SUBMISSION TO THE REVIEW OF HIGHER EDUCATION FINANCING AND POLICY
from
NAGCAS (Aust) Inc
“The Australian National Association of
Professional Graduate Careers Advisory Services”
Our association represents
professional staff from
Higher Education Careers Advisory Services across Australia.
This paper will address a number of the major themes within the review terms of reference, with specific attention to :
Theme One: the role of higher education in Australia’s society and economy
Theme Two: factors affecting the demand for and provision of higher education over the next 10 to 20 years
Theme Three: regulatory and administrative framework for higher education
“Nothing less than the economic and social future of our country is at stake when we are dealing with the preparation of graduates for employment” General Manager, Mobil Europe, Skills for Graduates in the 21st Century. |
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Context
One scenario for the higher education sector of the future is that of an undergraduate curriculum which is generic in focus with a decrease in emphasis on the development of technical and vocational skills.
Problems/Issues
1. Whilst there are merits in generic programs, in terms of equipping students with core higher order skills, degrees with less vocational focus can result in students having less clarity in their career goals. There is a very strong case for enhancing more ‘generalist’ curricula with a career education / career planning component.
2. The workplace of the 21st Century will require graduates to be more self reliant and entrepreneurial as they navigate a labour market undergoing constant change and characterised by increasing uncertainty.
3. Graduates are increasingly entering employment within Small to Medium Enterprises (SME’s). Within these organisations there is little opportunity for the employer to develop ‘work ready’ skills.
4. Within this paradigm, employers other than the larger corporates, will not have the capacity to provide comprehensive applied or vocational training. However graduates who are sufficiently aware of their core generic and transferable skills and their relationship to the workplace, will thrive in this market, resulting in a positive impact on the Australian economy.
Structural Responses
1. Australia lags behind the Northern Hemisphere in terms of preparing graduates to enter a labour market that will undergo constant change in the years to come. Curriculum offerings in career planning in North America and the UK enable students to explore their core skills, the labour market and how to make informed and appropriate vocational decisions.
2. Within a more generic undergraduate model it is critical that the curriculum contain a component that will increase student employability, as evidenced in the North American model.
3. It is also the case that more generic first degrees in Britain and North America are complemented by a much wider range of accessible(both in academic and cost terms) graduate level courses with a professional and/or vocational focus. The range of such offerings has increased in Australia in recent times, including areas such as Medicine, but an increasing emphasis on ‘generalist’ first degrees would demand even further expansion.
Quality Assurance
1. Quality outcomes can be enhanced through improved linkages between higher education and secondary careers practitioners. Assisting students in the educational process of career and course choice is cost effective as it impacts on improvements in course completion rates and employment outcomes.
2. Careers Advisory Services have a developing role as data providers and consultants to their institutions in matters related to outcomes, retention and adding value to the university experience.
3. There is an urgent need for an increasing role for Professional Careers Advisory Services in fostering linkages between a more generic curriculum and the world of work.
4. Professional Careers Advisory Services also play a key role in helping students at first degree level to consider further study as part of their career development. Again the overseas models are instructive - a recent appointment to a major public university in the US was to the position of Director of Career and Graduate School Services. This signifies an implicit recognition that career development is a continuous process, which does not begin and end with first degree studies, but extends beyond into both first employment and/or further study.
A FUTURE SCENARIO?
Universities to be less vocationally focused, with less reliance on developing technical skills that can be utilised in the workplace. Business/industry to make a more significant contribution to developing technical and work ready skills ‘on site’.
PROBLEMS /ISSUES
Whilst a shift towards a more autonomous higher education sector may result in stronger relationships between the pre Dawkins or sandstone institutions and some large corporates, the implications of this for the way the graduate employment market works, and for the balance of responsibilities for professional level preparations between universities and employers need careful thought.
Students entering a higher education sector which is less vocational in focus may be expected to have a less well-focused sense of career direction, unless mechanisms and services are established to provide assistance with career development, there is a risk that this could have a significant impact on course completion rates as more students withdraw, are less focused, consequently failing subjects, and consider changing courses with increasing frequency. Increased HECS fees will probably result in no initial increase in variations to programs, however, at the conclusion of their university education, the transition to appropriate employment may be more difficult unless students have significant opportunities to gain career insights.
This will lead to a decrease in productivity and effectiveness for the education dollar.
One major contribution to career development lies in the form of opportunities for experiential learning which are well documented in North America for their positive contribution to course completion rates and employment outcomes. (Course completion rates and employment outcomes are often utilised in assessing institutional effectiveness. Lower completion rates will mean a less cost effective higher education sector)
If students at graduation, lack career insights and an understanding of the workplace they may enter into occupations and industries that are not appropriate, resulting in a decrease in productivity within those workplaces and an increase in the movement between employers, proving costly to employers, graduates and the wider Australian society and economy.
This is not a cost effective way to prepare human capital for the labour market.
The Federal Coalition has targeted, as one of its key objectives, real growth within small to medium enterprises (SME’s). Within these emerging SME’s, there is a growing demand for labour that is well educated and highly skilled and that can make an immediate contribution to the productivity of these enterprises. In addition, a core skill required within this sector is entrepreneurial or enterprise skills. (These skills were so highly valued by the British government in the late 80’s that significant funds were made available to higher education institutions to encourage development of curricula and programs that developed these skills within graduates. This funding was maintained through the mid 90’s and enhanced by European funding.)
Curricula and programs that develop enterprise skills in graduates will have a positive impact on the Australian economy.
A 19 year old commencing study in 1998 will graduate in the year 2001. Ten years later at age 31 it will be the year 2011, and will still have three decades to make a significant contribution to the workplace.
Beyond 5 years it is virtually impossible to predict the knowledge requirements of business and industry. What can be predicted is that core skills of self reliance that can be transferred to new contexts are what will enable graduates to navigate effectively their professional lives.
Recent research in the UK and the US indicates that self reliance skills will increasingly be required to respond to the dynamic nature of the labour market. Notions of careers for life will become outdated as individuals will be required to manage their own careers more effectively. To cope with and enter this workplace of the 21st Century, graduates will need a whole new set of skills - negotiation skills, self promotion skills, ability to operate independently from a conventional employer base and living with uncertainty. Career paths will be replaced by a portfolio of careers that an individual must manage, requiring individuals to be more self reliant, proactive and entrepreneurial.
In this environment it seems unlikely that an individual employer is likely to make the financial commitment to comprehensive training for what will become, in the changing labour market of the 21st Century, a short term employee.
Within this paradigm, individuals who are self aware of their core generic and personal transferable skills will thrive in the labour market of the future and hence make the most productive and effective contribution to Australia’s society, culture and economy. Conversely, new graduates who do not have an awareness of these elements in themselves will find it even more difficult than at present to compete with experienced graduates, while graduates educated overseas may be seen as preferable to ‘work unready ‘ product.
Furthermore, Australia’s international student market may be compromised by any major reduction of skills acquisition at the first degree level, unless mechanisms discussed here are enhanced, ie career development elements within those first degrees, and an expanded range of vocational and professional opportunities beyond the first degree, given that in most cases, immigration laws prevent them from obtaining the employment which would enable them to add to their generalist first degree education in Australia. Losses to overseas markets could be significant.
STRUCTURAL RESPONSES
Through our association, our members have recently been promoting the introduction of a subject available within the curriculum for credit that can be undertaken by students in their penultimate year. This subject will assist students identify and realise their post university goals. (see appendix 1)
The Aulich Report in the early 90’s titled “The Priorities of Reform of Higher Education in Australia” has as one of its key issues, cultural literacy, and its impact on contemporary vocational decision making. In particular, the issue of higher education students’ lack of knowledge and understanding of the interacting market places of education and employment. This cultural ‘illiteracy’ factor could well be exacerbated within a generalist curriculum if it ignores or fails to make meaningful connections between the worlds of education and work.
Australia lags behind the northern hemisphere in terms of preparing graduates to enter a labour market that will undergo constant change in the years to come. The US and the UK offer university curricula that enables students to explore aspects of themselves, the labour market, and how to make informed and appropriate decisions that will enhance the capacity of the individual to manage their careers in the workplace of the future.
Curriculum offerings in career development and career planning are common throughout institutions in the above mentioned countries. Extensive work in particular has been undertaken in the UK, with collaboration between careers practitioners and faculties to prepare curricula that meets the vocational needs of students. Within the US the emphasis is on career development subjects offered for students involved in undeclared majors, thereby assisting individuals in making appropriate decisions re their major course of study.
Career planning should thus be linked in a positive way to the move to a more generic model of undergraduate studies, not merely as the technology of narrowing the student towards employment options, but to enhance and enrich that generative capacity of the well-informed consumer in the educational and employment ‘market places’.
There will be a vital role for careers education in ensuring that students are aware of the importance of acquiring transferable skills during the time they are a student, so as to maximise their immediate employability upon completion.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO QUALITY ASSURANCE
In the scenario outlined above, re a movement to a more generic and less vocationally focussed curriculum, university careers advisory services will have a critical role in quality agendas. They will need to be appropriately resourced to enable them to increase activity in securing industry links and employment within and during courses, and to maximise the possibility of graduates obtaining immediate employment so that their education may be ‘completed’.
Monitoring of outcomes through the Graduate Destination Survey and Course Experience Questionnaire will be important for its contribution to sector accountability. Across many institutions these surveys are co-ordinated by the Careers Advisory Service. Careers Advisory Services have a developing role as data provider and consultant to the institution in many issues related to outcome, retention and adding value to the university experience.
The recommendations of the Koder Review concerning linkages between careers education in schools (the input end of tertiary institutions) and careers services in higher education (throughput and output end) have largely not been implemented. This increases the possibility of ill advised course choice, with economic consequences, in effect, a waste of human capital.
Stronger careers services that enhance an individuals capacity to learn how to make good career and life decisions are an essential element of higher education now and in the next century.
APPENDIX 1:
SUBMISSION TO THE REVIEW OF
HIGHER EDUCATION FINANCING AND POLICY
AAGE - GCCA - NAGCAS
CAREERS IN THE CURRICULUM WORKING PARTY
1. In order to maximise an individual’s potential to navigate the workplace of the future, higher education should ensure that the following core skills are incorporated in the curriculum to support discipline specific learning :
1.1 self management skills - values, ethics, time management, enterprising , assertiveness, self reliance
1.2. learning skills - independent learning, information literacies
1.3. communication skills - written and oral (presentation, report writing), interpersonal (negotiation/mediation),
1.4. teamwork skills - negotiation, listening, leadership and collaboration
1.5. problem solving skills - analysis, synthesis, research, strategic planning
1.6. technical skills - appropriate to the discipline.
2. Stakeholders in the graduate employment industry - AAGE , NAGCAS and the GCCA - have identified that many graduates do not demonstrate competency in the skills listed above, and other attribute shortcomings (eg. lack of entrepreneurial skills), that impact upon the Australian economy. Collaborative activities over recent years have led to the formation of this working party after concerns were articulated from employers and careers practitioners .
The primary role of the working party is to raise awareness amongst the university and government sectors of the importance of a curriculum that facilitates the capacity for students to make informed decisions by ensuring the curriculum incorporates the development of core and career development skills. This will impact positively on their post university transition, resulting in students working within organisations where they are able to make the most productive contribution. In effect, having graduates employed in the right organisation and position, for the right reason. A career development subject offering would address these issues and incorporate the following components:
2.1 self awareness - occupational choice theories, values, career maturity, skills audit
2.2 opportunity awareness - labour market trends and the changing nature of the workplace, including the culture within both large and small organisations, graduate expectations and opportunities.
2.3 decision learning - decision making theory, research skills
2.4 transition learning - experiential learning, job seeking skills, including networking, writing job applications and interview skills.
3. If there is to be a movement towards a generic undergraduate curriculum, it will become increasingly important that there are elements of the curriculum that foster the capacity of the individual to maximise the relevance of the university experience to the world of work.
Given this, there are two approaches that the working party would recommend:
3.1. Existing subject offerings must be enhanced to foster the development of core skills referred to above (1.1 - 1.6)
3.2. A career development subject must be available within the curriculum (2.1 - 2.4)
Careers in the Curriculum Working Party:
Barbara Bell (Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia) Malcolm McKenzie (UTS)
Bill Cashman (Fujitsu) Eileen Pena (UNSW)
Tricia Pilgrim (Royal SunAlliance) Roger Bartley (GCCA)
Martin Smith (University of Wollongong)