Universities such as Paisley co-operate closely with industrial and commercial partners to ensure that the courses incorporate the newest ideas and trends in the marketplace, which complement the demands of these sectors, producing graduates whose core skills can be applied to professional practice.
The RMIT Business Study defines generic attributes adopted by business students as:
- Creativity – Innovative approaches to problem solving in relation to operations.
- Knowledgability – Defining the subject and its component elements.
- Responsibility - Information management, cost control and personnel issues.
- Critique – Techniques of problem solving.
- Conceptual – Integrating areas such as physical distribution and management within the context of concepts of business.
- Communication – making clear forecasts, directives and formulising strategies.
Employers could consider candidates with these learned skills as desirable. In addition to this, there are many ways in which a student benefits from the learning process of a University. Necessarily, they become responsible for the own learning: they are self regulated, defining goals and problems, and strategies to deal with them. The structured progression routes of tertiary education create engaged, committed learners.
However, some employers may look for more than simply a degree qualification. From the Herald Recruitment:
As consultancy work is such a wide term it is difficult to predict in advance what your role will involve. There are a number of tasks you could be asked to perform from Financial Modelling or Documentation of an Acquisition, or refinancing work. You will be working with partners and senior managers in order to research tax efficient and innovative solutions for the challenges their clients face. You will need an analytical mind and a proactive attitude. You will be providing administrative support to underwriters and claim adjustors to enable the provision of accurate underwriting/management information. You will need to have a business related degree and 1 years London market experience. This is an excellent opportunity to develop your career within insurance. During this process you will face many challenging situations requiring high levels of intuition, intelligence, tenacity and innovation.
Many employers feel that education to degree level is not a comprehensive study of requirements within a business field. Lave & Wenger (1991) have three key elements in their critique of formal education:
- Schooling does not necessarily produce practitioners of some practice; rather it produces people who are able to talk about practice as opposed to belong to a community of practice.
- Schooling essentially isolates students and teachers from other communities of practice. It can cut off learners because there is no link between theory and practice.
- Teaching and Learning in Universities are mediated by theoretical learning rather than by experiential learning.
Their research implies that the knowledge gathered in the course of daily work can be highly significant for employees, but that educators are largely unaware of it.
Therefore, perhaps Education requirements in current Business recruitment should not become a substitute for continuing professional practical development but either be
vocational, or a preparatory measure for a career in general.
An RMIT Business study revealed that Graduates could not adequately apply knowledge to situations in professional practice. Reflective skills therefore are considered an important part of the development of business learning, giving students the opportunity to understand the relationship between the working and learning process.
This lack of ability to connect their own experiences, professional practice and theoretical knowledge could potentially be a deterrent to employers seeking effective employees.
Tasks such as team building, leadership and problem solving cannot be fully comprehended when sterilised out with the demands of the workplace. So too, personal effectiveness and hands on decision making cannot be completely addressed prior to experience in an organisation.
(Our Client) Their Aim is to offer a small number of clients a high degree of service, and the certainty that they are being advised by experienced and committed individuals whose reputation rests upon every project they undertake. Our client is now looking to recruit a graduate looking to move into a consultancy role within financial PR and strategic communication. As a candidate you will have an excellent educational background, be highly motivated, a self-starter, flexible, intuitive and well presented. You will have untold ambition and wish to
work yourself up the career ladders very quickly. You will also have the utmost respect for confidentiality as all the projects you will be working with will involve significant financial decisions. The work will be high pressured and demanding. Ideally you will have some work experience, within investment banking, journalism, or maybe accountancy, this is likely to be as an internship during your education.
Many Universities now offer a placement year in industry as part of their sandwich degree courses. This gives the student practical experience supporting their academic studies. It may be argued that this is contradictory to the system of academic learning, on one hand encouraging students into University environments, while on the other, promoting the value of vocational experience. Regardless, it has proven to be a successful combination for employer and employee alike, with industry professionals often significantly contributing in some areas of academic syllabi.
Also, this influence of industry over academic study has proven a powerful and lucrative partnership that has given newer, market driven Universities the crucial edge over their more established, traditionalist counterparts.
As concerns education and continuing education for business as a discipline, learning is variable. The field of business learning is developing as an area of study in addition to the burgeoning strategic significance that companies now attach to the importance of education and training. Employers therefore are expected to use their own initiative and discernment when determining the importance of either theoretical or experiential learning processes. Representation may not be considered to be a part of the process of learning, yet it is clear that, at times, the process of representing learning is actually part of learning (Eisner 1982, 1991).
“Mediated Learning” is a term used by Laurillard (1991) to describe a situation in which a student learns about something from a teacher rather than from experiencing the matter directly. She argues that this is different from experiential learning and can be useful because it uses processes such as argument, exposition, interpretation and reflection. Employers could then view such Mediated Learning as preferential in some cases.
Ausubel and Robinson (1969) propose that there is no clear distinction between mediated and non-mediated learning. Thus, employers, for optimum effectiveness in the recruiting process, must judge each employment situation’s needs, and the candidate suited to fulfilling them, individually.
Ross Paul (2000) believes that the most recent view of the University as a tool for economic growth attempts to “bring together the primary intellectual and entrepreneurial forces that have traditionally been separated”.
In conclusion, one could argue that the obvious benefits incurred through both types of learning could be of equal importance to employers and, therefore, the combination of the key elements of both these strategies may make for the most efficient and industry adaptable applicants.
References & Bibliography
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Ausubel, D & Robinson, F (1969) School Learning, Hold, Reinhardt & Winston, London, UK
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Bligh, Donald (1971) What’s the use of Lectures? Harmondsworth: Penguin
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Brown, JS & Duguid, P (1996) “Universities and the Digital Age”, Change, July/August: 11-19
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Cole, N.S. (1990) Conceptions of Educational Achievement, Educational Researcher 19(3), 2-7
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Eisner, E (1982) Cognition and Curriculum: A Basis for Deciding What to Teach, Longman, New York
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Fox, S (1997) From Management Education to Management Learning, Reynolds: Sage Publications, UK
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Kolb, David A. (1984) Experiential Learning, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall
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Laurillard, D (1993) Rethinking University Teaching, Routlegdge, London
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Lave, J & Wenger E (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge University Press, UK
