Assessing Employers’ Expectation and Satisfaction toward Competencies of New Graduates in Thailand

Author(s):

Buratin Khampirat(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

11. Educational Improvement and Quality Assurance

Format:

Paper

Session Information

11 SES 13, Paper Session

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-26

13:30-15:00

Room:

OB-E2.14

Chair:

Samuel Gento

Contribution

Introduction

In the present competitive world and technological evolution, employers expect graduates to possess a wide range of skills and competencies, both in academic knowledge and the ability to apply skills and knowledge in the workplace (The Conference Board, 2006; Lowden, Hall, Elliot, & Lewin, 2011). High expectation is especially for graduates of science and technology programs, because the advancements in science and technology have contributed to the innovations of new products, services, and the productivity in the economic and industrial sectors (Stine & Matthews, 2009). Due to quality of graduates has a strong impact on the institutions’ reputation/brand (Stine & Matthews, 2009), thus graduate competencies become important key performance indicators in the quality assurance and accreditation of higher education institutions (HIEs) (Harvey, 2006; Weligamage, 2009). The employability of new graduates depends on the core skills, competencies and talents which they can bring and demonstrate to the workplace to get a great job and career opportunities (OECD, 2015), HIEs have to provide adequate competencies for the evolving workforce markets to be productive global citizens and professionals in the knowledge-based economy environment (Ayokanmbi, 2011). Research results have shown that most new graduates are inadequately prepared for the workplace and lack even basic skills needed for the job markets (International Engineering Alliance, 2013). Therefore, to improve the employability rates, HIEs have to seriously address the issues concerning with the graduate quality and competencies (ADB, 2012).

In Thailand, there are raised concerns over the quality of graduates and human capital attainment because the increasing number of graduates, especially in the fields of science and technology. Recently, the World Economic Forum (2015) assessed 124 countries on how well they are developing and deploying their human capital, focusing on education, skills and employment outcomes. Based on business executives’ perceptions, Thailand’s 15–24 age group has comparatively low quality education, rated at 3.45 (1 = worst score, 7 = best score) and ranked 75th. Thailand also has a low share of its workforce in high-skilled occupations, at 14.2% of its workforce and its very low level of high skills diversity (ranked 90th). This study also revealed that the medium-skilled employment in this country is relatively high, at 91.2% of its workforce (ranked 37th), and the lowest 15–24 age group unemployment rate is at 3%. Most importantly, the results indicated that there are many HIEs in Thailand which lack the quality to produce graduates for the labor markets and many low-skilled workers have already joined the workplace.

Graduate competency can be defined as a range of employability skills or abilities that graduates may develop during their life through the study courses, training, work experience, interests and extra-curricular activities (RMIT University, 2015), for which higher education institutions and stakeholders (economic and industrial sectors) can cooperatively prepare students for their future working life and interaction with others in a diverse community. To develop the competencies needed in the 21st century, HIEs have to strive to prepare their graduates for the rising demand for skills in the rapidly changing society and technology. To accomplish the appropriate goals, a measurement model to evaluate the levels of employers’ expectation and satisfaction toward the competencies of graduates must be established and studied in details.

Purpose

The objectives of this study are to test the construct validity of the New Graduate Competence Measurement Questionnaire (NGCMQ), and to explore and assess the levels of employer’s expectation and satisfaction toward competencies of new graduates of science and technology programs in Thailand

Method

Participants The participants in this study were employers in organizations of new graduates in the fields of science and technology in Thailand (N = 1,029 employers). Of the 1,029 respondents, 277 (26.92%) in small organization (11 – 100 employees), 312 (30.32%) in medium organization with less impact (101 – 500 employees), 138 (13.41%) in mid-sized organization (501 – 1,000 employees), and 94 (9.14%) in enterprises organization (> 2,000 employees). Employers in these organizations assessed female (550, 53.45%) and male (479, 46.55%) graduates. Measures The instrument used in the measurement of employers’ expectation and satisfaction on competencies of graduates was the New Graduate Competence Measurement Questionnaire (NGCMQ) developed by Khampirat (2008) based on the desirable characteristics of Suranaree University of Technology (SUT) graduates, and the model proposed by Sharif (2006). This questionnaire consists of 55 items covering four aspects as follows: Humanware, Orgaware, Infoware and Technoware. To measure the levels of expectation and satisfaction, employers rated the competencies of each new graduate using five-point Likert scales. They are in the range of 1 to 5; with “1” indicating “the lowest expectancy or not at all satisfied” response and “5” indicating “the highest expectancy or the highest satisfied” response. To estimate and assess the reliability of the NGCMQ, the internal consistency of the questions of each indicator/dimension was evaluated using the standardized Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient. The statistical results showed that the Cronbach’s alphas for all indicators and four dimensions ranges from .694 to .961. The questionnaire was delivered through postal services. Clear instructions on how to answer the questionnaire and how to return it were provided to facilitate the accurate completion of the statements and reduce respondent burden. The participants were invited by telephone with the understanding that their participation is completely voluntary. Data Analysis In the first part, the participants’ responses were analyzed using SPSS for Windows. Means, SD were computed and analyzed. The skewness and kurtosis analyses were conducted to test the normality of data. In the second part, Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to investigate construct validity of the NGCMQ, examine how well the hypothesized measurement model fits into the empirical data, and test the relationship between the observed variables (or indicators) and their latent construct. Various fit indices were employed to test the validation of the NGCMQ, In the third part, independent t-test was performed to test the mean differences between the levels of employers’ expectation and satisfaction toward the competencies of the new graduates.

Expected Outcomes

It appeared that based on the results of the second-order CFA, the proposed model that allowed four error terms to be correlated provides an adequate fit. The overall goodness-of-fit of the model also confirm that the hypothesized model fits well. A comparison of the means of expectation and satisfaction of employers toward competencies of new graduates measured in four aspects (Humanware, Orgaware, Infoware, and Technoware) indicated that there are significant differences in the scores for expectation and satisfaction; the mean values of the expectation are higher than those of the satisfaction in all dimensions. That is, there is a substantial skills gap or mismatch within Thailand’s labor force. This could be due to the fact that new graduates in science and technology in Thailand lack the essential skills and competencies in the workplace (Nguyen, 2014; IMD, 2014; World Economic Forum (2015). To increase the employability through the graduate competencies. Government, HEIs, community, industry and other stakeholders in Thailand have to work together to prepare students for their future working world through various approaches, in which the work-integrated learning (WIL) approach has been proven to be one of the most effective choices (Kramer & Usher, 2011). The statistical analyses of the NGCMQ, the success and problems of the cooperative education in Thailand will be addressed in detail in the conference. Finally, because the measurement model was constructed based on the information obtained directly from the employers, the author believed that this systematically tested measurement model could be applied with some modification in European countries. These is important because the development of desired characteristics, skills and competencies of graduates has been the target of HEIs in every country.

References

ADB. (2012). Improving transitions from school to university to workplace. Asian Development Bank. Ayokanmbi, F. M. (2011). Competencies for global engineers and technologists. Journal of Industrial Technology, 27(1), 1-6. Harvey, L. (2006). Employability and diversity. Research paper presented at the University of Wolverhampton. International Engineering Alliance. (2013, June 17-21). Graduate attributes and professional competencies. International Engineering Alliance Meetings, Seoul, Korea. IMD. (2014). IMD world competitiveness yearbook 2014. Switzerland: IMD World Competitiveness Center. Kramer, M. and Usher, A. (2011). Work-integrated learning and career-ready students: Examining the evidence. Toronto: Higher Education Strategy Associates. Khampirat, B. (2008). Development and validation of instrument to measure characteristics and competencies of science and technology graduates: A second-order confirmatory factor analysis. Journal of the Association of Researchers, 13(3), 60-71. Lathapipat, D., & Chucherd, T. (2013, September 19-20). Labour market functioning and Thailand's competitiveness. Paper presented at the BOT symposium 2013, Bank of Thailand. Lowden, K., Hall, S., Elliot, D. & Lewin, J. (2011). Employers’ perceptions of the employability skills of new graduates. London: Edge Foundation 2011. Nguyen, N. H. (2014). Thai workforce- ready for ASEAN economic community 2015? University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce. Nunnally, J. C. (1967) Psychometric Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill. OECD. (2015). OECD skills outlook 2015: Youth, skills and employability. OECD Publishing. Peddle, M. T. (2000). Frustration at the factory: Employer perceptions of workforce deficiencies and training trends. Journal of Regional Analysis & Policy, 30(1) 23-40. Radcliffe, D. F. (2002). Technological and Pedagogical Convergence Between Workbased and Campus-based Learning. Educational Technology & Society, 5(2), 1-9. RMIT University. (2015). Employability skills. Retrieved from http://mams.rmit.edu.au/m1ad83koqygu.pdf Sharif, N. (2006, August 22-23). Managing technological innovations: Business and academic considerations. Invited talk session presented at the international conference on technology based development: Strategies and options for Pakistan. Pakistan. Stine, D. D. & Matthews, C. M. (2009). The U.S. Science and Technology Workforce. U.S.A.: Congressional Research Service. The Conference Board. (2006). Are they really ready to work?: Employers’ perspectives on the basic knowledge and applied skills of new entrants to the 21st century U.S. workforce. U.S.A.: The Conference Board and the torch logo are registered trademarks of The Conference Board, Inc. Weligamage, S. S. (2009, November 22-24). Graduates' employability skills: Evidence from literature review. Paper presented at ASAIHL conference 2009, International University, Cambodia. World Economic Forum. (2015). The human capital report 2015. Switzerland, Geneva: World Economic Forum

Author Information

Buratin Khampirat (presenting / submitting)

Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand

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