employability. The study asked over 2,000 commencing students to respond to an open question which asked how long they intended to work in their discipline. The findings lend weight to the use of social cognitive career theory, which emphasises that career-and study-related decision making are influenced by feedback and feed-forward mechanisms and by intra-and inter-personal, historical, and contemporaneous dimensions. The article ends with implications for higher education teachers, including the need for strategies with which to help a diverse student body create meaning from the career-related messages that abound in public discourse.

Back in 2015, an article in the CESR Review (Mentoring Professional Women in Aviation and Aerospace) reported on an ESRC co-funded project to design a mentoring scheme for women in the aviation and aerospace industry. The project was based on a knowledge-exchange partnership between ourselves (the UWE team), the Royal Aeronautical Society (RaeS), the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Airbus. These partner organisations recognised the critical role that women play in their industry and through a formal mentoring programme, wanted to support their female professionals and encourage more into leadership roles. In this CESR Review special issue to celebrate International Women’s Day, we are delighted to report that the mentoring scheme (called alta) was launched in October, 2015, at the Women in Aviation and Aerospace conference at the prestigious Royal Aeronautical Society headquarters in Mayfair, London. The launch stimulated a great deal of interest from the female audience and to date, we h...

The study mapped the evidence about the internship in Sport Science courses by a scoping review. The used databases were Web of Science, Scopus, Scielo, Lilacs, Redalyc and Cinhal. The research strategy used the Boolean term AND with keywords selected in English, Portuguese and Spanish. Data collection period was since June to December of 2018. After the search 18 studies produced between the period of 1987 and December of 2018 were selected. Two reviewers did the qualitative analysis of the results to define main themes and categories of findings related. The main themes were: Knowledge, abilities and attitudes related to internship; Structural and Organizational aspects of Internship; Internship supervision; Internship experiences; Pedagogical and Methodological aspects of Internship development and; Student's Characteristics related to Internship. The findings addressed similar problems and positive points in different countries and courses, which could improve practical experiences at the internship in SS undergraduate courses.

Thai universities play a crucial role in preparing learners to be productive members of society. This study looks at how universities prepare students for work and what can be done to improve the process. Using a mixed method approach involving a survey of university students' opinions, a focus group of hiring managers interviews, and interviews with lecturers, a holistic view is achieved from the main stakeholders. The stakeholders show significant dissonance among expectations. These differences stem from many sources, mainly, the lack of shared and open information. Students enter university without a clear goal or a realistic informed prospectus. Lecturers try to bridge the gap between what is expected to be delivered and what industry needs. However, lecturers are working against a tide of reluctance from students' aptitude and abilities, faculty realities and fractured industries that do not share. Human resources personnel seem not to have a clear idea of what is expected from graduates, especially in a dynamic environment. What employers want varies widely, making training difficult. Even when students enter the workforce with the creative energies required, the established systems stifle growth. Having greater interaction among the parties would help reduce the differences in expectations. The interactions need to be continual throughout the students' time at university. Flexible programs and more internships would allow students to better understand how what is taught can be applied. Lecturers would have access to more relevant data and with class discussions being more informed. Companies can structure onboarding programs better as students would have experience an introductory phase. More exchanges among stakeholders are required.

This paper discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic can shift the conversation of paid and unpaid placements from an economic to a pedagogical and goodwill perspective During the pandemic lockdown many placements were cancelled or postponed Some continued as agreed but with students working from home, while other placements became unpaid We build on the pertinent literature that raises legal, ethical, economic and pedagogical implications of paid versus unpaid placement models and what motivates placement organizations to offer placements Four interdisciplinary trans-Tasman case studies are discussed to better understand the complex situations for placement organizations and universities to sustain WIL placements during this pandemic Conclusions include recommendations to be vigilant and ensure goodwill is not used to mask the exploitation of students, but rather, positively influence the motivation behind offering placements during these trying times and beyond © 2020 International Jour...

The educational sector has been a ected by the COVID-pandemic, such as the forced adaptation to online classes and students' lack of interaction and experience in practical classes. Because the hospitality and tourism industries require professional operations between guests and employees, this may cause concern among students who had to adapt to online classes during the pandemic about whether they have su cient competencies to be recruited into the workplace. However, the internship benefits higher education institutions, industries, and students by examining the su ciency of students' competencies in the workplace. Thus, this study aimed to determine the competencies of online learners that influence satisfaction in the employability of the hospitality and tourism industries post-COVID-. The logistic regression models were established to predict the likelihood of competencies toward each satisfaction attribute. The empirical results showed that among five recruitment attributes, the competencies provided a predictor likelihood on three attributes: foundation, employability, and adaptability, while it had no likelihood on knowledge. The collaboration attribute reported the insignificant regression model. Moreover, only internship experience provided a significant result for the adaptive attribute. Moreover, the discussion and practical implications were provided in this study.

Substantial costs are associated with attrition of key talent in South African organizations. As a result, organisations invest in graduate internship programmes to attract and retain high calibre graduate interns. The main objective of the research was to determine whether soft skills and technical skills training, as part of a graduate internship programme, contributed to the retention of graduate interns in a South African Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) company. An exploratory, ex post facto research design was followed. A soft skills, technical skills and retention survey were administered among a purposive selected sample of graduate interns (N=79) and mentors (N=39) in a South African ICT company. Both groups of participants indicated that the soft skills presented in the training are important. Combined, the respondents identified verbal communication, self-motivation, teamwork and goal directedness as the most important soft skills for graduate employability. Results further showed that the technical skills training contributed to a large extent to the employability of the graduate intern. Technical skills training were also significantly related to the graduate intern's intention to quit the internship programme. In conclusion, the current graduate internship programme focuses on the majority of employability soft skills required for the acquisition and retention of a job. Practical training is therefore important for the application of knowledge and to enhance graduate employability.

Her research interests focus on internationalization of higher education, university management and services, student mobility, employability and entrepreneurship. She has published in indexed journals including Studies in Higher Education and Journal of Studies in International Education. Adriana is also member of the Spanish Research Institute for Higher Education and Science (INAECU) and project coordinator of one KA203 European project on Erasmus skills. She is a member of the leadership team of the EAIE Expert Community and won the EAIE's Rising Star award in 2017.

As the world moves to a situation of increasing globalization, cooperative education has experienced growth in demand for international placements. However, this globalization of cooperative education has not been accompanied by research to support the outcomes of such growth. Here we report on a case study involving research into Thai students' experiences of international work placements in a variety of overseas countries, and overseas students completing work placements in Thailand. The research findings found similarities in this exchange between non-Western and Western countries, with other exchange arrangements between two Western countries. As might be expected, the students encountered some difficulties with immigration, language and communication difficulties. Advantages reported included perceptions of improved selfconfidence and career enhancement. The research also found that cultural differences are of particular importance in international exchange arrangements between non-Western and Western countries, or countries of different cultures. The findings reported here provide placement coordinators with an understanding of some of the challenges students face in a country different to their homeland and we conclude with recommendations to smooth this sometimes difficult transition.

Competencies possessed by students have an important role to measure the success of the learning process. The measurement of competence for students is by referring to the needs that must be met from the standards required by the Business and Industrial World. In order to fulfill these competencies, it requires cooperation between the world of education and the world of industry. The form of cooperation carried out is, among others, by carrying out industrial internship programs carried out by students. In this case, students directly carry out learning in the industry guided by professional tutors in the industry. This research provides an answer, that through industrial internship learning, students can improve the competencies needed according to the needs in the business world and the industrial world. The research method used in this research is quantitative experimental research using a purposive sample technique, which uses a comparison between the control class and the experimental class.

Increased graduate employment is an aspiration of Australian universities who are adopting new and innovative approaches to ensure that all students have opportunities to develop the employability skills much sought after by employers. Placements have been a traditional means for developing such skills but because these are not available to all students other non-placement activities such as industry and community projects, and simulated learning environments have become alternative ways of assisting students become job-ready. These authentic work-related activities enable students to apply and practice disciplinary learning in workplace contexts as well as develop graduate capabilities. A study at an Australian University investigated 1,500 assessments from 40 courses across four Faculties to determine the nature and extent to which authentic assessments were being embedded in courses. This paper presents the development of an authentic assessment framework and typology that was employed to conduct the action-inresearch investigation and to illustrate the investigative outcome, as well as holding prospects as a curriculum development tool and student engagement and development tool. (Asia

Assessment of student learning is a crucial part of quality work-integrated learning (WIL), yet presents some significant challenges for WIL practitioners. Assessment of WIL differs to assessment in classroom based courses because of the complexities of assessing the more holistic nature of learning in WIL, as well as (in many cases) managing the involvement of an external partner in the assessment process. This paper investigates academic workload implications of WIL assessment for staff at an Australian university. Over two years 34 WIL courses were surveyed, with 30 staff interviewed over a wider three-year period. Analysis of survey data reveals assessment of student learning is the largest single contributor to academic workload in WIL courses, with qualitative data providing some insight into the reasons for this. This paper reports findings from the study, noting implications and recommendations for practice, policy and future research.

We also acknowledge the contributions of students and staff from four institutions in participating in interviews and the survey; the contribution of student members of the Curtin Civil Engineering Association and the Reference Group for their calibration of the questionnaire; and members of the Reference Group and the critical reviewer appointed by the NCSEHE for graciously providing feedback on the research outcomes. The Reference group members were;

The article aims to analyze how to develop employability skills for Medan tourism polytechnic students through a multimedia system approach at the Medan tourism polytechnic. By interviewing several academics at the Medan Polytechnic tourism Department, we have obtained valuable data, including how academicians prepare students to develop their working skills in the hospitality world with a technological approach. We designed this study qualitatively with semi-structured interviews and reviewed secondary data. We finally got some valuable input. The coordinators and lecturers of the Medan Tourism Polytechnic have developed the abilities of their students who are ready to enter the world of a career in the future. The skills they prepared include, for example, being flexible workers, having industry awareness then, having attention to detail skills, time management, interpersonal skills and communication skills, and so on. Hopefully, these findings will become input for developing help studies and labeling skills for future students.

A connected program model is developed in a non-R1 university to address the skill gap in the current Information Technology (IT)/Information Systems (IS) workforce. The program aims to enhance undergraduate IT/IS education and research to equip graduates with employability and soft skills to enable them to meet emerging challenges in an ever-changing global environment. The model integrates six dimensions of connectivity including 1) academia to industry, 2) curriculum over time, 3) students to research projects and researchers, 4) across disciplines and the world, 5) students with students and alumni, and 6) students with faculty. The paper starts with examining what skill gaps are in the current IT/IS workforce, followed by an outline of the primary framework-the connected curriculum. The third section presents a case study illustrating how the authors developed and implemented the program in their university. The discussions and future research directions are included in the last section.

There is increasing pressure on higher education to include work-integrated learning (WiL) in its programs in order to prepare graduates for the workplace. However, there is a lack of detailed competencies required for this type of learning. The purpose of this study was to identify competencies needed for workintegrated learning (WiL). The case study took place in a food engineering practice school program in a Thai university. It involved multiple quantitative and qualitative data-collection techniques over a period of one year including interviews, observation, focus groups and surveys. Participants included alumni, instructors, administrators, graduate students, site directors, managers, a factory CEO, support staff and mentors. Results revealed six core competencies as follows: ethics and integrity; continuous learning skills, problem-solving and research skills, leadership and teamwork skills, communication skills with English language, and knowledge of food engineering. Analysis using Pearson Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation indicated that continuous learning skills, leadership and teamwork skills and problem-solving and research skills emerged as the most important competencies.

Graduates are the evidence of the worth of an academic program and the value of Higher Education Institutions. The study used Social System theory to asses the mandates of HEIs in delivering quality education. This assessment implemented a tracer study which examined the socio economic conditions of purposively sampled 92 graduates of the identified state university in Northern Negros from 2015-2020. The study used a cross-sectional method with CHED Graduate Tracer Study as the instrument. The data was collected through survey and was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The graduates have passed the Licensure Examination for Teachers and landed permanent jobs. The graduates' family income increased, and their alma mater contributed to their holistic development, contributing to the sustainability of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 and AmBisyon 2040. Tracer studies can be used to examine the socioeconomic conditions of graduates as a framework that goes beyond employability, competency, program, and curriculum development. It is suggested that this framework be replicated.

Although critical reflection typically is conceptualized and practiced as a solo endeavor, it's actually a collective enterprise (Brookfield, 2017, p. 68). Critical reflection has been identified as vital to the learning process (Ash & Clayton, 2009) and is an essential part of work-integrated learning (WIL), a pedagogical approach that facilitates student learning by integrating experiences across academic and workplace contexts (Billett, 2009). While there

Work experience is generally considered to be the best way to develop employability, but currently there are too few work placements to meet demand of engineering graduates. Non-placement authentic work integrated learning (WIL) is an alternative but there is very little research to show if learning outcomes are equivalent to real work experience. This paper describes an innovative approach to WIL for final year chemical engineering students. The perceptions of students who have undertaken a work placement are compared with those who participated in an on-campus authentic simulated work placement. The WIL module used a real project from a local STEM company, with rich complex resources. Students were co-supervised by the author and an engineer from the company on the project. The WIL module participants also participated in a variety of bespoke workshops targeted at critical skills. Initially the WIL students rated themselves significantly lower on a work readiness, but the deficit ...

I explain how and why higher education learning has come to be accounted for using calculative practices, and to examine critically the implications of this curricular accounting. The practices in question, in which credits or credit points are the prime unit of currency, are most visible in specifications of qualifications and courses (or units or modules), credit accumulation and transfer systems, and qualification frameworks, and on students' academic records and diploma supplements. They run in conjunction with learning outcomes, assessment scores and grades, levels of learning, graduate profiles and similar items. They cross over into student fee charging methods and scales, public funding of higher education based on student numbers, mechanisms within institutions for allocating financial resources and controlling academic workloads, and so marrying up with things more usually associated with accounting functions and practices. I use a genealogical approach, based on occurrences and events at a college and now university in Christchurch, New Zealand, since English settlers established it in the 1870s. Today's practices are shown to trace to ever-present concerns to attain and maintain equivalence in standards with institutions whence the settlers hailed and other places their descendants venerate, while simultaneously responding to economic, social, political and cultural needs in their settlements (e.g., locally educated secondary school teachers, engineers, lawyers, accountants and other professionals, and academics). Further international and national influences on how and why these practices developed were the growth of student numbers, as demands for educated labour increased and wider access to higher education became a social policy imperative, the broadening of the higher education curriculum, and the extension of accounting and associated calculative practices in government, public policy and higher education, as ideas associated with neo-liberalism and managerialism took hold.

I explain how and why higher education learning has come to be accounted for using calculative practices, and to examine critically the implications of this curricular accounting. The practices in question, in which credits or credit points are the prime unit of currency, are most visible in specifications of qualifications and courses (or units or modules), credit accumulation and transfer systems, and qualification frameworks, and on students’ academic records and diploma supplements. They run in conjunction with learning outcomes, assessment scores and grades, levels of learning, graduate profiles and similar items. They cross over into student fee charging methods and scales, public funding of higher education based on student numbers, mechanisms within institutions for allocating financial resources and controlling academic workloads, and so marrying up with things more usually associated with accounting functions and practices. I use a genealogical approach, based on occurrenc...

The curriculum being taught at universities though valuable and imparts knowledge, fails in preparing the graduates in the industry expected style [1]. Universities are known for their core competencies but somehow lack in training students on the workable front. So it is important for the HEIs to recognize the growing employability concern and introduce measures (e.g.) Modifications to the existing curriculum aiming on developing student's wider attributes and employability skills alongside their subject knowledge and academic skills. Good curriculum design should help learner construct understanding of not only subject matter but also develop skillful practices that could enable them to find appropriate jobs. Employability audits are becoming prominent and test how and where employability requirements are incorporated into existing curricula and where there might be gaps needing attention. Authors in this paper underwent a thorough analysis of their existing curriculum and have developed a work based skills module (WBSM) for incorporation into the curriculum. This suggested module will cater to training the student on employability skills (ie) Communication, Team building, Time and stress management, etc… Authors strongly believe in the effective redesign of curriculum as a powerful tool to build employability traits and hence confidence in future graduates to face the competitive job market. The proposed recommendations will have greater influence on preparing young graduates for their futures through education platform. Hopefully with this new curriculum changes are bound to happen whereby there would no longer be a hassle in the job market for graduates to find jobs.

Assessment in work integrated learning (WIL) programs typically involves workplace supervisors rating student performance against criteria based on employability skills. Yet investigations of differences in employer ratings that may impact on student outcomes are rare. This paper reports on a pilot study that examined supervisor evaluations of the performance of tourism and hospitality management students undertaking a mandatory capstone internship, either paid or non-remunerated. The descriptive and exploratory statistical analysis examines data derived from over one hundred supervisor evaluation forms. A few significant differences in supervisor ratings of performance in paid and unpaid groups and in the relative importance of skills were found. Overall, the study affirmed that supervisors generally rate students highly on all skills. The skills that students are prepared for and assessed on in our WIL program were found to be of high value to local hosts. Implications for debates...

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations offering work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities were no longer able to support student placements, resulting in many institutions searching for a range of innovative solutions Many have redesigned their conventional placement-based WIL activities or programs to enable students to meet graduate profile criteria through alternative means such as virtual or simulated WIL experiences The literature shows there are many models of WIL beyond conventional work placements Therefore, a meta-analysis was conducted of these WIL models, to provide a complied synthesis of existing practice from within the WIL field specifically focused on two books, the International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning, and three national WIL association conference publications The trends and qualities that emerge from the meta-analysis of existing practice can inform the redevelopment across the different modes of conventional, remote, virtual, and ...

Graduates' employability is vital in assessing higher education institutions’ performance. The results of tracer studies serve as a basis to identify graduates’ needs to succeed in the workforce. This undertaking aimed to determine graduate school graduates' employment and employability characteristics in a state higher education institution in the Philippines. Specifically, it determined the profile of graduates, employment status, employability characteristics, the extent of contribution and applicability of the skills gained, assessed the graduate program offerings, and recommendations to improve the services of the Graduate School. The study used a descriptive research design. The study gathered data from graduates of the two program offerings of the Graduate School. The questionnaire was used to gather the necessary data and analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequency count and percentage and mean. Based on the results, the graduates have the necessary eligi...

The hospitality and tourism industry in Singapore is rapidly growing and all polytechnics in Singapore are offering hospitality courses so that they can help sustain the economy with the necessary manpower. However, the new generation of Singapore millennial students choosing hospitality programs assess choice factors differently and give different priorities of importance to these factors. Factors have been grouped according to ‘Personal’, ‘Institution – Academic’, ‘Institution – Others’, and ‘Curriculum’, and students rated these on their own perceptions and against those perceptions from the faculty when designing hospitality programs to attract potential students. It has been noted that the ability to get a job after graduation is of the highest importance to both parties and that parents' and peers' influence do not matter in their choice of hospitality programs or polytechnics. With this understanding, educational institutions would need to relook at their strategies o...

The article aims to analyze how to develop employability skills for Medan tourism polytechnic students through a multimedia system approach at the Medan tourism polytechnic. By interviewing several academics at the Medan Polytechnic tourism Department, we have obtained valuable data, including how academicians prepare students to develop their working skills in the hospitality world with a technological approach. We designed this study qualitatively with semi-structured interviews and reviewed secondary data. We finally got some valuable input. The coordinators and lecturers of the Medan Tourism Polytechnic have developed the abilities of their students who are ready to enter the world of a career in the future. The skills they prepared include, for example, being flexible workers, having industry awareness then, having attention to detail skills, time management, interpersonal skills and communication skills, and so on. Hopefully, these findings will become input for developing hel...