http://rwe.sciedupress.com Research in World Economy Vol. 12, No. 1, Special Issue; 2021 Published by Sciedu Press 143 ISSN 1923-3981 E-ISSN 1923-399X Bhorat, Mayet and Visser (2012) reveal that graduates who attended a historically underprivileged institution stand less chances of getting into the labour market compared to those who attended privileged institutions (Ohei & Brin, 2019). HEIs have a key role to play in ensuring that graduates become employable. When graduates search for jobs, they are unable to acquire details about job availability or job requirements or they are inexperienced in job application procedures. This often has a major impact on a graduate’s employment profile. Most importantly, skills such as verbal, communicating, writing and computer skills are highly recommended and are deemed paramount for a successful job search and application process (Hamilton et al., 2015). Employers indirectly or directly have either a positive or negative perception about the quality of graduates, which in turn is reflective of the university from which the qualification was attained (Ohei & Brink, 2019). Research shows that unrealistic criteria by employers, unrealistic expectations, employers’ perceptions based on previous experience (i.e. employing unskilled graduates), work experience, graduates’ job search approach, quality of graduate and HEIs’ education delivery approaches are all associated with preventing graduates from being employable (Saad & Majid, 2014). 3. Methodology In the South African context, graduate unemployment is one of the main prevalent problem facing the country today. The effect of the unemployability of graduates within the countries’ economy can be well understood from the fact that the scale of unemployment rate continues to give rise year after year and now the issue with COVID-19. The unprecedented outbreak that has gripped the country’s economy, hence the issue of graduate unemployment will continue to upsurge globally, due to the impact of the COVID-19. Thus, graduates’ employability distress is not only problematic in nature, conversely, it poses severe economic strain and societal consequences wherefore a graduate of a country is detached in the service of the country. According to Creswell (2014), the philosophical assumptions, design and methods are crucial to the purpose of any research endeavour. This paper was keyed in the quantitative research investigation which warranted the use of questionnaire technique for data gathering approach. This approach chosen was deem fit asit offers a better platform to collect a substantiable amount of dataset for the project. The questionnaire was tested before the initial distribution of the questionnaire and the necessary adjustments were perfected. The questionnaire was designed and sent to a qualified statistician, who ensured that it remained compliance with ethics and the respondents would not find it difficult when filling the questionnaire. A covering letter clarified the purpose of the study, the length of the questionnaire, as well as researchers’ details and how the results would be used. The questionnaire targeted 250 wasrandomly selected from the universities database and N=195 of 78% responses rate were recovered and usable. The information that were gathered was then captured using Microsoft Excel sheet, and later transferred to the SPSS Statistics Version 23 and the information was coded and labelled to represent meaningful information for interpretation and analyses. The data was analysed using figures and tables for the representation and readership. In order to comply with ethical scholastic research morals, consent was acquired through all the relevant ethical procedures. It was then that voluntary involvement, privacy and confidentiality were guaranteed throughout the study. The respondents were male and female graduates/students of the College of Business and Economics (CBE) who had completed their higher education degree at the University of Johannesburg, across the four campuses. The study aimed to examine the reasons behind ICT graduates’ employability distress, its effect on graduates and their employability skills. The rationale behind focusing on CBE graduates was the general assumption that a university degree in any of the qualifications in AIS, ITM, ICT and CS would result in better job opportunities that were highly paid (Mlatsheni, 2012; National Treasury, 2011; Stats SA, 2018). These graduates may have invested substantial resources in higher education in pursuit of the aforementioned qualifications with the hope of a high return. 4. Results, Discussion and Findings The findings based on the research questions are now discussed. The first step was to answer the question of how graduates perceived unemployment challenges that they faced on a daily basis. The second was to identify the reasons why most ICT graduates are unable to secure their ideal job opportunity that was in line with their professional qualifications. The next steps were to understand what skill sets graduates believe employers expect ICT graduates to acquire, what factors cause graduates to become unemployable and how these issues of employability can be handled appropriately. The analyses of the demographic variables of gender, career discipline, institution and age category of the respondents are dealt with first.
http://rwe.sciedupress.com Research in World Economy Vol. 12, No. 1, Special Issue; 2021 Published by Sciedu Press 144 ISSN 1923-3981 E-ISSN 1923-399X Figure 2. Respondents’ career discipline and gender Of the 195 respondents, there were more males in business information technology and information systems auditing at 11.28% and 10.26%, respectively, compared to females at 9.23% and 9.74%, respectively. There were more females in information systems (9.23%), information technology management (4.10%), IT security and Auditing (3.59%) and computational intelligence for industry (3.59%) compared to males. Figure 3. University and age category As shown in Figure 3, this study targeted the University of Johannesburg, across four campuses. The majority of the respondents fell within the age category of 18-25, followed by 25-31. The age category of 31 and above was insignificant. The findings imply that in the educational environment, a student who falls in the age category of 18-25 is assumed to have completed and obtained their first-degree qualification, given that most academic course programmes take 3-4 years to complete. A statistical analysis was conducted of the period 2000 to 2019, which indicates when ICT graduates surveyed completed their degree or qualifications. The findings show that the years 2016 and 2017 were significantly represented compared with the remaining years in which ICT graduates obtained their qualifications within their respective academic disciplines. This indicates that graduates had been actively searching for employment and were available for any possible opportunities. 28.7% and 27.2% of graduates had been available for employment for 6 months to 1 year and for more than 1 year, respectively. This paper focused on the employability distress of ICT graduates/students and attempted to offer viable insight into how ICT graduates/students perceive the challenges of unemployment. As discussed earlier, several academic sources
http://rwe.sciedupress.com Research in World Economy Vol. 12, No. 1, Special Issue; 2021 Published by Sciedu Press 145 ISSN 1923-3981 E-ISSN 1923-399X reveal that the employability issue remains the biggest theft of hope among graduates/students and young people in South Africa. Therefore, the study sought to understand how graduates perceive unemployment and employability challenges and to determine the factors behind graduate unemployment, what employers require and the skills they expect from graduates and how graduates can fulfil these requirements and expectations. 4.1 Graduates’ Views of Employability ICT graduates/students worry about whether they will be able to secure the right employment in the labour force after completing their degree. This section of the questionnaire attempted to determine how ICT graduates felt about employability and unemployment and the effect of this stress on graduates. The challenges that come with unemployment have to some extent restricted most ICT graduates/students from entering the South African labour market. Questions in this section of the questionnaire were about the ICT graduates’ employability status, application process and job search aptitude, whether they received feedback from employers on job applications, what platforms were being utilised for job applications and whether they would continue to search for possible job opportunities. All these questions were asked in order to fully understand graduates’ views of employability. Table 1. Current employability status of graduates Itemised Frequency Per cent Employed 51 26.2% Unemployed 144 73.8% Total N = 195 100.0 Table 2. Job held in line with academic qualification or profession Itemised Frequency Percent Yes 30 15.4% No 68 34.9% N/A (Unemployed) 97 49.7% Total N = 195 100.0 Table 1 presents the responses gathered from the ICT graduates in relation to their employability status. The results show that employability is a major concern for most ICT graduates/students. Of the 195 ICT graduate/student respondents, the majority (144 or 73.8%) remained unemployed. This gives rise to the question whether a university qualification still offers avenues for ICT graduate employability and opportunities in well-paying jobs (Abel & Deitz, 2016). While high unemployment among ICT graduates remains the centre of attention and has gained substantial consideration from decision makers and society as a whole, there is also an increasing concern that many ICT graduates are finding themselves underemployed. A follow-up question was asked to determine the state of their job positions. 15.4% agreed that the job positions that they were employed in were in line with or related to their academic qualifications; 34.9% believed that their job positions were not in line with their academic profession or qualifications. The majority of respondents (49.7%) were unemployed. This shows that ICT graduates/students who are unable to find employment that fits into their academic line of profession or that speaks directly to their academic qualifications take up job employment as clerks, retailers and receptionists. This is often referred to as underemployment or limited low wage earning. Joblessness and underemployment of ICT graduates suggest a bizarre and huge waste of capital and resources and an increased level of anguish among graduates. This may give rise to social segregation, intensifying disparity among graduates and a range of societal problems (Ohei & Brink, 2019; Livingstone, 2018). Table 1 reveals the statistics of ICT graduates’ employability status, but it was also fundamental to ascertain whether ICT graduates were motivated to secure job opportunities by applying and hunting for jobs, irrespective of their
http://rwe.sciedupress.com Research in World Economy Vol. 12, No. 1, Special Issue; 2021 Published by Sciedu Press 146 ISSN 1923-3981 E-ISSN 1923-399X employability challenges. In so doing the study sought to understand their commitment to the job search and application process. Table 3. Job searches undertaken if unemployed Itemised Frequency Per cent Yes 130 66.7% No 65 33.3% Total N = 195 100.0 Table 4. Desired action if unemployed Itemised Frequency Percent Find a job 88 45.1% Start business 61 31.3% Continue studying 19 9.7% All of the above 27 13.8% Total N=195 100.0 The table 3 above suggests that the majority of the ICT graduates had been seeking employment opportunities. Some graduates were optimistic that they would continue to search and apply for any possible job opening in the labour market. Others believed that starting their own businesses would be ideal, since it was a struggle to secure employment. Very few would opt to continue with their studies and possibly find a job or start up a business. In their job search approach, not many ICT graduates were able to obtain details about certain job requirements and availability, and their inexperience with job application procedures often had a major impact on their employment profile. Graduates were asked to indicate the platforms used in their job application processes and searches. Table 5. Tools or platforms used in job search Itemised Frequency Per cent V. per cent Employer websites 20 10.3% 10.3% University career portal 21 10.8% 10.8% Employer brochures 17 8.7% 8.7% National newspapers 34 17.4% 17.4% Internal application submission 32 16.4% 16.4% Commercial career websites 26 13.3% 13.3% Networking sites 31 15.9% 15.9% Career service directory 14 7.2% 7.2% Total N=195 100.0 100.0 Table 5 lists the platforms used by ICT graduates to seek employment. The majority of the respondents used national newspapers, followed by internet application submissions, networking sites and employers’ commercial career web pages or websites to gain insight into the employers’ requirements for a specific job advert. When graduates apply for job employment, it would be preferable for them to receive feedback on whether their application was successful or not. This would serve as motivation and encouragement for graduates to fully comprehend the areas that need improvement in their application approach. Unfortunately, employers never provide
http://rwe.sciedupress.com Research in World Economy Vol. 12, No. 1, Special Issue; 2021 Published by Sciedu Press 147 ISSN 1923-3981 E-ISSN 1923-399X this feedback whether their application was successful or not or the area that need improvement. Despite their yearning to secure employment, a greater proportion of the respondents showed some hesitancy in applying or looking for lucrative employment, particularly where no feedback is given, or they are invited for an interview but only a few make it to the final conclusive interview. Table 6 shows that 118 (60.5%) of the respondents never received feedback on their applications. Table 7 shows that the majority (slightly more than half, 102 vs 92 who were invited for one or more interviews) were never invited for an interview. Table 6. Positive or negative feedback received from employer Itemised Frequency Per cent Yes (Successful) 21 10.8% Yes (Unsuccessful) 45 23.1% No feedback 118 60.5% N/A (Employed) 11 5.6% Total N = 195 100.0 Table 7. Number of interviews granted Itemised Frequency Percent 1-2 interviews 75 38.5% 3-4 interviews 10 5.1% More than 5 interviews 8 4.1% Never invited for an interview 102 52.3% Total N = 195 100.0 4.2 The Effects of Unemployment on Graduates There is a psychological side to graduate unemployment which is viewed as crucial in this analysis as it aids an understanding of how graduates experience and respond to unemployment as human beings. In most cases, the economic effect of ICT graduate unemployment is well documented while the psychological effect is often sidelined. It is, however, of the utmost importance to understand the psychological effect of unemployment on graduates, as being unemployed impacts negatively on their well-being. Unemployment puts the mental health of graduates at risk as most unemployed graduates show a constant decrease in overall satisfaction with life, general well-being and self-esteem, and symptoms of depression, especially if they are unemployed for a long period. The evidence gathered from this study is reflected in Table 8, which supports this claim. The consequences of unemployment have been discussed extensively in the literature (Cloete, 2015). Research studies suggest how unemployment could have a positive or negative impact on graduates as it denies them the sense of belonging or freedom or access to basic things in life. The analysis and discussion below provide a clearer justification of the negative effect of unemployment on ICT graduates (Rogan & Reynolds, 2016; Mncayi & Dunga, 2016; Kraak, 2010; Pauw, Oosthuizen & Van der Westhuizen, 2008) Table 8. Negative effect of unemployment on ICT graduates/students Itemised C. agree Agree C. disagree Disagree Causes low self-esteem 30.8% 37.9% 14.9% 16.4% Causes low self-confidence 24.6% 39.0% 23.1% 13.3% Lack of sense of belonging 12.3% 45.6% 31.3% 10.8%
http://rwe.sciedupress.com Research in World Economy Vol. 12, No. 1, Special Issue; 2021 Published by Sciedu Press 148 ISSN 1923-3981 E-ISSN 1923-399X Employment can result in social security and a sense of value and worth, and form a person’s personality and self-esteem. As a result, many theorists suggest that an individual’s worth is classified or categorised through their earnings from being employed (Claassens, 2011). Therefore, employment in this context allows individuals the prospect of satisfying their psychological desires. Graduates surveyed indicated that unemployment may lead to a lack of sense of belonging and it also causes anxiety, low self-confidence and low self-esteem. As a consequence of being unemployed, graduates are discouraged and demotivated, meaning that the zeal to keep searching for employment fades gradually. 4.3 ICT Graduates’ Inability to Secure Job With the current unstable economic crisis and issues surrounding the labour market as alluded to in the literature, the unemployment rate in SA has increased by 1.2% in the past few years, bringing the rate to 26.7% which is about 6.2 million people who are unemployed (Ohei & Brink, 2019a; 2019b; Stats SA, 2018). The burning questions of where, what, when and why regarding ICT graduates’ worries are denoted by (4ws) concerning job employment. “Where” signifies the industry/employer; “what” signifies the kind of employment available; “when” signifies the length of being unemployable upon graduation and finally “why” denotes the reasons why ICT graduates are not securing their desired job or are not employable (Ohei & Brink, 2019b). Table 9. Type of unemployment Itemised Frequency Per cent I struggled to find a job 78 40% Internship terminated/ended 20 10.3% I voluntarily stopped working 6 3.1% I have never worked before 71 36.4% N/A (Employed) 20 10.3% Total N=195 100.0 4.4 Factors Preventing ICT Graduates From Being Employed In order to ascertain the graduates’ and students’ collective responses and gain clarity regarding the data analysis, the responses “completely agree” and “agree” were merged to represent agree or affirmative, and the responses “disagree” and “completely disagree” were merged to represent disagree or negative. This analysis answered the third main research question in relation to issues preventing graduates from being employed. 4.4.1 Chi-Square Test Analyses ICT graduates were asked to indicate whether they agreed or disagreed that the itemised factors served as a hindrance or prevented graduates from securing employment. The chi-square test of null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis was used to decide the degree of freedom between the independent variables. At a significance level of 0.05 where the p-value was less than or equal to 0.05, the null hypothesis was rejected, and the alternate hypothesis was accepted. Where the p-value was greater than 0.05, the null hypothesis was accepted. The factors listed were skills mismatch, skills shortage, type of education received, ICT graduates’ inability to demonstrate the knowledge acquired through formal education, no work experience upon graduation and quality of graduate (Ohei & Brink, 2019). Lack of integrity and dignity 25.6% 33.8% 22.6% 17.9% Causes discouragement and demotivation 32.3% 35.4% 20.5% 11.8% Leads to crime 29.7% 33.8% 21.0% 15.4% Causes anxiety 31.8% 42.1% 25.6% 0.5%
http://rwe.sciedupress.com Research in World Economy Vol. 12, No. 1, Special Issue; 2021 Published by Sciedu Press 149 ISSN 1923-3981 E-ISSN 1923-399X Table 10. Skills mismatch as a factor affecting employability *Gender Itemised Male Female Total Skills mismatch Completely agree 36 32 68 Agree 30 42 72 Completely disagree 18 10 28 Disagree 18 9 27 Total 102 93 N = 195 p-value = .620 Chi-square statistic = 7.166 df = 9 In an exploration of the discourse on joblessness and employability challenges among graduates and students, Kraak (2010) maintains that skills mismatch has intensified South Africa’s prevailing skills shortages and has negatively affected graduate employability and labour market prospects more than any other scholastic cohort. The underlying driver of ICT graduate unemployability is the economic crisis. Higher education is claimed to have contributed to a high proportion of graduate unemployment due to an oversupply of skilled labour that is not met by an increase in demand. Additionally, a repeated contributing factor to graduate unemployment, as mentioned earlier, is a general skills mismatch between the higher education system and the economy (Graham et al., 2019). The contention is that the education system does not satisfactorily produce graduates for future jobs and market demands and that industries are hesitant to employ graduates without having to incur the costs in upskilling them. In this section of the analysis, the tables below provide evidence of the extent to which respondents agreed or disagreed with the itemised variables identified as factors preventing ICT graduate from being employed (Saad & Majid, 2014). H0: Skills mismatch is a contributing factor that prevents ICT graduates from being employed (null hypothesis). H1: Skills mismatch is not a factor preventing ICT graduates from being employed (alternate hypothesis). The value of X 2 is 7.166 on probability, with the df at 9 and a p-value of 0.620, which is greater than the conventional significance level of 0.05 set to either accept or reject the hypothesis. Since p > 0.05, the null hypothesis is accepted. H0: The null hypothesis that skills mismatch is a contributing factor that prevents ICT graduates from being employed is accepted. Table 11. Skills shortage as a factor preventing employment * Gender Itemised Male Female Total Skills shortage Completely agree 44 24 68 Agree 32 35 67 Completely disagree 14 13 27 Disagree 12 21 33 Total 102 93 N = 195 p-value = .068 Chi-square statistic = 17.044 df = 9 Table 12. Type of education received as a factor preventing employment * Gender Itemised Male Female Total Type of education received as a factor affecting employability Completely agree 34 29 63 Agree 38 34 72 Completely disagree 18 12 30 Disagree 12 18 30 Total 102 93 N = 195 p-value = .002 Chi-square statistic = 26.223 df = 9
http://rwe.sciedupress.com Research in World Economy Vol. 12, No. 1, Special Issue; 2021 Published by Sciedu Press 150 ISSN 1923-3981 E-ISSN 1923-399X H0: Skills shortage is a factor that prevents ICT graduates from being employed (null hypothesis). H1: Skills shortage is not a factor preventing ICT graduates from being employed (alternate hypothesis). In this case the value of X 2 in Table 11 signifies 17.044 on probability, with the df at 9 and a p-value of 0.068, which is greater than the predictable significance level of 0.05 (i.e. p > 0.05). The null hypothesis is therefore accepted. H0: The null hypothesis that skills shortage is a factor that prevents ICT graduates from being employed is accepted. H0: The type of education received is a factor that prevents ICT graduates from being employed (null hypothesis). H1: The type of education received is not a factor preventing ICT graduates from being employed (alternate hypothesis). Table 12 shows that the value of X 2 is 26.223 on probability, with the df at 9 and a p-value of 0.002, which is less than the conventional significance level of 0.05 (i.e. p < 0.05). The null hypothesis is therefore rejected. H1: The alternative hypothesis that the type of education received is not a factor that prevents ICT graduates from being employed is accepted. Table 13. ICT graduates’ inability to demonstrate knowledge acquired through formal education * Gender Itemised Male Female Total ICT graduates’ inability to demonstrate knowledge acquired through formal education Completely agree 33 36 69 Agree 42 29 71 Completely disagree 14 16 30 Disagree 13 12 25 Total 102 93 N = 195 p-value = .080 Chi-square statistic = 15.42 df = 9 Tables 10, 11 and 13-15 suggest that there is no significant relationship between gender and the opinions of the respondents about the factors preventing ICT graduates from being employed. The tables show that the p-values of the respondents’ views about the skills mismatch, skills shortage, ICT graduates’ inability to demonstrate the knowledge acquired through formal education, no work experience upon graduation and quality of graduate as factors preventing ICT graduates from being employed were all greater than the conventional significance value of 0.05. The exception is the p-value shown in Table 12 which is less than the level of 0.05 (i.e. p < 0.05). Overall, H0 accepts the null hypothesis that these factors identified were preventing ICT graduates from being employed (null hypothesis), and H1 rejects the alternative hypothesis that these factors identified were not preventing ICT graduates from being employed. Since all the p-values were greater, the null hypothesis was accepted. However, H1 accepts the alternative hypothesis that the type of education received is not a factor that prevents ICT graduates from being employed and H0 rejects the null hypothesis that the type of education received is a factor that prevents ICT graduates from being employed given that p <= 0.05. Table 14. No work experience upon graduation * Gender Itemised Male Female Total No work experience upon graduation Completely agree 30 25 55 Agree 55 48 103 Completely disagree 10 7 17 Disagree 7 13 20 Total 102 93 N = 195 p-value = .504 Chi-square statistic = 8.300 df = 9
http://rwe.sciedupress.com Research in World Economy Vol. 12, No. 1, Special Issue; 2021 Published by Sciedu Press 151 ISSN 1923-3981 E-ISSN 1923-399X Table 15. Quality of graduate * Gender Itemised Male Female Total Quality of graduate Completely agree 34 33 67 Agree 38 29 67 Completely disagree 20 26 46 Disagree 10 5 15 Total 102 93 N = 195 p-value = .811 Chi-square statistic = 8.993 df = 9 4.5 Suggestions for Enhancing ICT Graduate Employability The majority of graduates were of the opinion that their respective qualifications alone would suffice to open doors to significantly high salaries and managerial positions despite their lack of experience and relevant skillsrequired to earn them a higher salary. Regrettably, it is apparent that many ICT graduates do not possess these skills. Several reasons may contribute to why ICT graduates struggle. In an attempt to offer viable solutionsto overcoming the ICT graduates’ employability challenges, respondents were asked to rate the expected employability skills in accordance with the rating order required for employment. The question was intended to determine whether the ICT graduates were able to identify which set of itemised skills were relevant for possible employment. HR = Highly recommended; R = Recommended; SR = Somewhat required; NR = Not required for employment; NS = Not sure and TA = Total affirmative. Table 16. Respondents’ views on expected employability skills required Cross-tabulation Itemised HR R SR NR NS TA Work experience 65 = 33.3% 83 = 42.6% 32 = 16.4% 13 = 6.7% 2 = 1% 75.9% Intellectual ability and competence 65 = 33.3% 79 = 40.5% 25 = 12.8% 15 = 7.7% 11 = 5.6% 73.8% Workplace skills 37 = 19% 81 = 41.5% 35 = 17.9% 33 = 16.9% 9 = 4.6% 60.5% Hard and soft skills 44 = 22.6% 76 = 39% 40 = 20.5% 25 = 12.8% 10 = 5.1% 61.5% Communication skills 62 = 31.8% 59 = 30.3% 47 = 24.1% 20 = 10.3% 7 = 3.6% 62.1% Computer literacy skills 73 = 37.4% 63 = 32.3% 48 = 24.6% 3 = 1.5% 8 = 4.1% 69.7% Technical skills 40 = 20.5% 99 = 50.8% 39 = 20% 10 = 5.1% 7 = 3.6% 71.3% Leadership and problem-solving skills 19 = 9.7% 77 = 39.5% 76 = 39% 20 = 10.3% 3 = 1.5% 49.2% Ability to apply and execute tasks independently 45 = 23.1% 77 = 39.5% 45 = 23.1% 22 = 11.3% 6 = 3.1% 62.6% Flexibility, creativity and innovativeness 65 = 33.3% 60 = 30.8% 33 = 16.9% 31 = 15.9% 6 = 3.1% 64.1% The view that ICT graduates are expected to possess certain general qualities and possible academic traits as absorbed through their educational learning process and experiences has widely been debated (Ohei & Brink, 2019; Van der Berg & Van Broekhuizen, 2012). The results shown above imply that certain academic qualities and skills may be advantageous to most ICT graduates as required by industry. Of the 195 participants, 148 (75.9%) rated work experience as highly recommended skills that employers seek from any graduate for possible job consideration. This was followed by intellectual ability and competence (73.8%). Of all the skills, ICT graduates must possess thorough intellectual ability and competence as it is one of the most vital skills required to meet workplace demands and prospects. Therefore, for a graduate to have these skills, they are required to have a generic understanding of the
http://rwe.sciedupress.com Research in World Economy Vol. 12, No. 1, Special Issue; 2021 Published by Sciedu Press 152 ISSN 1923-3981 E-ISSN 1923-399X economic state, the capability to articulate assumptions, apply logical reasoning, conduct basic analysis, apply research skills, be interested and have a zeal to continue learning. Another fundamental set of skills required by industry is technical and communication skills. A total of 71.3% of ICT graduates agreed that this set of skills was required and 69.7% agreed that computer literacy skills were required. For an ICT graduate to be able to secure IT-related employment, they must move from the theoretical to the practical. In other words, industries would prefer to hire an ICT graduate who is able to show their level of experience to solve real-time problems through practical and technical approaches. They also require the capacity to design, initiate and complete tasks individually, the talent to absorb pertinent intelligence in order to tackle hands-on workplace problems and the ability to dissect and comprehend the ever-changing business dynamics in the workplace. Flexibility, creativity and innovativeness was rated by 64.1% of respondents as required skills and the ability to apply and execute tasks independently by 62.6%. Edayi (2016) and Ohei et al. (2019) affirm that these sets of academic traits and dispositions, experiences and individual characteristics distinguish graduates/students or perhaps make them more credible to secure jobs in which they can be satisfied and thrive. Industries are often apprehensive about the qualification of graduates in relation to their capability to perform the job. This concerns the universities where the qualification was attained. This highlights the crucial role that HEIs ought to play. HEIs are one of the central stakeholders in enhancing graduate employability as their role is to identify how they can enhance the skills knowledge of their students for future job empowerment. Over the years, developing employability skills of the graduate has been an area of discourse among the policy makers who are emerging with strategy on how to produce graduates with relevant skills needed to meet the demand of the current workforce. This is the reason why Edayi (2016) believes that the approach that HEIs use to prepare students for their postgraduation lives is of the utmost importance. In the United Kingdom, HEIs have been charged with the responsibility of promoting graduate employability, which means that attention should be placed on more than just the academic skills usually represented by the subject matter or class of degree. In the context of South Africa, several calls have been made to ensure that the higher education system in South Africa is more responsive to the social and economic needs of society to create a more direct and closer relationship between higher education and economic development. The establishment of a highly educated workforce serves as a priority for the new goal of building a knowledge-based economy in South Africa, to provide education and training to a larger number of citizens than in the past. 5. Conclusions and Recommendations In light of the findings of this study, it can be concluded that most university ICT graduates are concerned about whether they will be able to secure the right employment in the labour force after completing their degree. Having these doubts has caused worry and fear in the minds of most graduates. The findings indicate how ICT graduates view employability challenges and unemployment, as well as the stress on most graduates. The challenges that come with employability have to some extent limited most ICT graduates/students in entering the South African labour market. Unemployment results in mental health risks as most unemployed graduates show a constant decrease in overall life satisfaction, general well-being and self-esteem, and symptoms of depression, especially if they are unemployed for a long period. While high unemployment among ICT graduates as revealed in Table 1 remains the centre of attention, there is also an increasing concern that many ICT graduates are finding themselves underemployed. Joblessness and underemployment of ICT graduates suggest a bizarre and huge waste of capital and resources and an increased level of anguish among graduates. This may give rise to social segregation, intensifying disparity among graduates and a range of societal problems. With the current unstable economic crisis and issues surrounding the labour market, the unemployment rate in SA has increased. The underlying findings of this paper concerning ICT graduate unemployability is that the economic crisis and higher education contribute to a high proportion of graduate unemployment due to an oversupply of skilled labour that is not met by an increase in demand. Additionally, a repeated contributing factor to ICT graduate unemployment was found to relate to general skills mismatch between the higher education system and the economy. The findings reveal that the majority of graduates were of the opinion that their respective qualifications alone would suffice to open doors to significantly high salaries and managerial positions despite their lack of experience and relevant skillsrequired to earn them a higher salary. However, many ICT graduates do not possess these skills. Several reasons may contribute to why ICT graduates struggle as presented in Tables 10-15. The contention is that the education system does not satisfactorily produce graduates for future jobs and market demands and that industries are
http://rwe.sciedupress.com Research in World Economy Vol. 12, No. 1, Special Issue; 2021 Published by Sciedu Press 153 ISSN 1923-3981 E-ISSN 1923-399X hesitant to employ graduates without having to incur the costs in upskilling them. In conclusion, certain academic qualities and skills may be advantageous to most ICT graduates as sets of skills expected by industry. Respondents regarded work experience as highly recommended and as what employers seek from any graduate for possible job consideration. Intellectual ability and competence are one of the most vital skills required to meet workplace demands and prospects. Therefore, for a graduate to have these skills, they are required to have a generic understanding of the economic state, the capability to articulate assumptions, undertake logical reasoning, conduct basic analysis, apply research skills, be interested and have a zeal to continue learning. Another fundamental set of skills required by industry is technical and communication skills. These skills include but are not limited to computer literacy skills. An ICT graduate must move from the theoretical to the practical. In other words, industries would prefer to hire an ICT graduate who is able to show their level of experience to solve real-time problems through a practical and technical approach. They also require the capacity to design, initiate and complete tasks individually, the talent to absorb pertinent intelligence in order to tackle hands-on workplace problems and the ability to dissect and comprehend the ever-changing business dynamics in the workplace. In addition, they need the ability to apply and execute tasks independently. These sets of academic traits and dispositions, experiences and individual characteristics distinguish graduates/students or perhaps make them more credible to secure jobs in which they can be satisfied and thrive. HEIs have a vital duty in this regard, which is the obligation and responsibility to manage all stakeholdersinvolved in a responsible and secure manner. WIL is necessary as a strategy in overcoming challenges. Acknowledgement At this point, it is important to mention that this paper form part of a project that is continuing, which seeks to develop a framework for addressing and enhancing ICT employability of graduates. There were two research publication that had emerged from the said project (Ohei et al., 2019 & Ohei & Brink, 2019). One of which targeted the prevailing issues surrounding graduates and the other focus was to develop a conceptual framework to enhance employment opportunities. This paper being the third part of the project seeks to explore the views that graduates conceive about the employability distress, reasons for their unemployment and factor affecting their employability chances and decisively suggest way to address these challenges. What is important to note, is that this paper was based on previous study as stated. Thus, there is possibility that there may be referrals from the previousresearch findings and evidence published which maybe applicable in this paper. Nonetheless, this research project is supported wholly/in part by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant number: 120730). References Abel, J. R., & Deitz, R. (2016). Underemployment in the early careers of college graduates following the Great Recession (No. w22654). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w22654 Baldry, K. (2016). Graduate unemployment in South Africa: Social inequality reproduced. Journal of Education and Work, 29(7), 788-812. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2015.1066928 Bhorat, H., Mayet, N., & Visser, M. (2012). Student graduation, labour market destinations and employment earnings. Human Sciences Research Council Press. Brauns, M. (2013). Employability of graduates through work-integrated learning (WIL). 18th WACE World Conference on Cooperative and Work-integrated Education (Refereed paper) Durban. Bridgstock, R. (2009). The graduate attributes we’ve overlooked: Enhancing graduate employability through career management skills. Higher Education Research & Development, 28(1), 31-44. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360802444347
http://rwe.sciedupress.com Research in World Economy Vol. 12, No. 1, Special Issue; 2021 Published by Sciedu Press 154 ISSN 1923-3981 E-ISSN 1923-399X Brink, R. (2014). An information management framework for the work-integrated learning process. Doctoral dissertation, University of Johannesburg. Claassens, L. J. M. (2011). Human dignity in the prophetic traditions: Upholding human worth in a context of dehumanisation. Dutch Reformed Theological Journal/Nederduitse Gereformeerde Teologiese Tydskrif, 52(1-2), 34-44. https://doi.org/10.5952/52-1-4 Cloete, A. (2015). Youth unemployment in South Africa. A theological reflection through the lens of human dignity. Missionalia, 43(3), 513-525. https://doi.org/10.7832/43-3-133 Cooper, L., Orrell, J., & Bowden, M. (2010). Work integrated learning: A guide to effective practice. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203854501 Creswell, J. W. (2014). A concise introduction to mixed methods research. Sage. Du Plessis, S., & Smit, B. (2007). South Africa's growth revival after 1994. Journal of African Economies, 16(5), 668-704. https://doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejm012 Edayi, J. (2016). Constraints to graduate employment in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. Doctoral dissertation, University of Witwatersrand. Farooq, S. (2011). Mismatch between education and occupation: A case study of Pakistani graduates. The Pakistan Development Review, 531-552. https://doi.org/10.30541/v50i4IIpp.531-553 Graham, L., Williams, L., & Chisoro, C. (2019). Barriers to the labour market for unemployed graduates in South Africa. Journal of Education and Work, 32(4), 360-376. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2019.1620924 Griesel, H., & Parker, B. (2009). Graduate attributes. A baseline study on South African graduates from the perspective of employers. Pretoria: Higher Education South Africa-HESA. Hamilton, M., Carbone, A., Gonsalvez, C., & Jollands, M. (2015, January). Breakfast with ICT employers: What do they want to see in our graduates? (pp. 29-36). ACE. Jackson, D. (2015). Employability skill development in work-integrated learning: Barriers and best practice. Studies in Higher Education, 40(2), 350-367. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2013.842221 Jorre de St Jorre, T., & Oliver, B. (2018). Want students to engage? Contextualise graduate learning outcomes and assess for employability. Higher Education Research & Development, 37(1), 44-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2017.1339183 Kraak, A. (2010). The collapse of the graduate labour market in South Africa: Evidence from recent studies. Research in Post‐Compulsory Education, 15(1), 81-102. https://doi.org/10.1080/13596740903565384 Lee, M., Pitesa, M., Pillutla, M. M., & Thau, S. (2018). Perceived entitlement causes discrimination against attractive job candidates in the domain of relatively less desirable jobs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 114(3), 422. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000114 Livingstone, D. W. (2018). The education-jobs gap: Underemployment or economic democracy?. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429496622 Lowden, K., Hall, S., Elliot, D., & Lewin, J. (2011). Employers’ perceptions of the employability skills of new graduates. London: Edge Foundation. McKenzie, S., Coldwell-Neilson, J., & Palmer, S. (2017, January). Career aspirations and skills expectations of undergraduate IT students: Are they realistic?. In Herdsa 2017: Research and development in higher education: curriculum transformation: Proceedings of the 40th Herdsa Annual International Conference (pp. 229-240). Mlatsheni, C. (2012). The challenges unemployment imposes on youth. Shaping the future of South Africa’s youth: Rethinking post-school education and skills training (pp. 31-41). Mncayi, N. P. (2016). The determinants of employment status of young graduates from a South African university. Doctoral dissertation, North-West University. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950422216670500 Mncayi, P., & Dunga, S. H. (2016). Career choice and unemployment length: A study of graduates from a South African university. Industry and Higher Education, 30(6), 413-423. Mokwena, K., & Morojele, N. (2014). Unemployment and unfavourable social environment as contributory factors to nyaope use in three provinces of South Africa: Substance abuse. African Journal for Physical Health Education, Recreation and Dance, 20(Supplement 1), 374-384.
http://rwe.sciedupress.com Research in World Economy Vol. 12, No. 1, Special Issue; 2021 Published by Sciedu Press 155 ISSN 1923-3981 E-ISSN 1923-399X National Treasury (South Africa). (2011). Confronting youth unemployment: Policy options for South Africa. Discussion Paper. National Treasury. Ohei, K. N., & Brink, R. (2019). Investigating the prevailing issues surrounding ICT graduate employability in South Africa: A case study of a South African university. The Independent Journal of Teaching and Learning, 14(2), 29-42. Ohei, K. N., Brink, R., & Abiodun, A. (2019). Information and communication technology (ICT) graduates and challenges of employability: A conceptual framework for enhancing employment opportunities in South Africa. Gender and Behaviour, 17(3), 13500-13521. Pauw, K., Oosthuizen, M., & Van der Westhuizen, C. (2008). Graduate unemployment in the face of skills shortages: A labour market paradox 1. South African Journal of Economics, 76(1), 45-57. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2008.00152.x Pramudia, J. R., Ardiwinata, J. S., Sudiapermana, E., & Hilmi, M. I. (2019, July). The Soft Skill Training to Improve the Readiness of Alumni in Entering the Working World. In 2nd International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES 2018). Atlantis Press. https://doi.org/10.2991/ices-18.2019.26 Rogan, M., & Reynolds, J. (2016). Schooling inequality, higher education and the labour market: Evidence from a graduate tracer study in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Development Southern Africa, 33(3), 343-360. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835X.2016.1153454 Rosenberg, S., Heimler, R., & Morote, E. S. (2012). Basic employability skills: A triangular design approach. Education Training, 54(1), 7-20. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400911211198869 Saad, M. S. M., & Majid, I. A. (2014). Employers’ perceptions of important employability skills required from Malaysian engineering and information and communication technology (ICT) graduates. Global Journal of Engineering Education, 16(3), 110-115. Spaull, N. (2013). South Africa’s education crisis: The quality of education in South Africa 1994-2011. Johannesburg: Centre for Development and Enterprise, 1-65. Statistics South Africa. (2018). Quarterly labour force survey. Statistics South Africa. Stats, S. A. (2019). Quarterly labour force survey: Quarter 3 2019, Statistical Release P0211. Statistics South Africa, Pretoria. Retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications Taljaard, J., & Van der Walt, F. (2018). Employment and inequality challenges facing South African agriculture in a minimum wage dispensation. African Journal of Public Affairs, 10(4), 212-229. Tripathy, M. (2018). Building quality teamwork to achieve excellence in business organizations. International Research Journal of Management, IT and Social Sciences, 5(3), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.21744/irjmis.v5i3.662 Van Broekhuizen, H. (2016). Graduate unemployment and higher education institutions in South Africa. Bureau for Economic Research and Stellenbosch Economic Working Paper 08, 16. Van der Berg, S., & Van Broekhuizen, H. (2012). Graduate unemployment in South Africa: A much exaggerated problem. Centre for Development and Enterprise, Stellenbosch University. Copyrights Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337472111 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) GRADUATES AND CHALLENGES OF EMPLOYABILITY: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR ENHANCING EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN SOUTH A.... Article · November 2019 CITATIONS 6 READS 2,862 3 authors, including: Kenneth Nwanua Ohei University of Johannesburg 36 PUBLICATIONS 147 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Roelien Brink University of Johannesburg 26 PUBLICATIONS 97 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE All content following this page was uploaded by Kenneth Nwanua Ohei on 23 November 2019. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13500 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) GRADUATES AND CHALLENGES OF EMPLOYABILITY: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR ENHANCING EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN SOUTH AFRICA Kenneth Nwanua Ohei Department of Applied Information Systems, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg South Africa Roelien Brink Department of Applied Information Systems, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg South Africa Alao Abiodun Department of Applied Information Systems, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg South Africa Abstract Graduate unemployment is among the most predominant problems facing South Africa. The underlying assumption is that employability issues have severe implications and have raised unresolved questions about universities’ curriculum, the quality of graduates produced, and their ability to meet the essential demands of employers. This paper probed the development of a framework for addressing the employability of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) graduates. The aim was to explore the issues that ICT graduates are encountering when seeking entrance to the labour market. The paper adopted two framework models by Knight and Yorke (USEM model) and Dacre Pool and Sewell (CareerEDGE Model), supported by a systematic literature review (SLR). The findings revealed that ICT graduates at all levels of qualifications struggle to get jobs, irrespective of their qualifications, due to socio-economic problems resulting in a shortage and non-creation of jobs to accommodate the up-and-coming ICT graduates. As a consequence, these graduates are still vulnerable in the labour market. Several other associated challenges identified in the developed framework were linked to work experience, namely a lack of soft and hard skills and business skills. In spite of these challenges, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have a definitive role to play. One of which is to produce academic graduates with practical skills and traits, coherent knowledge and application in the workspace. The curriculum design should be restructured to align with employers’ skills requirements from ICT graduates. HEIs should ensure that there is proper communication among triad parties and stakeholders through the incorporation of work-integrated learning (WIL) as a best practice for improvement. Key phrases Employability, hard and soft, HEI, ICT graduates, skill shortage, unemployment INTRODUCTION The graduate unemployment rate is progressively increasing year after year. This is not only an issue in South Africa but a global crisis and problematic because the qualified workforce is disengaged in the service of the country (Baldry, 2016:146). The intensity of unemployment within countries’ economies can be justified by the level of industries’ dissatisfaction with the quality of graduates/students produced at the Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) of
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13501 learning. Consequently, universities are under immense pressure to ensure that the degrees offered to graduates will position them appropriately in the labour market. This has raised numerous unresolved questions about universities’ curricula, the ability of a graduate to meet employers’ expectations, and criteria for employment. It is not only problematic, but results in severe economic crisis, wasteful and scarce human capital, and societal consequences that affect virtually all people as well as the countries, either directly or indirectly. The collective assumption in almost every development plan for education and educational reform effort is that HEIs have a fundamental role to play in producing academic graduates with the relevant skills to contribute to the industry and knowledge-based economy of South Africa (Rahman & Lie, 2015:133). It is one of the core driving forces revolving around the concept of “employability agenda” that has emerged for decades. Most significantly, universities across the globe are increasingly required to produce highly skilled graduates who are able to respond to the ever-changing and complex needs of the contemporary workplace. Students enrol at a university for a few reasons; the fundamental reason is for greater employability opportunities, as well as the experience that comes from diverse methods of learning and love for the programme (Lowden, Hall, Elliot & Lewin, 2011:7). Stockdale and Keane (2016:182) state that there are several varieties of career paths that are available and obtainable for ICT/ Information Technology (IT)/ Applied Information Systems (AIS) and Management Information Systems (MIS) graduates across a spectrum, from the actual technicality through to business-orientated roles (Deloitte Access Economics, 2015:3). There is no doubt that students perceive HEIs as one-step away from securing desirable employment. In support, Ohei and Lubbe (2013:183), claim that career paths such as ICT/IT/AIS & MIS, together with several other professions, are lucrative and well-paid occupations. With such professions, an ICT graduate who may have obtained his/her qualification offered in any of those career paths has greater opportunities of being employable. In line with this reasoning, a graduate would have the confidence that upon completing such qualifications, they will be in possession of relevant employability skills. These would include hard and soft skills, as well as technical skills to design and create an enabling environment for business innovation. Undoubtedly, a graduate with such a qualification should have no difficulty in securing their ideal job, but this is not this case. The graduate unemployment crisis in the country has amplified, and as a consequence, it has caused social unrest. Nonetheless, this paper was undertaken to offer viable solutions through the development of a framework for improving and enhancing ICT graduates’ employability skills and opportunities. The paper’s aim was to explore the problems that ICT graduates encounter when seeking employment in the business sectors and to ascertain whether the ICT graduates are able to combine the knowledge they acquired from university with the workforce. The paper also endeavoured to assess the factors that cause graduate unemployment and offer a clear description of employers’ expectations. 2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Related literature in this context was reviewed to explicate and explore the relevancies in the academic literature to be discussed at a later stage. A review of academic literature could provide the underpinning foundation for an insightful description of understanding
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13502 employers’ expectations. It could also assist in detailing the root causes of ICT graduate unemployment and challenges that ICT graduates are faced with when entering the employment market. Through the exploration of literature, useful solutions in addressing and enhancing the employability of graduates will be recommended, and gaps will be resolved. 2.1 Employers’ expectations The ICT skills shortage among graduates is affecting many industries today. Hence, recruiting graduates with relevant ICT employability skills in South Africa is known to be a challenging task (Calitz, Greyling & Cullen, 2014:2). A study conducted on employers’ expectations of graduates, in association with several other research studies that focused on ICT industry skills expectations, requirements, and curricula offered at HEIs, found that employers often perceived ICT graduates as lacking generic skills (Hamilton, Carbone, Gonsalvez & Jollands, 2015:29; Mckenzie, Coldwell-Neilson & Palmer, 2017:229). Although there has been a considerable consensus related to the skills and attributes that employers expect from ICT graduates, IT industries have specified that ICT graduates require a diverse set of skills in several areas of ICT/IT/AIS & MIS and Computer Science (CS) (Calitz et al., 2014:5). These ICT skills have been categorised into four aspects. See Appendix A, Table 1 where these skills are further expounded in detail. Several new skills have emerged and been identified as industries constantly have to advance their business practices, innovation and acquire new technologies to be able to deal with a changing ICT environment and landscape (Calitz et al., 2014:9). The use of new technologies offers industries greater opportunities and strategic benefit of incorporating and introducing new business prospects and possibilities. Hence, employers have identified these sets of skills that includes the business analysis and analytics, business process modelling, Mobile application development and Internationalisation skills were employers’ expectations from ICT graduates as identified (Table 1 has more). 2.2 ICT graduate unemployment challenges Having highlighted the required skill set by employers, it is critical to note that it is the graduate’s responsibility to search for employment, irrespective of whether the graduate has the required skills as identified in Appendix A. Therefore, the graduate’s ability to find a job is fundamental. Research studies suggest that high unemployment rates in South Africa are associated with poor economic conditions (Statistics SA, 2018:10). Consequently, people at all levels and qualifications struggle to get jobs, notwithstanding their qualification. ICT graduates are among those struggling to find work due to the lack of job creation. According to Statistics SA’s (2018:8) quarterly report, the recent unbalanced economic predicament and matters surrounding the job market, has caused unemployment in South Africa to increase 1.2% in the past few years (2014 and 2015) to 26.7% in 2018; thus, approximately 6.2 million people are unemployed. South Africa has a lengthy history of marginalisation and deprivation and was viewed among the most unequal societies in the world. The effects and consequences of this still affect the country today (Rogan & Reynolds, 2016:13). It is anticipated that training and education could play a pivotal role in enabling graduates to escape poverty and unemployment. ICT graduate unemployment issues are seen as a macro-economic and socio-economic problem due to the shortage and non-creation of
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13503 jobs to accommodate the up-and-coming population of ICT graduates. Those who are presently employed worry about losing their jobs as a result of job insecurity and retrenchment among workers in South Africa. Another major challenge surrounding ICT graduates in South Africa is an unequal educational system. The South African university system has failed to produce graduates with the required skills to take up employment in the South African labour market. The decline in graduate labour market productivity in South Africa is attributed time and time again to, among other things, the HEIs’ lack of receptiveness to structural changes in the domestic economy since 1994 (Van Broekhuizen & Van Der Berg, 2016:4). In an analysis of the South Africa discourse on joblessness among people with the highest level of educational qualifications, Kraak (2010:85) contends that this skills mismatch has intensified in South Africa, resulting in skills shortages and adversely affecting ICT graduate employability and subsequent labour market prospects to a greater degree than any other scholastic cohort. From the studies on graduate employability and an academic review of the related literature, current and root causes of ICT graduate unemployability were established. A discussion is required on important issues associated with graduate unemployment to address the gaps that exist between the approaches with which HEIs’ course programmes are being offered to the students at various universities. It appears that there is no proper alignment between the students, university and employers in relation to providing probable feedback about employers’ expectations from the students (Atkinson, Misko & Stanwick, 2015:18). Quite a number of ICT enrolments and graduates do not meet ICT skills demand in the industries. It is relatively understandable to claim that most ICT graduates who were able to gain access to the labour market are not employed in their desired professions. Kirlidog, van der Vyver, Zeeman and Coetzee (2018:5) present students’ viewpoints of an important factor and reasons behind the skills gap as being due to the undesirable perceptions of university students about the concepts of ICT/IT/AIS/MIS and CS. Kirlidogs et al’s. (2018:7) research revealed that there were considerable differences which are ideologically subjective, such as recognising that ICT/IT and AIS professions are uninteresting and boring, or that ICT jobs are not certain, and the unemployment rates are high. Thus, the overall ICT graduate challenges can be decomposed and rephrased as the following issues, which can be individually and empirically investigated. The inability of South African universities to align their curriculum design to fit into employers’ expectations of graduates remains a challenge. The issue with graduates’/students’ negative assumption or perception of a particular course programme, led to graduates/students lacking motivation, ambition, aspiration and certainly; the employability skills needed to adequately prepare them for the industry. The inability of an ICT graduate to integrate the knowledge and skills acquired through university in the workforce is problematic. The challenges with ICT graduates of not being able to meet employers’ expectations seem to prevent them from entering the labour market.
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13504 2.3 HEI tendency of academic reputations HEIs have a tendency of concentrating largely on research and innovation, building on strong academic reputations, admiration of lifelong learning, strengthening university business collaborations and connections. They are also focused on involvement in society and social accountability and creating a competitive edge to its rivals (Ohei & Brink, 2019a:251; Stukalina, 2017:643). Yet, HEIs are failing to produce highly skilled graduates able to enter the work environment. It is also inevitable and justifiable that parents and graduates/students expect a satisfying return on their investment in HEIs. In terms of both educational value and employability, the transition from HEIs into the global industries or labour market may sometimes turn out to be problematic (Stukalina, 2017:639). Mckenzie et al. (2017:231) concur that graduated ICT students in computer science and software engineering do not always possess the employability skills, aptitudes, or knowledgebased skills required in an ICT industry. The lack of these employability skills and capabilities thus serve as a hindrance or form of limitation that can limit their productivity as newly employed graduates, or even prevent them from entering into the industry. In support of the aforementioned claims, Hamilton et al. (2015:30) and Ohei and Brink (2019b:255) believe that it is even more difficult for graduates of ICT/IT/AIS & MIS and many others to traverse in and change job roles that mark up the IT industry. It is further maintained in their report that in 2014, about 39% of employers had challenges finding sufficient ICT graduates for available IT positions (Graduate Careers Australia, 2016:777). Janz and Nichols (2010:8) digressed a little as they presented a report, which depicts statistics from the United States of America (USA) wherein the Agency of Labour Statistics advocates that the demand for ICT/IT professionals will continue to upsurge for the predictable future. Regrettably, the quantity of IT graduates, as investigated across several universities in the South Eastern parts in the USA, put forward that the number of ICT/IT core majors seem to have reduced to the point that they will eventually not meet the demands of the labour market. This implies that the problem of ICT graduates’ employability affects the globe in general, and particularly South Africa. 2.4 Studies on graduate employability Many other international reports, including Jackson and Wilton (2017:757), disclose that some graduates have the wrong expectations about what is required by their future employers. For this notion, employers advise that HEIs need to adequately prepare graduates/students for employment. Although there is demand in the employment market, graduates repeatedly do not have applicable skills or career maturity that empowers them to proficiently engage with their employers (Mckenzie et al., 2017:237; Graduate Careers Australia, 2016:779). It is important to highlight that the term ‘career maturity’ is simply the capacity to make suitable, decisive and appropriate decisions that support all-encompassing career choices. Moolman (2017:29) emphasises that there is a serious global shortage of highly skilled professionals and hands‐on employees essential for advancing the ever-changing digital economy, both in the developed and developing nations. Several authors also gave clarity and insights on how the focus has been directed towards the growth of students’ professional skills for employability. This has turned out to be the focal point of HEIs’ curriculum designs (Smith, Ferns & Russell, 2014:3; Hamilton et al., 2015:29;
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13505 Mckenzie et al., 2017:229). The Australian Computer Society recapped on these concepts raised for ICT in their curriculum guideline framework, with the intent to enhance ICT/IT/AIS & MIS professional skills, which include soft and hard skills. The process and development of employability skills not only give advantages to graduates/students in building their employability profile, but also give them confidence and support in establishing their own career capabilities and competencies (Hamilton et al., 2015:30; Mckenzie et al., 2017:236). Therefore, career competencies are those essential skills obtained through a specified profession, as opposed to those acquired from previous knowledge. It is also the ability of a particular student to self-guide their activities towards further skills development. Authors believe that development skills are also the obligation bestowed on a graduate/student to vigorously reflect on their career ambition and what could come of it. This, in turn, inspires that particular student to build and establish his/her career capabilities in such a way that they are not excluded from the labour market but add value to the productive workplace (Hamilton et al., 2015:31; Kirlidog et al., 2018:6; Mckenzie et al., 2017:240). Graduates’ employability can only be realised by building their practical and basic skills (Hamilton et al., 2015:29). The development of practical skills is challenging in the ICT/ITrelated sector, especially with ICT fundamentals having transformed so much and rapidly continuing to change. Vinichenko, Makushkin, Melnichuk, Frolova and Kurbakova (2016:24) highlight that graduates encounter challenges of a strict staff recruitment criterion with its socalled selection and assessment processes that employers levy in terms of the work experiences required from graduates. Furthermore, graduates encounter the challenge of employers being unwilling to allocate time and money to upskilling graduates; they prefer to employ a graduate who already holds the relevant skills. Vinichenko et al. (2016:23) and Garrouste and Rodrigues (2014:425) argue that the issue with graduate unemployment is a global problem. Academic writers are continuously attempting to work out strategies, tactics and technologies that can upsurge the percentage of employability of HEI graduates, most predominantly those graduates who are conformed to work in the areas which are not their ideal profession. Authors argue that employers have a tendency to assume that not many ICT graduates possess both soft and hard skills, therefore, employing an ICT graduate who is without the relevant skills may result in incompetence. This assumption appears to be prevailing among senior executives. In Vinichenko et al’s. (2016:25) report, Hart and Barratt deduced that in the United Kingdom (UK), senior executives of IT/ICT organisations often refuse to employ graduates. The reasons for their denial or refusal to hire graduates are perceived as cultural and communication barriers. This could be attributed to previous undesirable experiences they may have had with unskilled graduates (Hart & Barratt, 2009:4). Aside from all these issues, the UK displays a high percentage of graduates securing employment immediately after completing their education. According to a study by Vinichenko et al. (2016:24), for the past few years, about 90% of graduates have found employment within a period of six months after graduating in the UK. Nevertheless, HEIs of today, as they experience radical transformation, are not entirely ready to meet the needs of employers (Vinichenko et al., 2016:26). Narrowing it down to the South
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13506 African context, late in 1995 there were nearly 463 000 graduates in the labour force. From 1995 to 2012, graduates entering the labour market doubled to approximately 1.1 million. Yet, in spite of this significant flood of graduates into the domestic labour market, the unemployment rate for graduates remain at its peak (Van Broekhuizen & Van Der Berg, 2016:8). According to Van der Berg and Van Broekhuizen (2012:4), graduate unemployment is, to a large extent, connected to other South African issues, such as the quality of school education and the content of university curricula, affirmative action policies, the nature of South Africa’s economic growth, and constraints to such growth, to name but a few. It has long been recognised that the skills constraint potentially prevents the South African economy from growing and consequently creating more jobs. Therefore, the current economic crisis and labour market in South Africa contributes to graduates’ unemployment. Following the discussion, Jonck’s (2014:267) study revealed that employers were not quite satisfied with the level of generic skills graduates hold. It was further maintained that the industries of today are more likely to consider graduates who possess relevant ICT employability skills; an ICT graduate who is able to demonstrate and apply subsequent hard and soft skills in the work environment. This line of reasoning implies that it is fundamental for a graduate to possess basic practical and generic skills and competencies to be employable. The studies have shown that basic skills such as personal skills and people skills are extremely important for successful work performance. Shivoro, Shalyefu and Kadhila’s (2018:218) research report from a study conducted in the UK, explored the skills, character traits, attributes and qualities that the industries expect from graduates/students when employing graduates into the labour market. It was evident that skills such as generic skills, communication skills, knowledge, skills, proficiency skills, and eagerness were attributes most graduates were lacking. It is important to note that most industries are not prepared to source coaching for graduates to build on skills that should have been provided by HEIs. These claims place responsibility on HEIs to aid undergraduates in developing employability traits and characteristics required in the workplace. For this reason, this paper aimed to enhance graduates’ understanding of employers’ expectations during and after the completion of their qualification. A number of universities, government agencies, institutes, and associated organisations ought to decide on applicable and sustainable knowledge, skills, character traits and roles required to prepare graduates/students for employment. 2.5 Research gap and contribution The paper’s aim was to develop a comprehensive framework for addressing and enhancing the employability of ICT graduates since most ICT graduates struggle to secure a job after completing their respective qualifications. The paper became relevant, given the context and circumstances of the unemployment rate in South Africa. Several research studies have been conducted in similar research areas in relation to graduates’ unemployment rates in South Africa and even across the globe, but none have distinctively been conducted with the purpose of developing a framework for addressing the issues of employability among ICT graduates. The development of a framework in this paper clearly justifies the rationale of conducting this investigation.
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13507 There appears to be a gap in the literature; consequently, other related problems and solutions to the employability of graduates/students need to be probed. The development of a framework assisted the researchers in rediscovering the root causes and factors that may have led to ICT graduate unemployment. Notably, the framework served as a model that offers a clear description of employers’ expectations of the graduates as endorsed by their respective universities to meet the needs of its graduates. The framework not only offers descriptions but also serves as a guide that mediates between the graduates/students, universities and employers/industries. On the other hand, HEIs have to ensure that graduates demonstrate an outstanding level of information literacy; in other words, the ability to find, classify, discover and assess information to resolve a problem in a certain context. The paper attempts to promote the employability of graduates through ICT and educational curriculum structures. With the successful development of the framework, this paper advances the frontier of knowledge in this field and adds to the existing academic literature. Ultimately, the paper creates an atmosphere where a viable and clear understanding of employers’ expectations from ICT graduates for possible employability in the industry are presented. The paper brings about awareness and exposes the factors contributing to graduate unemployment. Graduates/students, universities, and employers, jointly with policy-makers, will benefit from the paper in their decision-making. Importantly, the paper inspires and motivates future researchers, and the limitations thereof can serve as strengths and opportunities for further studies, exposing the areas that require attention for future work. 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This paper has adopted an SLR research methodology since the contents are based on existing literature studies in identifying research needs and gaps, collecting or gathering lines of thoughts, or researchers’ views on ICT graduates’ employability challenges. The method was appropriate for analysing their thoughts and findings, reporting on the gaps and concluding by proposing a comprehensive framework for enhancing graduates’ employability (Chukwuere & Ohei, 2019:6; Boland, Cherry & Dickson, 2017:2). The framework is aimed at offering support and guidance to the triad parties (HEI, graduates and industry) to understand what approach is needed to enhance graduate employability. 3.1 Theoretical grounding Being theoretically grounded in developing a framework for addressing and enhancing ICT graduates’ employability required the exploration of past academic literature and frameworks or models related to graduate employability. The paper adopted two framework models by Knight and Yorke (2003:3) (USEM model) and Dacre Pool and Sewell (2007:277) (CareerEDGE Model) to support the SLR. The attributes explored from these models were coined together, which supported the development of a comprehensive framework for addressing and enhancing ICT graduates’ employability. 4. A FRAMEWORK DEVELOPMENT A framework is often viewed as a roadmap that provides soundness to the practical investigation in a research activity. Anderson, Krathwohl, Airasian, Cruikshank, Mayer and Pintrich (2014:155) and Omona, Van Der Weide and Lubega (2010:84) add that it is an
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13508 organised technique of expressing how and why a research inquiry takes effect, and how to understand its activities. It is considered a conceptualisation of a specific, complex research phenomenon, including the salient constructs and their interconnections (Templier & Paré, 2015:188). In the information systems research domain, a framework helps researchers and practitioners understand and represent information systems contexts. Guiding ideologies for the concepts that are involved are established by means of a framework. In this paper, the conceptual framework is a type of theory that seeks to guide researchers in aligning problem statements and research questions so that the research ultimately comes together as a whole. 4.1 Theories of graduate employability The theories of graduate employability demonstrate fundamental components for graduates’ preparation to enter the labour market. Several protagonists of graduate employability have established theories/frameworks and models for graduate employability (Jollands, 2015:30; Jollands, Burton, Carbone, Clarke, Grando, Hamilton et al., 2015:45). Among these were Yorke and Knights’ USEM theory (2003:3), the DOTS theory, and the CareerEDGE theory (Dacre Pool & Sewell, 2007:277). These were adopted to support the development of a comprehensive framework. Following are synopses of these models in terms of graduate employability. Many theories and models have emerged and been developed for employability, which mostly focused on employers’ viewpoint. None have reached a consensus on the best framework to address the phenomenon, perhaps due to ambiguity in terms of what constitutes the best approach to framework development. In most scenarios, frameworks have become obsolete as the context of graduates’ employability has evolved. A framework model on employability (USEM model) by Knight and Yorke (2003:3), as shown in Figure 1, captures the idea that employability involves more than just generic skills. This tactic to employability submits that graduate employability is a joint effort of comprehensiveness or apprehensiveness of the speciality discipline. This will mean applying skills in the sense of putting the context of learning, course specification and generic capabilities (the ability to sensibly apply understanding) into practice. Efficacy beliefs include being conscious and considerate of oneself and one’s capabilities, learners’ self-theories and individual qualities at the level to which learners sense that they may be able to make a difference. Meta-cognition involves self-awareness concerning the learners’ learning and the ability to reflect on an action, and self-regulation (Knight & Yorke, 2003:6). All these components reveal understanding, sills, efficacy and meta-cognition.
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13509 Figure 1: USEM Model Personal qualities, selftheories & efficacy value Skills (i.e. Key skills) Subject understand ing Metacognition Employability S E U M Source: Adapted (Knight & Yorke, 2003) The model encourages best teaching practice; however, it has a weakness in its scholarly language (Dacre Pool & Sewell, 2007:279). In addition, the category descriptors are rather general, leading to global learning objectives that are too broad to be readily implemented by curriculum designers. While several other frameworks have been developed concerning employability skills that are systematic and detailed (Jollands et al., 2015:45; Smith et al., 2014:4) with manifold descriptors/categories, and up to 45 items relevant to employability, these authors compared the lists, but discovered that gaps, generalities and vagueness exist in several of the frameworks. Another framework model adopted in this paper, as proposed by Dacre Pool and Sewell (2007:277), is the CareerEDGE model. Its strong points are that it is systematic, inclusive and detailed, simplifying the identification of specific learning objectives. It possesses five categories and sub-categories and suggests communal organisational structures in HEIs.
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13510 Figure 2: CareerEDGE Model Reflection & evaluation Self-esteem Self-efficacy Self-confidence Employability Career development Experience Subject knowledge, Skills & understanding Generic Skills Emotional intelligence Source: Adapted (Dacre Pool & Sewell, 2007; Pool, 2017) This model fits into the existing practice that permits logical and rational implementation of incremental change, which is in alignment with Knight and Yorke’s model. Notwithstanding, this same model has a number of gaps as identified by Smith et al. (2014:5) in terms of career development and generic skills. However, the framework is readily adapted by the addition of new sub-categories.
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13511 Figure 3: Conceptual framework development for enhancing the employability of graduates Character traits & attributes Graduates/ students HEI: Educators Employers Character traits & attributes Character traits & attributes * Responsible for developmental processes [Curriculum alignment, equipping graduates/ students with and refining students’ employability skills] * Writing CV and interview preparation * Job search and application Ability to demonstrate knowledge acquired * Building employability profile * Select candidate for interview for WIL * Seeking graduate * Recruiting graduates Conceptual framework development for enhancing employability of graduates Knowledge (G) = Generic Knowledge (D) = Disciplinary Information management Meta-competencies Soft & hard skills (G) = Generic Soft & hard skills (D) = Disciplinary Character (G) = Generic Character (D) = Disciplinary Personality (G) = Generic Personality (D) = Disciplinary Graduates have an appropriate set of generic and discipline specific knowledge, skills, character and personality that will make them more likely to gain employment and succeed in their chosen occupations (broader conceptualization of employability) Work-integrated learning (WIL) Employability [holistic view towards conceptualization of ICT graduate/ students employability ] Employability Readiness platform WIL WIL WIL Individual factors & circumstances Source: (Researchers’ own source & Moolman, 2017) Comprehensive Framework for adoption The development of this comprehensive framework in Figure 3 for addressing and enhancing the employability of ICT graduates was coined from the adopted models by the USEM theory (Yorke & Knights, 2003:3), the DOTS theory, and the CareerEDGE theory (Dacre Pool & Sewell, 2007:277) as previously discussed. The model’s components, the review of related literature and the adopted research methodology (SLR), were combined to develop a comprehensive framework for adoption. The strength of the proposed comprehensive framework is that it will provide a logical pathway for the gradual development of attributes. In combination with a detailed employability framework, this could be an effective approach for addressing graduate employability issues and prospectus for WIL (Brink, 2014:2). Thus, this paper assesses the existing models, and the contribution of this discourse was to develop a comprehensive framework for addressing and improving the employability of ICT graduates. The next section is a presentation of the overview of the framework. Seemingly, this conceptual framework builds concepts that emerge and expand the body of knowledge. Notably, the benefit of this conceptual framework is that it will expand the researchers’ insight into the phenomenon being studied. It brings about thoughtfulness and exposes the theoretical foundations of complex research phenomena through graphical
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13512 representation or exposition (Pheko & Molefhe, 2016:462). Moreover, the framework mainly concentrates on the triad partners’ (HEI, graduates and industry) expectations, character traits and responsibility governing WIL towards enhancing graduate employability. The conceptual diagrammatic representation consists of information management and metacompetencies; WIL in terms of the triad partners categorised into the HEI lecturer, graduates and industries; and the employability readiness platform factors and circumstances. Information is a crucial aspect of daily living and therefore ought to be managed. This brings about the first aspect to be discussed in the framework that deals with information management and meta-competencies. While meta-competencies are not perceived as a separate competency domain, but rather as a collection of competencies from the skills domain (e.g. communication, self-development, creativity, analysis and problem solving), these competencies play an essential part in developing, enhancing or reinforcing other competencies, and therefore overarch them. The information management and metacompetence entail knowledge; soft and hard skills; character/attitudes; personality or values. It implies that if appropriately managed and nurtured, graduates will possess the generic and disciplinary competencies to enable them in gaining and securing employment and flourishing in their chosen profession. The information management and meta-competencies in this instance are aimed at managing information and addressing an exact need. Individuals extract information through their senses and appreciate the world through information processing (Brink, 2014:5). On the other hand, information is extensively accessible and obtainable, as can be practised, when accessing the internet and other platforms of the media. In this information age, all that is required is a couple of clicks and any subject matter can be retrieved and studied. The only issue is managing this information. The volume of information requires the filtering and management thereof as not all information is authentic, relevant or appropriate to address the determined need. Thus, a well-managed information dissemination offers opportunity to a range and reaching insight that exceeds the limitation of our physical selves. This experience with information makes the realisation of information management a critical function, as demonstrated in the framework. The ultimate challenge is to ensure control, which will allow only relevant information to be stored, analysed and shared. Information is not only relevant on a personal level, but also critical on an organisational level (Brink, 2014:10). The second aspect of the conceptual framework further discusses WIL. This approach offers opportunities for graduates/students to learn through experiences and rely on cooperation between different role players at HEIs and industry. WIL is based on information management and meta-competencies principles, where each of the parties involved has a unique and critical character trait and responsibility pertaining to the specific circumstances (Brink, 2014:14). In South Africa, the unemployment rate among graduates remains at its peak. In most cases, graduates lack essential experiences for the workplace and industry are seeking graduates that hold the basic employability skills to do a job and apply those skills effectively in the workplace. Spowart (2011:170) avers that HEIs are under increasing pressure to prepare their graduates for the world of work by including a component of WIL to achieve these expectations. The author sustained that graduates/students could benefit pedagogically through WIL and, as a result, their self-controlled analytical and critical thinking skills will enhance, and their learning, problem solving, and motivation for learning will quickly emerge.
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13513 In line with the aforementioned components of information management and metacompetencies, the distribution of experience, knowledge, thoughts and resources is the fundamental principle of a good information management practice as it ensures procedural facilitation of the WIL process (Brink, 2014:14). The conceptual framework underpins much of what happens in the WIL process and uses it to demonstrate the triad parties’ character traits and the responsibility of WIL, as shown in Figure 3. The information flow between the parties involved with WIL, that is, the graduate/student, educator and industry, should encourage an expressive information interchange or feedback. This feedback platform allows the parties in question in WIL to support an efficient allocation of educational resources. Nonetheless, this paper conceptualises and develops a framework that will provide a solution to HEIs to enhance the employability of ICT graduates. The third aspect deals with individual factors and circumstances and relates to the root causes of graduate unemployment, and the factors that may have led to the graduate unemployment rate. It also provides a distinctive description of employers’ expectations. Following is a brief overview of some of the crucial components represented in the conceptual framework. This conceptual framework analysis indicates the process undertaken to analyse each aspect of the research process within the framework. 4.2 Discussion of the comprehensive framework In attempting to address the employability challenges facing ICT graduates, a framework has been conceptualised for the purpose of detailing and offering support to the triad parties by describing their character traits and expected responsibilities through WIL in the labour market. These are joined together to formulate an all-inclusive, cohesive and efficient strategy for developing and addressing graduates’ employability. Recent studies have shown that a sustainable and resourceful labour market can only be achievable if the triad parties collectively work together to ensure a balance between the supply and demand sides of the labour market. Apparently, this framework supports the idea that knowledge, development and information management of employability ought to be communal among existing players in the labour market (HEI, graduates and industry). The framework starts with the triad parties involved, the concept ‘employability’, and readiness and individual factors. 4.3 Character trait and responsibilities [triad parties] 4.3.1 The role of educators The framework postulates that HEIs (educators) are a direct link between the industries and the graduates/students, which is why HEIs ought to pay attention to employability expectations from the employers to adequately align graduates/students in that direction. This implies that the sphere of basic, secondary and tertiary education will have to be transformed judging from the requirements and expectations of the industry and the economy; bearing in mind the foreseen future needs of employers and the broader economy. HEIs have a dynamic and fundamental role to play. It is their responsibility to laisse and ensure proper communication among their stakeholders and the industries to review their curricula to meet the needs of the labour market. This will mean that employers and policy-
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13514 makers improve partnerships with HEI through WIL to certify that both strategic and critical role players continue to be pre-emptive in breeding employability information and combined strategies for industries that are emerging (Pheko & Molefhe, 2016:461). The framework further suggests possible platforms through internships, opportunities for voluntary work, attachments, and even carefully designed jobs such as mentorship programmes for students before they graduate, and many more. 4.3.2 The role of graduates/students The framework recognises that graduates/students are the key determinants in whether they remain employed or unemployed. Therefore, it is the responsibility of graduates/students to build their employability profile in such a manner that it speaks for them in the job market, irrespective of employers’ expectations. The framework suggests that graduates/students are influential and active candidates in the job market. With the right systems in place, they are capable of building, developing and cultivating new knowledge, solving current societal challenges, and becoming job-creators in their own right. For students, these objectives could be achieved both prior to and after graduation through information management and metacognition through the WIL approach. 4.3.3 The role of employers The framework proposes that the industries/employers are regarded as one of the fundamental components in graduate employability. Employers are strategic players in the job market based on the character role they play in the labour market. Employers are also responsible for identifying critical knowledge skills, since graduate recruits will require skills and abilities needed for actual performance in their industries and sectors. Their role is to ensure that human resource that is developed will add value in adhering to their future strategic goals and plans. 4.5.4 Employability awareness As mentioned, and inferred from the literature, the challenges with graduates/students not getting their ideal IC-related employment, coupled with issues surrounding the employer expectations which indirectly or directly prevents graduates from entering the labour market, have not been fully addressed. The inability of South African universities to align their curriculum design with employers’ expectations remains an issue, hence the challenges with employability are at a peak. The framework therefore proposes a few components, such as employability awareness or readiness. This component is purported to function as an autonomous avenue or platform for recognising, categorising, and publicising the employability information in the country. This platform could support all triad parties in ensuring information accessibility in relation to graduates’ employability. Through a collective and appropriate medium and channel of communication, the platform could be deployed in a way that allows all the players to appreciate the necessary requirements for employability and access to the provided communication. Notably, HEIs need to ensure that they instil appropriate sets of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values in their graduates in order to make them fit to be employable. It is further crucial that HEIs constantly communicate with the industries that they support in order to align their
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13515 curriculum design efforts with the actual weights of several professions involved. On the contrary, it seems that HEIs are better inclined to prepare their graduates/students in the knowledge fields, compared to being effective in producing graduates/students with the necessary soft and hard skills sets to succeed in their career. Again, it is important that HEI graduates are aware of the significance and purpose of what they are learning and how it could benefit them by applying their acquired competencies in a variety of complex situations. Eventually, the proposed conceptualised framework for the enhancement of employability suggests that the employability of ICT graduates is not solely dependent on building the right sets of skills, attitudes and values, but also on a few individual barriers/factors that affect the graduate’s ability to attain employability. These sets of individual factors relate to individual circumstances, employer practices, local contextual factors, and macro-level factors, to mention but a few (Moolman, 2017:33; Pheko & Molefhe, 2016:464). Character traits and attributes Conceptual framework development for enhancing employability of graduates Knowledge (G) = Generic Knowledge (D) = Disciplinary Information management Meta-competencies Soft & hard skills (G) = Generic Soft & hard skills (D) = Disciplinary Character (G) = Generic Character (D) = Disciplinary Personality (G) = Generic Personality (D) = Disciplinary Graduates have an appropriate set of generic and discipline specific knowledge, skills, character and personality that will make them more likely to gain employment and succeed in their chosen occupations (broader conceptualization of employability) Employability [holistic view towards conceptualization of ICT graduate/ students employability ] * Career planning * Business acumen * Knowledgeable of industry & job market * Professionalism * Self-awareness & opportunity Job hunt * Adaptability * Critical thinking & Decision making * Work ethics * Leadership * Problem solving Career development, experience & generic skills * Soft & hard skills * Application & technical ability skills * Innovation & creativity * Time management * Enthusiasm * Self-esteem * Self-confidence * Self-efficacy * Reflection & evaluation * Meta-cognition Graduates/ students
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13516 This conceptual framework suggests that the employability of ICT graduates/students is achievable through the information management approach and communication between the triad parties with collective concepts such career planning, self-confidence, self-esteem, selfawareness and opportunity, and many more as suggested in the above demonstration. The concept of career planning is part of the element adopted from the DOTS elements; for an ICT graduate/student to stand a better chance of acquiring employment that is desirable, and where they can be fulfilled and successful, it is fundamental for graduates/students to acquire some form of basic education in career development learning. This diagrammatic representation of ICT graduates’/students’ employability is a holistic view of a conceptualisation of framework development. The framework shows that the industries seek graduates/students with communication and interpersonal skills, ICT application and technical skills, who are able to work as a team, and who possess other specific personal character traits and attributes. This framework supports the notion that graduates/students need soft skills, which are a portion attributed to graduate employability traits. In the absence of these soft and hard skills, graduates remain uncertain about being employable, even when they have qualifications in specific disciplines. In this framework, there are three main components, namely career development, experience and generic skills. These components contain graduates’/students’ character traits and attributes required for enhancing their employability. The first aspect looks into career development, which is the stimulus that propels graduates to seek enrolment to any given institution of higher learning, for career exposure, knowledge, and understanding which is a similar element of the USEM model. HEIs are usually perceived as the gateway to studying a definite discipline or programme in-depth for the purpose of obtaining an appropriate degree relevant to the qualification studied, thereby securing a suitable job in line with the profession. The second aspect deals with experience; work experience is indispensable for securing a job. Whether it is in the form of short work employment or a job internship, work experience is ultimately viewed satisfactorily by employers/industries and can help boost graduates’ employability profile or help them decide their future job prospects. With some academic disciplines or course programmes, work placements are essential and compulsory in order for a student to complete the degree, while for others, students may seek to do a placement as one of their course modules require. The first port of call is usually the university careers service, as it is designed in a way to have a significant impact with databases of employers and alumni contacts. Nonetheless, experience in this regards is having some form of work or life experience which is likely to enhance the graduates’ employability, or develop a wider range of skills, capacity and ability to prepare them to become more attractive to prospective employers (Sumanasiri, Yajid & Khatibi, 2015:77; Dacre Pool & Sewell, 2007:284). The third aspect details the basic generic skills, which are sometimes referred to as the soft and hard skills or transferable skills (Mncayi, 2016:197). These are skills which can support study in any professional discipline, and which can actually be transferred to a variety of contexts in higher education or the job market. These sets of skills include, but are not limited to, application and technical ability skills, innovation and creativity, critical thinking, decision-making ability, knowledgeability of industry and the job market, professionalism, time management, adaptability skills, communication and interpersonal skills, metacognition, self-efficacy, enthusiasm, work ethics, leadership skills, problem solving,
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13517 reflection and evaluation. These components mentioned in the framework were inspired by the adopted models, as previously discussed. The models gave the researchers insights to conceptualise the framework for enhancing the employability of ICT graduates. The framework incorporated the relevant and necessary components that will certify that graduates/students accomplish an optimum level of employability skills after graduating from school. 5. CONCLUSION This paper proposed a conceptualised framework in the form of a diagrammatic representation supported with adopted models and exploration of reviewed literature that detailed and unveiled the theoretical perspectives relevant to the paper. It was based on previous scholars’ experience of how similar research problems involving the employability of ICT graduates were solved. It further offered a clear discussion of research processes, approaches as well as techniques that were adopted. A detailed discussion on the framework and viable solutions emerged through the development of a comprehensive framework coined together from the exploration of past frameworks or models, supported by a systematic review of the literature. 6. RECOMMENDATION Substantially, the developed framework establishes an effective feedback process on distinctive employers’ expectations and requirements of ICT graduates/students. Shared information and communication with the parties involved were recommended in terms of the accessibility of information resources that is of importance to enhancing ICT graduates’ employability. The paper recommends early integration of WIL as best practice for improvement. This entails liaising with all relevant stakeholders and the triad parties through proper communication schemes and discussions with the view of curbing the menace of graduate unemployment. REFERENCES Anderson, L.W., Krathwohl, D.R., Airasian, P.W., Cruikshank, K.A., Mayer, R.E. & Pintrich, P.R. (2014). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. Harlow: Pearson New International. Atkinson, G., Misko, J. & Stanwick, J. (2015). Work-integrated learning in STEM disciplines: employer perspectives. Adelaide, South Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Baldry, K. (2016). Graduate unemployment in South Africa: Social inequality reproduced. Journal of Education and Work, 29(7), 788-812. Boland, A., Cherry, G. & Dickson, R. (Eds.). (2017). Doing a systematic review: A student’s guide. Sage. Brink, R. (2014). An information management framework for the work-integrated learning process (Doctoral dissertation, University of Johannesburg). Calitz, A.P., Greyling, J.H. & Cullen, M.D. (2014). South African industry ICT graduate skills requirements. Southern African Computer Lecturers’ Association (SACLA), 1, 25-26.
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Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13519 Lowden, K., Hall, S., Elliot, D. & Lewin, J. (2011). Employers’ perceptions of the employability skills of new graduates. London: Edge Foundation. McKenzie, S., Coldwell-Neilson, J. & Palmer, S. (2017, January). Career aspirations and skills expectations of undergraduate IT students: are they realistic?. In HERDSA 2017: Research and development in higher education: curriculum transformation: Proceedings of the 40th HERDSA Annual International Conference (pp. 229-240). Mncayi, N.P. (2016). The determinants of employment status of young graduates from a South African University (Doctoral dissertation). Moolman, H. (2017). A conceptual competence-based framework for enhancing the employability of graduates. The Independent Journal of Teaching and Learning, 12(2), 26-43. Ohei, K. & Lubbe, S. (2013). Social differences between information systems students and non-information systems students at North-West University (Mafikeng Campus). In 2013 International Conference on Information Technology and Applications (pp. 180-184). IEEE. Ohei, K. & Brink, R. (2019a). A framework development for the adoption of Information and Communication Technology web technologies in Higher Education Systems. South African Journal of Information Management, 21(1), p.12. Ohei, K. & Brink, R. (2019b). Web 3.0 and Web 2.0 Technologies in Higher Educational Institute: Methodological concepts towards a framework development for adoption. International Journal for Infonomics (IJI), 12 (1), p 1841-1853. Omona, W., van der Weide, T. & Lubega, J. (2010). Using ICT to enhance knowledge management in higher education: A conceptual framework and research agenda. International Journal of Education and Development using ICT, 6(4), 83-101. Pheko, M. M. & Molefhe, K. (2016). Addressing employability challenges: A framework for improving the employability of graduates in Botswana. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 22(4), 455-469. Pool, L. D. (2017). Developing graduate employability: The CareerEDGE Model and the importance of emotional intelligence. In Graduate employability in context (pp. 317- 338). Palgrave Macmillan, London. Rahman, S.A. & Lie, K.Y. (2015). Graduate Competencies: Issues and Solutions of Graduate Employability in Malaysia. In Technology and Workplace Skills for the Twenty-First Century (pp. 133-148). Palgrave Macmillan, New York. Rogan, M. & Reynolds, J. (2016). Schooling inequality, higher education and the labour market: Evidence from a graduate tracer study in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Development Southern Africa, 33(3), 343-360. Shivoro, R.S., Shalyefu, R.K. & Kadhila, N. (2018). Perspectives on graduate employability attributes for management sciences graduates. South African Journal of Higher Education, 32(1), 216-232. Smith, C., Ferns, S. & Russell, L. (2014). The impact of work-integrated learning on student work-readiness. Spowart, J. (2011). Hospitality students' competencies: Are they work ready?. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 10(2), 169-181.
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13520 Statistics SA. (2018). Quarterly labour force survey: Statistical release P0211. Private Bag X44, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa, ISIbalo House, Koch Street, Salvokop, Pretoria. Statistical release. P0211. Quarterly Labour Force Survey. Quarter 2: 2018. Stockdale, R. & Keane, T. (2016). Influencing the influencers: the role of mothers in IT career choices. Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice, 15, 181-194. Stukalina, Y. (2017, October). Career Management in a Technical University as an Essential Factor Influencing Its Competitiveness. In International Conference on Reliability and Statistics in Transportation and Communication (pp. 639-648). Springer, Cham. Sumanasiri, E.G.T., Yajid, M.S.A. & Khatibi, A. (2015). Review of literature on graduate employability. Journal of Studies in Education, 5(3), 75-88. Templier, M. & Paré, G. (2015). A framework for guiding and evaluating literature reviews. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 37(1), 6. Van Broekhuizen, H. & Van Der Berg, S. (2016). How high is graduate unemployment in South Africa? A much-needed update. Available at: www.econ3x3.org; (Accessed September 2018). Van der Berg, S. & Van Broekhuizen, H. (2012). Graduate unemployment in South Africa: A much exaggerated problem. Centre for Development and Enterprise, Stellenbosch University. Vinichenko, M.V., Makushkin, S.A., Melnichuk, A.V., Frolova, E.V. & Kurbakova, S. N. (2016). Student employment during college studies and after career start. International Review of Management and Marketing, 6(5S), 23-29.
Gender & Behaviour 2019 ISSN: 1596-9231 Copyright © 2019 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 13521 Appendix A Table 1: Example of different types of employability skills sought by different employers Soft Skills Business Skills Technical Skills Programming Skills Problem-solving skills Business processing skills Software development skills New programming languages Ability to learn and apply Business Problem Solving Creativity Critical thinking General Problem Solving Research skills Working under pressure Accounting Business Process Design/Reengineering Contracting and legal Finance Marketing Supply Chain Management Agile Development CASE Tools Client-Server Programming SDLC System Testing Systems Analysis Systems Design User-Interface Design Web-based Application Development NET/AJAX ASP C/C++/ C# HTML/XHTM Java/J2EE/J2P Perl PHP SQL Visual Basic XML Interpersonal skills Management skills Business applications Legacy languages Conflict Resolution Interpersonal Relationships Leadership Self-esteem Teamwork Outsourcing Management User Relationship Management Working with Virtual Teams Applying ICT to Business Problems Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Operating Systems Transaction Processing Systems Web servers Ada COBOL Smalltalk Work ethic Project management Information management Initiative/Motivation to work Integrity/Honesty/ Ethics Professional Ethics Responsibility Self-management Time Management Project Management/ Planning/Budgeting/ Scheduling Project Risk Management Data Mining Data Warehousing Database Administration Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) Communication skills Hardware Oral & Written Business Continuity Planning (BCP) IT Architecture/Standards Network administration Security Voice/Data Telecom Adopted (Calitz et al., 2014) View publication stats
Project Leadership and Society 4 (2023) 100084 Available online 30 March 2023 2666-7215/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0/). Empirical Research Paper Enhancing project management graduates’ employability through group assessment innovations: An empirical study Roksana Jahan Tumpa a,* , Samer Skaik b , Miriam Ham c , Ghulam Chaudhry a a School of Engineering and Technology, Central Queensland University, Sydney, NSW, 2000, Australia b School of Engineering and Technology, Central Queensland University, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia c School of Education and the Arts, Central Queensland University, Cairns, QLD, 4870, Australia ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Assessment design Employability Group-based assessments Higher education Job readiness and Project management ABSTRACT This study validates the recommendations proposed by Tumpa et al. (2022a) for designing authentic group-based assessments in order to improve the work-ready attributes of project management graduates. The study aims to address the concerns of employers who have reported dissatisfaction with the employability skills of project management graduates. Two focus groups, comprising of fifteen project management academics from Australian and UK universities, were conducted to gather data for this study. The findings of the focus groups not only validated the majority of the recommendations but also provided new insights into the design and administration of group-based assessments for project management education. The study sought to contribute to the improvement of skills of project management graduates by providing a valid and authentic approach to group assessment design for project management academics to use. The implications of this study are that it provides an evidence-based framework for designing group-based assessments, which in turn will benefit both the graduates and the employers. 1. Introduction Project Management plays an instrumental role in achieving the strategic benefits of organisations (Al-Mhdawi et al., 2022). Some of the driving forces for incorporating project management strategies in business are the compression of product lifecycles, promoting innovation and creativity, improved computational strategies and strengthening market competition (Christensen et al., 2018). There will be more than 870 million employees working in project-oriented jobs by 2027 (Karanja and Malone, 2021). By 2030, the global economy requires approximately 25 million employees in various project-related jobs (PMI, 2022). With the popularity of project management in organisations, the talent deficit in project professionals is on the rise (Ramazani and Jergeas, 2015). Globally, the talent gap in project management professions may result in a potential loss of up to US $345.5 billion (PMI, 2021). Project managers, who do not possess the right set of expertise jeopardise the success of their projects (Thomas and Mengel, 2008). Lack of social cohesion in the team and unclear communication among various stakeholders are identified as key factors that increase the chances of project failure (Gupta et al., 2019). According to Koppensteiner and Udo (2009), the core competencies of a successful project manager revolve around knowledge, proven experience and personality. The authors identified a wide range of specific critical project management skills. Some of the identified soft skills were leadership, negotiation, communication, team building, other human resource management skills, can-do attitude, confidence, enthusiasm, open-mindedness, adaptability, and personal integrity. These soft skills were also supported by Skulmoski and Hartman (2010). Ribeiro et al. (2021) summarised some of the essential soft skills that project managers should have in the context of Industry 4.0. These included communication, influencing, teamworking skills, emotional, contextual and cognitive skills, and personal and skills and attributes. Similarly, soft skills such as communication, leadership, conflict management, achievement motivation, teamworking and cognitive skills have positive impacts on the project success (Alvarenga et al., 2019; Zuo et al., 2018). Soft skills have been identified as one of the important competencies for project management professionals (Zuo et al., 2018). Organisations This research received no external funding. This research is part of the PhD studies of the corresponding author. The authors would like to express gratitude to Central Queensland University for the support. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (R.J. Tumpa). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Project Leadership and Society journal homepage: www.sciencedirect.com/journal/project-leadership-and-society https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2023.100084 Received 22 November 2022; Received in revised form 20 March 2023; Accepted 28 March 2023
Project Leadership and Society 4 (2023) 100084 2 should focus more on soft skills as its significance on project success is highly critical (Carvalho and Rabechini Junior, 2015). On the other hand, project scope management, project time management, project cost management, and lifecycle management were labelled as project management technical skills. However, employers indicate that project management graduates are not well equipped with these skill sets and often demonstrate a lack of soft skills in particular (Ramazani and Jergeas, 2015). Many newly graduated project managers are not ready to cope with the complexity of managing a project (Ramazani and Jergeas, 2015) and do not possess the capabilities to handle complex and chaotic situations with a range of techniques in a timely manner (Thomas and Mengel, 2008). Higher education institutions (HEIs) from which these students graduate must take some responsibility for the non-readiness of graduates (Winter et al., 2006). Employers claim that universities do not place sufficient emphasis on the development of soft skills (Cordoba ´ and Piki, 2012). Karanja and Malone (2021) claimed that there is a misalignment between project management courses delivered and taught in academic institutions and required project management competencies set by project management governing bodies such as Project Management Institute (PMI), Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM), International Project Management Association (IPMA), and Association for Project Management (APM). The result then is a perception that the current system of project management education does not meet the demands of modern enterprises (Cordoba ´ and Piki, 2012) and is not suitably preparing graduates to negotiate the evolving uncertainties of projects (Thomas and Mengel, 2008). Therefore, a re-evaluation of project management courses in academic institutions is required to better prepare project management professionals (Karanja and Malone, 2021). To respond to employers’ demands, considerable efforts have been made to develop graduate employability by teaching and developing soft skills (Mason et al., 2009). Although scholars have researched many approaches to developing soft skills in project management graduates (Alam et al., 2010; Ballantine and Mccourt Larres, 2007; Cooley et al., 2015; Cordoba ´ and Piki, 2012; Huff, 2014; Ritter et al., 2018; Rudman and Kruger, 2014; Shah, 2013; Sin and Amaral, 2017; Zou and Darvish, 2006), this research focuses on the particular function of group-based assessments in cultivating project management competencies in graduates. In this research, a group-based assessment is defined as an assessment task set with the expectation that it will be completed by a small number of students who work together to submit a product. It is worth mentioning that in this paper we focused on ‘group assessment’ or ‘group-based assessment’, terms used interchangeably, which are assessed rather than ‘group work’ which may not be necessarily assessed or graded. Group-based assessments have been widely used to develop employability skills in graduates. One of the popular definition of employability in the extant literature is by Hillage and Pollard (1998) which suggests that “in simple terms, employability is about being capable of getting and keeping fulfilling work. More comprehensively employability is the capability to move self-sufficiently within the labour market to realise potential through sustainable employment” (p. 2). A recent review by Akkermans et al. (2020) suggests that employability is an employee’s ability to be employable in the internal and external labour market. To progress in project management career and strengthen employability, career models require to consider project management competencies (Chen et al., 2019). One of the critical employability skills for project management graduates is their ability to work effectively in teams (Cordoba ´ and Piki, 2012; Pant and Baroudi, 2008). Given the significance of teamwork skills in the project management profession, many universities have not only embedded group-based assessments in their curriculum but also included them as specified course learning outcomes (McClellan, 2016; Oosthuizen et al., 2021). However, simply embedding group-based assessments into the curriculum does not necessarily ensure students will develop and improve their teamwork skills. In fact, as reported by Vik (2001) group-based assessments can make it difficult for students to achieve the desired learning outcome. In situations where group assessments are not well planned and supported, learning can be impeded, creating a difficult social environment and causing students to experience stress and distress (Noonan, 2013; Thom, 2020). The purpose of this research then was to establish how best to design and implement group-based assessments to facilitate the development of required employability skills in project management graduates as part of the preparation to join the workforce. Group-based assessments has widely been suggested as a tool to promote collaborative learning (Jang et al., 2017). Group-based assessments provide a range of pedagogical benefits such as dealing with large cohorts, reducing academics’ marking load, facilitating active learning and improving academic performances (Schmulian and Coetzee, 2019; Thom, 2020). Beyond pedagogical benefits, group-based assessments provide students an opportunity to enhance their employability skills such as critical thinking, communication, cultural competency, problem-solving, leadership, conflict resolution, interpersonal and teamworking skills (Kalfa and Taksa, 2017; Thom, 2020). However, it requires considerable amount of time and resources to design group-based assessments effectively. Just putting students in groups does not guarantee collaborative learning (Johnson and Johnson, 2013). To address this concern, Tumpa et al. (2022a) propose ten recommendations for designing group-based assessments authentically to improve the job-readiness of project management graduates. In this research, job or work readiness is defined as the mixture of skills, behaviours and values which are considered necessary to make successful transition from education period into the workplace (Caballero and Walker, 2010). The ten recommendations proposed by Tumpa et al. (2022a) are outlined below in Table 1. This paper is a continuation of a PhD study conducted by the first author. A critical examination of the existing literature was conducted on group-based assessments by following a systematic approach (Tumpa et al., 2022b). Various aspects of group-based assessments emerged initially from the systematic literature review (Tumpa et al., 2022b) and these were then tested through interviews with project management academics (Tumpa et al., 2022a). This paper reports on the final stage of the research which was the validation of the proposed recommendations through focus groups to further strengthen their robustness. Where prior research has investigated group-based assessments in Table 1 The ten recommendations for effective group-based assessments proposed by Tumpa et al. (2022a). No. Recommendation 1 Group tasks should be challenging, authentic and based on real-life projects. 2 Formal training on how to work in a group should be provided to students to facilitate a smooth working process. 3 Teachers should form groups in order to emulate a real-life project environment. 4 Teachers should aim to balance the group formation with diversity that represents a range of skillsets, cultures, genders, and academic backgrounds where possible. 5 Where the nature and type of the group task does not specify larger teams, students should be placed in groups of either three or five (avoid forming group with even numbers). 6 Groups should maintain a team charter with established ground rules, the expectation of team members, and guidelines. 7 Peer assessments should be incorporated into the group assessment process to deter free-riding and the perception of unfair marking. 8 Students’ oral presentations on a given task(s) can be one of the ways of identifying potential free-riders in teams. 9 Adjust the marks of an individual only in an extreme case when there was no contribution at all. 10 Academics’ involvement throughout the process of group-based assessments must be maintained. R.J. Tumpa et al.
Project Leadership and Society 4 (2023) 100084 3 other contexts such as law, medicine, accounting, and business focussing on the experiences and perceptions of students in most of the cases, this paper contributes to the research by incorporating the standpoints of project management academics on good practices in the design and implementation of group-based assessments to improve the employability skills of project management graduates. Furthermore, as per the authors’ knowledge, there is a lack of specific evidence-based research within the context of management discipline that systemically investigates the approaches to making group assessments fit for the intended purpose of enhancing project management related competencies. 2. Literature review 2.1. Project managers’ competencies The project environment is a dynamic system. Project managers are required to perform through the uncertainty and complexity of the project environment (Thomas and Mengel, 2008). As a result, they require skills to quickly adapt to situations that are within and outside of their control (Cordoba ´ and Piki, 2012). The skill sets required for the successful completion of projects have changed dramatically in the past few years (Alam et al., 2010; Pant and Baroudi, 2008). Employers now require employees to possess a mixture of soft skills, disciplinary technical skills and project management hard skills (Ahsan et al., 2013). Soft skills are also refereed as human skills since they deal with the human or people part of the project. Soft skills include communication skills, teamwork, problem-solving, creativity, interpersonal skills, critical thinking, and leadership traits (Osmani et al., 2017). Disciplinary technical skills refer to processes, procedures, tools and techniques for performing some tasks in a particular industry (Zuo et al., 2018). It can also be called industry or domain specific skills. Some industries may require some defined technical skills which are specific to those sectors required for some legal, domain or regulatory requirements. For instance, some construction organisations may require its project managers to be aware of safety standards of the construction domain (Ahsan et al., 2013). On the other hand, information technology (IT) project managers may require some IT specific technical skills along with project management hard skills. Project management hard skills include, but are not limited to, management of time, cost and quality within a project (Atkinson, 1999; Pant and Baroudi, 2008). Interestingly, the effects of a project managers’ soft skills have a greater impact than their technical skills on project management practices (El-Sabaa, 2001). In recent literature, soft skills such as communication, leadership and commitment appeared as the top most skills required for project success (Alvarenga et al., 2019). This finding is aligned with the results presented in Moradi et al. (2020b) where a range of soft skills seemed to be the core competencies for successful collaborative construction projects. When recruiting project managers, employers place greater emphasis on the soft skills of employees than technical skills (Ahsan et al., 2013; Chipulu et al., 2012; Pant and Baroudi, 2008; Ramazani and Jergeas, 2015). The significance of soft skills is on the rise in project management domain (Alvarenga et al., 2019). The importance of soft skills has been repeatedly highlighted in the project management competencies literature in one way or another (Muzio et al., 2007). Association of Project Management (APM) emphasised the importance of “people” in managing projects and influencing project outcomes. The fundamental skills which may impact the outcomes of projects are communication, teamwork, leadership, conflict management, negotiation, human resource management, behavioural characteristics, learning and development of professionalism and ethics (Alvarenga et al., 2019). When categorising project management critical competencies, Stevenson and Starkweather (2010) identified six critical skills such as leadership, the ability to communicate at multiple levels, verbal and written skills, attitude and the ability to deal with ambiguity and change. Skulmoski and Hartman (2010) analysed soft skills of Information System (IS) project managers. They classified soft skills as per the project life cycle. Similarly, Zhang et al. (2013) examined construction project managers’ social competencies required for Chinese construction projects. They attempted to construct a social competency model for project managers working within the construction industry in China. The model consists of four dimensions such as working with others, stakeholder management, leading others and social awareness. Working with others includes teamwork, conflict management and cooperation; stakeholder management includes impact and influence and change management; leading others involves interpersonal leadership and inspirational understanding; social awareness encompasses personal relationship and organisational awareness (Zhang et al., 2013). Moradi et al. (2020b) investigated construction project managers’ competencies from a human behavioural perspective. Ten core competencies considered critical for the superior performance in projects were group capabilities, language proficiency, leveraging diversity, stress tolerance (management), flexibility, relationship building, leadership, maintaining order, achievement orientation, and understanding others (Moradi et al., 2020b). Project managers participating in the study of Ramazani and Jergeas (2015) believed that three areas of project managers needed to be developed: critical thinking abilities, soft skills as opposed to technical skills, and engagement level in the real-life complex projects. Similar findings were obtained in the study of de Araújo and Pedron (2015). Communication, interpersonal skills, business acumen and project management skills were rated as topmost skills. 2.2. Standards of project management competencies Undoubtedly project managers play an influential role in the successful completion of projects (Chen et al., 2019; Irfan et al., 2021; Müller and Turner, 2007). Competent project managers are one of the key contributors to the success of projects (Ekrot et al., 2016; Karanja and Malone, 2021). Therefore, the competencies of project managers have received substantial attention in the recent literature (Engelbrecht et al., 2017; Karanja and Malone, 2021) and in the standards of practice (Dziekonski, ´ 2017; Moradi et al., 2020b). The project management literature attempted to identify required competencies of project managers (Keil et al., 2013). The existing literature focused on the Individual Competence Baseline (ICB.4), Project Manager Competency Development (PMCD.3), Association for Project Management (APM) Body of Knowledge, and Project Management Institute (PMI) Talent Triangle introduced by Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) (Moradi et al., 2020a). ICB.4 is an international framework which helps project, program and portfolio managers to develop individual competencies deemed essential for the success of the project. This competence model is not specific to any particular field and can be applied to any organisations (IPMA, 2023). The competencies in this framework can be categorised in “People”, “Practice” and “Perspective” domains covering 28 competencies (IPMA, 2023; Moradi et al., 2020a). PMI introduced the PMCD.3 framework to ensure a rigorous assessment, evaluation and recognition of competencies of project managers (PMI, 2002). Sixteen competencies were included in this framework classified in “Performance” and “Personal” clusters (Moradi et al., 2020a). The APM competence framework yields 27 competencies spanning “Technical”, “Behavioural” and “Contextual” clusters. Finally, the PMI Talent Triangle recognises three domains such as “Technical Project Management”, “Leadership” and “Strategic and Business Management” introducing 31 competencies (Karanja and Malone, 2021). Table 2 summarises the project management competencies in the above-mentioned four frameworks. R.J. Tumpa et al.
Project Leadership and Society 4 (2023) 100084 4 2.3. The role of effective group-based assessments in enhancing graduate employability Group-based assessments have been widely and increasingly used as part of the assessment process in higher education to develop employability skills in graduates (Noonan, 2013). The extant literature of group-based assessments suggests that group assessments have the credibility to develop employability skills especially soft or human aspects of the competencies (Fathi et al., 2019; Riebe et al., 2017; Skaik and Tumpa, 2019). Group-based assessments provide students and teachers with a range of academic, practical, and social benefits (Chen and Kuo, 2019; Lee et al., 2015; Tumpa et al., 2022a). If group-based assessments are designed effectively and authentically, students are likely to develop critical thinking, collaboration, leadership, negotiation, teamwork skills, behavioural competencies (Alam et al., 2010), problem-solving skills and high-level learning by engaging in group assessments (Amato and Amato, 2005; Davies, 2009). The significance of group-based assessments has long been recognised among educators (Davies, 2009). Teachers use group-based assessments as a tool to assess and evaluate a large number of students at the same time (Cumming, 2010). Rust (2001) cites that group-based assessments reduce the marking load for tutors and tutorial briefings. Despite numerous benefits, a range of challenges are discussed in existing literature concerning group-based assessments. The most frequently noted issues are free-riding and social loafing (Maiden and Perry, 2011; Rudman and Kruger, 2014; Shah, 2013; Zuo et al., 2018). Social loafing has been defined as “a reduction in the individual effort because of the presence of other people and is most likely to occur when students feel less likely to be identified” (Watkins, 2004). While social loafing is the tendency of a group member to reduce their effort, free-riding is the opportunity to get the same marks as others with almost no contribution (Watkins, 2004). In addition to social loafing and free-riding issues, the drawbacks of group-based assessments perceived by students were classified by Seri ˇ ´c and Garbin Praniˇcevi´c (2018) into four categories: functional, interpersonal, personal and perceived in-equality. The functional difficulties included different working styles of peers and group member selection. Discourteous leadership, a lack of respectful behaviour between group members, devaluation of others’ opinions, and potential conflicts between team members were listed as interpersonal difficulties. The personal difficulties included increased peer pressure and excessive responsibility and being embarrassed. The improper distribution of workload, lack of engagement and responsibility were considered as perceived inequality (Seri ˇ ´c and Garbin Praniˇcevi´c, 2018). The work of Burdett and Hastie (2009) also revealed students’ dissatisfaction with the issue of unfair distribution of work and equal distribution of grades (Bramley, 2020). Assessing only the final product or outcome may lead ‘ … to inevitable inequities in the allocation of grades where the efforts of hard-working students may be missed and students who “free ride” are unjustly rewarded’ (Caple and Bogle, 2013). Although these problems are commonly cited issues experienced by students in group assessments, academics can alleviate these issues through careful planning of group assessments. Nonetheless, the process may be difficult and time-consuming for lecturers. 2.4. Research gaps The extant literature demonstrated that numerous studies have been conducted on group assessments from different angles including the focus on the group formation process, group size, self and peer evaluations, task design and weightage of group assessments (Adwan, 2016; Bailey et al., 2015; Plastow et al., 2010; Sahin, 2011; Warhuus et al., 2021). There are review papers which attempted to provide recommendations on how to manage group-based assessment effectively (Davies, 2009; Hansen, 2006; Noonan, 2013; Oakley et al., 2007; Smith, 2018). In addition to these extensive reviews, some researchers empirically studied good practices in the administration of group-based assessments taking students’ perceptions into consideration (Bramley, 2020; Postlethwait, 2016; Skaik and Tumpa, 2019; Volkov and Volkov, 2015). As per the authors’ findings, there is a lack of studies that took an integrated and evidence-based approach towards improving the entire process of group-based assessments to make it fit for purpose, particularly within the context of the project management discipline considering academics’ perceptions. As academics are one of the key stakeholders of the assessment process, it is necessary to consider their viewpoints on the design and implementation of group-based assessments. It is expected that by doing so, greater insights will be provided into the careful planning of effective group assessments. In addition, the literature reported above utilised quantitative research methodologies Table 2 Project management competencies based on different standards (Karanja and Malone, 2021; Moradi et al., 2020a). Standards Cluster Competency ICB.4 People Self-reflection and self-management, Personal integrity and reliability, Personal communication, Relationships and engagement Leadership, Teamwork, Conflict and crisis, Resourcefulness, Negotiation Result orientation Practice Project design, Requirements and objectives, Scope, Time, Organization and information, Quality, Finance, Resource, Procurement, Plan and control Risk and opportunity, Stakeholders, Change and transformation Perspective Strategy, Governance, structure and processes Compliance, standard and regulation, Power and interest, Culture and values PMCD.3 Performance Project integration management, Project scope management, Project time management, Project cost management, Project quality management, Project human resource management, Project communication management, Project risk management, Project procurement management, Project stakeholder management Personal Communicating, Leading, Managing, Cognitive ability, Effectiveness, Professionalism APM Interpersonal Communication, Conflict management, Delegation, Influencing, Leadership, Negotiation, Teamwork Professionalism Communities of practice, Competence, Ethics framework, Leading and development PMI Talent Triangle Technical Agile practices, Cost estimation/budget, Data gathering and modelling, Earned value management, Governance, Lifecycle management, Performance management, Requirements management and traceability, Risk management, Schedule/time management, Scope management Leadership Brainstorming, Coaching and mentoring, Conflict management, Emotional intelligence, Influencing, Interpersonal skills, Listening, Negotiation, Problem solving, Team building Strategic and business management Benefits management and realization, Business acumen, Business models and structures, Competitive analysis, Customer relationship and satisfaction, Industry knowledge and standards, Legal and regulatory compliance (ethical), Market awareness and conditions, Operational functions (finance, marketing), Strategic planning, analysis, alignment R.J. Tumpa et al.
Project Leadership and Society 4 (2023) 100084 5 which limits the deep exploration that qualitative methods can provide. Therefore, the authors conducted twenty-two semi-structured interviews with project management academics and proposed ten recommendations for effective design and administration of group work assessments based on that data (Tumpa et al., 2022a). In order to further strengthen the validity of the ten recommendations, two focus groups were conducted with project management academics to investigate the validity of the proposed recommendations. This is a unique and systematic way of exploring group-based assessments which aim to provide robust strategies to make it fit for purposes. 3. Research method 3.1. Research design This paper reports the findings of the third and final stage of a research project as illustrated in Fig. 1. In stage 1, a systematic literature review was conducted to analyse and synthesise the existing literature and identify the gap in relation to the effective design of group-based assessments (Tumpa et al., 2022b). In stage 2, semi-structured interviews with 22 project management academics were conducted resulting in ten recommendations (Tumpa et al., 2022a). In stage 3, reported in this paper, two focus groups were executed with a different set of project management academics. There was no overlap in the participants between the semi-structured interviews and the focus groups. New participants were recruited for the focus groups to enhance the validity of the findings derived from stage 2. The purpose of focus groups is to increase the credibility of the interview findings, based on the literature review by way of triangulation, using the two sources of data, to cross-reference and compare the findings from the interviews with the findings from the focus groups. This can help to strengthen the validity and reliability of the final findings by providing multiple perspectives on the same phenomenon (Risjord et al., 2002). A focus group is classified as an exploratory group discussion to gain insights into a specific topic in a defined environment (Krueger, 2014). Focus groups has been chosen for this research to facilitate the evaluation of the ten recommendations from the interviews by practising project management academics who use group-based assessments in their higher education context (Pathak et al., 2013). In the focus groups discussion, participants were guided in a discussion to elicit their opinions, perspectives to further develop ideas and construct a shared understanding of the experiences that would not have been revealed without the interaction of the group (Denzin et al., 2006). 3.2. Ethical considerations The authors obtained ethics approval for this study from the affiliated University’s Ethics Committee. Confidentiality and anonymity of the recruited participants were maintained. Furthermore, the participants received assurance that their academic positions within the affiliated universities will not be impacted by the experiences, perceptions, and perspectives they shared in the research. An information sheet and written consent were provided prior to the focus group commencement. The participants were informed of video recording of the discussion and their right to withdraw from the study. 3.3. Participants A purposive sampling technique was employed to identify potential participants for this study. The criteria for academics’ inclusion in the study were: (1) they were teaching project management at a university level (2) they were full-time academics at the time of their participation in the focus group (3) their academic position in the university hierarchy was Lecturer or above. An invitation to participate in the research was sent to 88 project management academics, via email, teaching at Australian and UK universities meeting the inclusion criteria. The participants were recruited by exploring different universities’ websites within Australia and the UK. Due to time differences across the globe, the focus groups conducted were country specific. Fifteen participants agreed to participate in the research project. According to Krueger (2014) and Stewart and Shamdasani (2017) focus group size should range from five to ten participants and six to twelve participants respectively. In alignment with this advice, the Australia-based focus group consisted of nine project management academics while six project management academics participated in the UK-based focus group, totalling fifteen participants across the two focus groups. Once the full participant list was prepared, the participants were sent the ten recommendations in the form of a framework developed based on the semi-structured interviews (stage 2) at least a week in advance. They were requested to examine the framework before attending the focus group discussion, make comments on the framework and add further insights, thus validating or enhancing or modifying the framework through the focus group discussion. Fig. 1. Stages of the research design. R.J. Tumpa et al.
Project Leadership and Society 4 (2023) 100084 6 3.4. Data collection procedure The focus group discussion was video recorded with the consent of participants. In addition, the authors took descriptive field notes of observations during the focus group discussion. The focus groups were conducted online using Zoom in February 2022 due to COVID-19 restrictions. One of the authors took a role as the moderator in the focus group and explained the ground rules (Beasley and Jenkins, 2003). The opening question provided a means of introducing all participants to the group as a whole and created a friendly relationship among the participants where they were asked to talk about their role and previous teaching experiences in conducting group-based assessments. Transition questions then moved the participants closer to the next stage which directed the conversation towards issues pertaining to the depth of knowledge and experience participants had with group-based assessments. Each participant had an opportunity to respond to the ten protocol questions and where appropriate, follow-up questions were asked when a specific topic needed further investigation or detail. Finally, the ending questions brought the discussion to a conclusion with a final opportunity for participants to express any final thoughts (Krueger, 2014). The transcriptions were available within 24 h after the meeting as each was recorded with the transcribing functionality of zoom. The transcripts were checked by the first author to ensure that there is no errors made. The participants were de-identified for analysis. To protect the identity of the participants, numbers were assigned to represent each participant in the focus groups. The participants were identified as FP1, FP2, FP3, FP4 … … … FP15 in the transcriptions. Table 3 shows the participant’s ID against the focus group they participated in with their academic positions and locations. In qualitative research, data collection can be stopped when data saturation is reached where further data collection yields no new themes or trends (Saldana ˜ and Omasta, 2016). According to the principle of saturation, focus group discussion sessions are run until a clear pattern emerges and subsequent groups produce no new information (Krueger, 2014). Based on the data collected, common themes were present in multiple subsets after conducting two focus groups. 3.5. Data analysis An inductive thematic analysis approach was taken to analyse the focus group data. It consisted of six stages such as becoming familiar with the data, generating initial codes, recognising themes, reviewing the themes, defining and naming the theme, and producing the final report (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Once the initial themes were established, the themes went through a refinement process to ensure that emerged themes are aligned to the research objective. Afterwards, the proposed themes were validated and refined by all authors to ensure the data within the defined themes formed a logical and meaningful connection. The research team discussed these emerging themes to ensure that these themes are an accurate reflection of the participants’ perceptions. 4. Research findings This section presents the analysis of the perceptions of the participants of the ten recommendations. Majority of the participants were in consensus with the proposed ten recommendations with some new insights. The perceptions of the focus group participants against the ten recommendations outlined in Table 1 are presented below. Recommendation #1: Group tasks should be challenging, authentic and based on real-life projects. The participants collectively agreed that group tasks should be challenging, authentic and based on real-life project scenarios. According to the participants in the focus groups, challenging was defined as tasks that challenge students as a group to think innovatively, the level of which would not have been typical for an individual. In the task, students should have different roles and responsibilities to address the project challenges. Authenticity is defined as tasks that are realistic and based on real-life situations. A task based on a real-life project scenario is defined as one that reflects the application of the project management knowledge, in line with those graduates are going to practice in their employment as a project manager. “The task should be based on real-life projects. The group task should be based on authentic project management questions and reflect what graduates are going to practice in the real-life industry. The group tasks should challenge students and promote interaction and interference among different parties which students will experience in real project settings” (FP12) The participants provided important insights that were not captured in the interviews. When designing a group task for group-based assessments in higher education, the focus group participants suggested that academics should consider the program level of students (e.g. undergraduate or postgraduate) in order to determine the task complexity and scope of the work. Within a specific degree, the level of students such as a first-year or final year also needs to be taken into consideration as the maturity or level of students’ degree will inform the task design. The assignment should be designed based on how ready the students are or what types of students we are getting. Are they at the beginning of their journey in their study (first-term students or close to finishing)? So, the type of assessments we should give them is really dependent on how experienced students are” (FP6). In addition to the program level of the students, academics should aim to map the group task to the learning outcomes of the subject. Learning outcomes are statements that describe the knowledge or skills students should acquire by the end of a particular assignment, class, course, or program, and help students understand why that knowledge and those skills will be useful to them. “Key assessment criteria should be aligned with learning outcomes. You cannot define you know various tasks would probably they are doing the same task, but you know, in that case you know you need to define the key assessment criteria in liaising with the learning outcomes” (FP15) Finally, group tasks should help students develop interpersonal skills. Through group-based assessments involving authentic group Table 3 Focus group’s number with the participant’s ID, academic position and location. Focus group no Participant’s ID Academic position Location 1 FP1 Lecturer in Project Management Australia 1 FP2 Lecturer in Project Management Australia 1 FP3 Professor in Project Management Australia 1 FP4 Lecturer in Construction Management Australia 1 FP5 Professor in Built Environment and Construction Management Australia 1 FP6 Lecturer in Project Management Australia 1 FP7 Lecturer in Construction and Project Management Australia 1 FP8 Senior lecturer in Construction and Project Management Australia 1 FP9 Lecturer in Project Management Australia 2 FP10 Senior lecturer in Project Management UK 2 FP11 Lecturer in Project Management and Business Analytics UK 2 FP12 Senior lecturer in Construction Management UK 2 FP13 Associate Professor in Project Management UK 2 FP14 Lecturer in Project Management UK 2 FP15 Professor in Construction Project Management UK R.J. Tumpa et al.
Project Leadership and Society 4 (2023) 100084 7 tasks, students should be able to develop soft and hard skills which can be obtained through real-life project scenarios and involve people from different backgrounds such as differing nationalities and cultures. The focus group participants collectively indicated that the tasks in groupbased assessments should promote sharing differences in opinion to construct knowledge. Through the effective implementation of group assessment, students should be able to understand issues and concepts from different stakeholders’ perspectives by which students develop communication, negotiation, leadership, and relevant soft skills. Recommendation #2: Formal training on how to work in a group should be provided to students to facilitate a smooth working process. The participants collectively agreed that it is important to provide students with some training as to how to work in a team. One suggestion was to have a subject at the beginning of either the undergraduate or postgraduate programmes, where tips and guidance for group assessment are established so that they are equipped. Teamwork teaching and training helps students understand the nature of different personalities and the way people work together and appreciate the difference. Moreover, students coming into undergraduate, and postgraduate courses may represent a mix of different cultures and backgrounds so students should be given some guidance on how to work in a diverse setting. The focus group participants suggested that academics should share videos to teach students how to work in a team, how to communicate with group members, and how to deal with differences in opinions. The participants agreed that it is absolutely necessary to talk to students about what teamwork is, how to communicate effectively in a team setting, and particularly how to respect the different opinions of individuals brought to the group. It was suggested that academics may talk about Tuckman’s theory to reinforce the process of teamwork to help students understand the expectations of different stages of group formation and that it is very normal to experience difficulties in the beginning when group dynamics are being established. “Absolutely necessary to give them a brief overview of you know what teamwork is what you expect from them and also probably a written code of conduct of how they should work in the team, and you know in alignment with probably the university’s policies and regulations” (FP13) Recommendation #3: Teachers should form groups in order to emulate a real-life project environment. The majority of the participants were in agreement that teachers should aim to form the groups to emulate a real-life project environment. If students are given an opportunity to form groups themselves, the participants indicated that some introverted or students from a minority background may be excluded and students from the same nationality may cluster together limiting their exposure to a diverse learning experience. At the workplace, students do not get to work with their friends, as a result, students should not be forming groups with their friends. When groups are formed considering diversity, students learn how to communicate with students from different backgrounds and embrace different ideas. The participants acknowledged that teachers forming groups is not democratic and that a number of complaints may emerge, however, students need to be reminded of the larger goal of working in a setting that reflects a real-life project. “I don’t want to populate all students from engineering classes, all students from like financial guys I want them to team up, one student from each different profession as much as I can, so that it will be like a mimicking of real-life experience in the future” (FP14) Recommendation #4: Teachers should aim to balance group formation with diversity that represents a range of skillsets, cultures, genders, and academic backgrounds where possible. There was a consensus among the participants that when forming groups, academics should consider combining students from different backgrounds instead of grouping students from similar backgrounds. The participants believe forming groups this way mimics the real-life project environment because, in real-life projects, stakeholders from different backgrounds such as engineers, designers, and financial professionals work together, and students should be able to communicate with others from diverse backgrounds. In addition to considering different skills and expertise, the participants indicated that it is critical to take different cultures and nationalities into consideration so that students learn how to deal with people of different nationalities, languages, genders, ethnicity, and cultures which eventually, with guidance, hones their conflict management and leadership skills. Forming groups by considering these aspects is a true reflection of the industry. “Students should not form groups with their friends because students learn a lot working with diverse people with different disciplines and gender to make a balanced group” (FP3) When it comes to teacher-selected group formation, a few participants presented some new insights which did not reflect the semistructured interviews. In teacher-selected group formation, there are two types of group formation: structured and random. According to the participants, the group formation varies for different subjects and different topics. For leadership and teamwork-related subjects, structured group formation (e.g., personality test and disc profile test) works well. A structured group formation is appropriate when it is a financebased assessment as groups should have a student with a financial background. If the assessment is related to net present values, academics need to ensure the group has a student who has the expertise of net present value. On the other hand, randomisation is the best approach for innovation-related subjects as students need to learn from different ideas. Recommendation #5: Where the nature and type of the group task does not specify larger teams, students should be placed in groups of either three or five (avoid forming group with even numbers). There was consensus among the participants that group size is largely dependent on the scope of the task to ensure that there is enough work for every member to perform. If the group size is too big, students do not have enough work to contribute and the number of transactions to come to a consensus and discuss the assessment also increases. “Group size is largely dependent on the group task” (FP1) “I think you need to look at what they need to do to make sure there’s enough work for every member to do like you’re so someone’s groups can be too big and then everyone gets very little to do individually so that’s important like what they’re going to be doing” (FP10) When deciding on the group size, academics should consider their class size as they will need to have enough time to give all groups equal attention and monitor the progress of the work. If the class size is too large and small group size is maintained, then academics will have to deal with a large number of groups. Therefore, they may not allocate sufficient time to each group to monitor their progress. “Group size also depends on the class size as academics have enough time to give all groups equal attention and marking required” (FP5) Although academics suggested considering group task size in reference to the scope of the group task and class size, the participants had predominantly used three to five members in a group and considered this appropriate for enough interaction to complete the task successfully. “Three to five members in a group are good for enough interaction to complete a task successfully” (FP3) Recommendation #6: Groups should maintain a team charter with established ground rules, the expectation of team members, and guidelines. The participants collectively agreed that a team charter is useful to R.J. Tumpa et al.
Project Leadership and Society 4 (2023) 100084 8 clarify the meeting schedule, meeting platform, content for discussion and distribution of work. A team charter is essential to set the rules, the boundaries and what is expected of students from the group process. A team charter helps academics and the students to follow up on the work and gives the academics a direction to know the progress of the work. A team charter should be signed at the beginning of the project where students list all strengths and weaknesses. The focus group also suggested that a team charter outlines policies, regulations and ground rules which help to avoid conflicts. “It clarifies things such as when will they be meeting what times can individual members send the other members the content or asked for discussion, or how will meetings be run, and how will the work be distributed. How much time per day must each group member spend on this group assignment?” (FP10) Recommendation #7: Peer assessments should be incorporated into the group assessment process to deter free-riding and the perception of unfair marking. Most of the participants indicated that group members’ peer evaluation can help identify individuals’ contributions and identify free riders. If peer assessments are part of the group assessments, students should be aware of them. Peer assessments help set the expectation clearly at the beginning of the group assessments. Peer assessments help academics understand the working process in the group. In addition, they equip academics with a tool to assess the adverse effect a noncontributing member has on the whole group and adjust marks accordingly when required. “Peer assessments can be one way of managing individual performance and resolve any conflict by the help of academics” (FP6) On the other hand, a few participants did not prefer group members’ peer evaluation as a way of identifying individuals’ contributions and avoiding free riding. These participants indicated that peer assessments create a competitive environment in groups. In addition, there is a possibility of potential collusion in peer assessments. Instead, the participants suggested that rather than evaluating each other, academics should set the expectations that students will collaborate and respect each other’s strengths and weaknesses. If any student does not perform, other team members of the group can take the situation as a leadership challenge. Academics, therefore, incentivise the performing students. Academics can also try to counsel students to find a solution through the problem. “Peer assessments create an unhealthy environment. Rather than evaluating each other, academics should set the expectations that students will collaborate and respect each other’s strengths and weaknesses” (FP3) Recommendation #8: Students’ oral presentations on a given task(s) can be one of the ways of identifying potential free-riders in teams. A few participants indicated that oral presentations on group tasks can be a way of identifying potential free riders. According to the participants, oral presentations on the group task and group members’ peer evaluations can complement each other. While peer evaluations of group members give academics an indication of the internal working dynamics, a presentation could help academics to evaluate each students’ final understanding of the output. However, when the class is large, presentations may not be a feasible solution for academics because of the large number of groups. “I think that both are actually complementary because I’ve seen that peer review helps us to understand better the working process in the group and the individual presentation could help us to evaluate the final understanding of the output” (FP11) In addition to group members’ peer evaluations and oral presentations on the tasks, the focus group participants highlighted two new ways of dealing with free-riding issues such as the rotation of leadership roles and reflection on the group dynamics. Free riders can easily be identified when they are the leaders of the group work. Free riders will usually fail to perform the leadership roles of the group if they are not committed to the work. This technique has the potential to reduce social loafing behaviour. On the other hand, students can reflect on the group’s dynamics (positive or negative) and learn from the experiences. However, this reflective piece is usually submitted at the end of the group work, it will be too late to address the issues. However, if academics are vigilant throughout the process and encourage students to bring the issues to their attention, the free-riding behaviour can be dealt with appropriately. One of the striking findings from the focus groups was that although there are different ways of tackling free-riding issues, they are highly unlikely to work if groups are formed by students. When students form their own groups, there is a high possibility of collusion, therefore techniques for alleviating free-riding issues may not work well. It is therefore recommended that teachers should take the discretion of forming groups. Recommendation #9: Adjust the marks of an individual only in an extreme case when there was no contribution at all. The majority of the participants suggested that when group members’ peer assessments are used, academics should assess the evaluation of group members made by each other before incorporating them into the grades. When distorted participation in the group assessment occurs, academics should try to motivate students and investigate the reasons for unequal contributions. Students may demonstrate uneven participation for a variety of reasons ranging from academic to personal issues. Therefore, academics should carefully integrate the ratings so that it reflects group members’ contributions towards the group assessment process and products. However, the participants collectively agreed that marks of non-contributing students be adjusted in extreme case scenarios only when there was no contribution at all. “Students can report to the academic or facilitator about free-riders, the academic tries to motivate the free-riders, if not marks are adjusted” (FP2) Recommendation #10: Academics’ involvement throughout the process of group-based assessments must be maintained. There was a clear consensus among the participants that academics should guide students throughout the group process. Academics can monitor the project’s progress by reviewing the minutes generated from the meetings. In addition, interim reports can be generated to track students’ progress and check whether they are on the right track. Academics can use technology to check the progress of group work using a forum. This forum can help academics see what is going on and they can make references in case of any complaints. Academics should help and guide students throughout the group process, however, too much supervision and control may hamper the process. Academics can check the progress of the work in the tutorial, provide support, develop trust, and create an open channel of communication. Conflicts and unequal contributions by team members may result because of conflicts. Students should know how to deal with conflicts to develop their negotiation and leadership skills. Academics can intervene and try to resolve the issues in case students fail to resolve them themselves. “The role of the academic is to check in with the students to ensure things are okay but in terms of holding their hands all the way along is absolutely not possible. It is about communicating that as an educator I am there to support them, they know what is expected of them, they need to be proactive to seek help. It is about checking in, trusting, opening lines of communication, and letting the group work” (FP7) 5. Discussion The aim of this research was to validate the recommendations R.J. Tumpa et al.
Project Leadership and Society 4 (2023) 100084 9 derived from the semi-structured interview findings of Tumpa et al. (2022a) with the aim of enhancing project management graduates’ employability skills. This section interprets and explains the results of the study in the context of the central aim of the research and the existing literature. Then, a validated set of recommendations for group-based assessments to improve employability skills of project management students along with some new findings are presented. For the purpose of this research, the ICB.4 framework was selected to map how the recommendations contribute to the project management skills development. Of the four standards discussed in the literature review, the ICB.4 framework was identified as most comprehensive and detailed with a range of competencies. The ICB.4 framework has been identified as the first global project management standard which accumulates a set of comprehensive competencies applied to project, programme and portfolio environments (Vukomanovi´c et al., 2016). This section also presents how the recommendations for designing group-based assessments can contribute to the skill development of project management graduates according to the ICB.4 standard. 5.1. Validation of the recommendations Recommendation #1: Group tasks should be challenging, authentic and based on real-life projects. Consistent with the interview findings, the focus group results suggest that group tasks should challenge students to bring about the best outcomes which involve students from different backgrounds and engage them in a constructive learning environment. Students develop technical or hard skills engaging in a complex and challenging group task. According to PMI (2023) “All projects are a temporary effort to create value through a unique product, service or result. All projects have a beginning and an end. They have a team, a budget, a schedule and a set of expectations the team needs to meet. Each project is unique and differs from routine operations—the ongoing activities of an organization—because projects reach a conclusion once the goal is achieved”. Following this definition, group-based assessments can be considered as a project where students need to engage in a complex undertaking, communicating with different stakeholders (group members, academics, facilitators), planning and assigning tasks to group members, following quality assurance in assessments, practising standards and regulations in given tasks, allocating resources, time and maintaining the scope of the assessment. By engaging in a project-based group assessment, students are anticipated to develop most of the skills covered in the “practice” and “perspective” clusters of the ICB.4 standards. The “practice” cluster deals with different project management knowledge areas whereas governance, compliance, standards and regulations are covered in the “perspective” cluster. Therefore, an appropriate task is absolutely critical for group assessments which serves as a significant tool to improve project management graduates’ technical skills. The findings of this research indicated that an appropriate selection of group tasks determines the successful execution of group work assessment (Davies, 2009). In addition to being challenging (Davies, 2009) and complex depending on the program level (Volkov and Volkov, 2015), group tasks need to be authentic and mirror real-life project environment (Paterson and Prideaux, 2020) so that students can apply their learning in the practice of project management. Furthermore, the focus group findings indicated that when selecting a task for group-based assessments, academics should consider the program level of the students. According to the participants, the program level (undergraduate or postgraduate) of students and level of students (first or final year) determines the complexity level of the task. The existing literature does not appear to have mentioned this finding. In addition, the connection between group tasks and learning outcomes is a critical element to consider so that students understand how group tasks relate to the subject’s learning outcomes. Without the proper establishment between learning outcomes being assessed and the activities used to assess them, students tend to produce learning which is off-target and ambiguous (Eliot et al., 2012). Recommendation #2: Formal training on how to work in a group should be provided to students to facilitate a smooth working process. In line with the interview findings, the focus group findings indicated that students require some training and guidance on how to work in a diverse setting including teaching on requirements of team roles, working in a team, incorporating communication courses, and strategies to deal with conflict which are in accordance with the previous research (Augar et al., 2016; Takeda and Homberg, 2014). The findings suggest that teaching teamwork to students is a critical component that needs to be considered in the administration of group-based assessments. Students should receive instruction on teamwork skills prior to group assessments (e.g., a compulsory module on transferable skills) (Bayne et al., 2022). Multiple teambuilding exercises should be used throughout the course, including icebreaker activities and non-assessed group work. Instructors should provide guidance regarding problems encountered and set a positive tone (Bayne et al., 2022). The inclusion of group work training provided to students and discussion around different communication and team building topics helps them learn how to communicate effectively with group members, demonstrate leadership behaviour, engage in teamworking, negotiate with group members about tasks, and deal with conflicting situations. Therefore, this recommendation has a direct association with communication, leadership and teamwork skills development, improved relationship and engagement, better control of conflict situation and enhanced negotiation power which are part of the “people” cluster of the ICB.4 standard. Recommendation #3: Teachers should form groups in order to emulate a real-life project environment. In concordance with the findings of the semi-structured interviews, the focus group discussion suggested that academics should lead the group formation process (Postlethwait, 2016; Sahin, 2011; Skelley et al., 2015). While students prefer to form groups by themselves (Moore and Hampton, 2015; Strauss et al., 2011), the findings suggest that student-selected group formation tended to be ineffective as they opt to form homogenous groups which may lead to groupthink issues (Bayne et al., 2022; Oakley et al., 2004). Groupthink occurs when group members think in the same way instead of using their judgement and calculated understanding in a decision-making process and evaluating a problem or an issue sufficiently (Chapman, 2006). This process is also referred as “concurrence-seeking tendency” (Shirey, 2012, p. 12). Groupthink increases the risk of poor decision making (Chapman, 2006). During students’ working life in managing a project, project management graduates do not always get opportunities to work with people who they know. Therefore, to mimic the real-life settings, academics should allocate students to groups so they learn how to work with individuals other than friends. This would help to develop a range of skills in graduates such as self-management in unknown contexts, communicate effectively with varieties of people, learn how to build a good working environment and improved organisation. These skills are part of the “people” cluster. Therefore, an instructor-based group formation contributes significantly to the people-based skills development. Recommendation #4: Teachers should aim to balance group formation with diversity that represents a range of skillsets, cultures, genders, and academic backgrounds where possible. In accordance with the interview findings, the focus group results indicate that groups should be formed considering different students’ backgrounds, nationalities, languages, genders, ethnicity and cultures to mimic a real-life project environment. Student-selected groups are unlikely to include the breadth of skills and diversity to complete the assigned task (Post et al., 2020) and the team does not experience or learn from the group development process (Chapman et al., 2006). The participants indicated that some introvert and students from minority background are excluded and the same nationality students cluster R.J. Tumpa et al.
Project Leadership and Society 4 (2023) 100084 10 together resulting in students not obtaining different learning experiences in the student-selected group formation process (Almond, 2009; Post et al., 2020). However, Bayne et al. (2022) demonstrated that international students appreciated heterogenous groups indicating the instructor-selected method is beneficial. Heterogeneous groups with a diversity of skills and genders benefit more from collaborative learning than homogeneous groups. A project is a complex undertaking where individuals from different backgrounds work together to deliver the outcome. In addition, a range of stakeholders are usually involved in a project (depends on the size of the project). To emulate that environment, it is recommended that groups should be formed considering diversity in term of skills, qualifications, cultures and genders. This would help students develop teamworking skills, maintain relationship and engagement, improve communication, negotiation and handle conflict and crisis effectively when individuals from different backgrounds are part of a team. Due to diversity in teams, students will learn how to deal with individuals from different backgrounds and culture, thus sharpening the abovementioned skills. The skills developed by this recommendation form part of the “people” cluster of the ICB.4 framework. Further findings suggest that structured and random group formation are dependent on the subjects being taught. For leadership and teamwork-related subjects, structured group formation (e.g., personality test and disc profile test) works well. On the other hand, randomisation is the best approach for innovation-related subjects as students need to learn from different ideas. However, neither the existing literature nor interview findings provided evidence to support this finding. Recommendation #5: Where the nature and type of the group task does not specify larger teams, students should be placed in groups of either three or five (avoid forming group with even numbers). Similar to the interview findings, the results of focus groups indicated that group size is dependent on the scope of the task (Ding et al., 2015; Postlethwait, 2016). Ideally, the group size should be small enough to allow all group members to contribute to the group work and yet large enough so that group members are not overwhelmed with the amount of work (Postlethwait, 2016). Furthermore, a class size is an important factor to be considered when the group size is decided so that the academics can allocate attention to all groups. This finding is, however, not supported by the existing literature. When further investigated, the group size for a typical group assessment, suggested by almost all participants, should range from three to five members which is aligned with the existing literature (Lowry et al., 2006; North et al., 2000). Although the interview findings suggested avoiding forming groups with four member, the focus groups participants did not validate that finding. The focus group partcipants were in line with forming groups with four members where relevant. In the study of Bayne et al. (2022), the group size of four members seemed to be appropriate. The previous research has evidenced that an increase in group size, also increases social loafing attitude in groups, thus reducing the effectiveness of the group. A suitable group size contributes to better communication among group members, improved engagement and teamwork, enhanced negotiation, resource management and better results. When the group size ranges between three-five members, the group members have the best possible opportunity to ameliorate the skills such as communication, relationships and engagement, teamwork, resourcefulness, negotiation and result orientation. Some of the skills mentioned in the “people” cluster are promoted by this recommendation. Recommendation #6: Groups should maintain a team charter with established ground rules, the expectation of team members, and guidelines. The focus group findings support the interview findings and provide affirmation for maintaining a team charter for clear group expectations, increase students’ ability for working in a group, setting the ground rules, clarifying meeting schedules and outlining group guidelines, policies and regulations. The significance of incorporating a group charter was echoed in the existing literature (Aaron et al., 2014; Augar et al., 2016; Postlethwait, 2016). The literature provides insights into the benefits of developing team charters to achieve a positive learning experience. The implementation of team charters can contribute to improving team quality and member satisfaction (Aaron et al., 2014; Mathieu and Rapp, 2009). Our recommendation is to develop a team charter at the beginning of the assessment process to keep the expectation clear and succinct, thus maintaining a healthy group dynamic. A well-established team charter contains deadlines of deliverables, ground rules, meeting schedules, members’ expectations, negotiation and conflict resolution techniques. Group members must abide by the rules set in the team charter. When students maintain a team charter, group members have an established way of communication, can maintain a better level of engagement and relationship among group members, develop a better teamworking environment, set a definite direction of achieving results and define conflict resolution policies. Selfmanagement, reliability, communication, relationship and engagement, teamwork, conflict and crisis and negotiation can be improved by incorporating a team charter in group-based assessments. Therefore, project management graduates develop skills relevant to the “people” cluster of the ICB.4 framework. Recommendation #7: Peer assessments should be incorporated into the group assessment process to deter free-riding and the perception of unfair marking. The focus group findings accord the interview results as to how to minimise free-riding issues. Academics recommended group members’ peer evaluation as a means of identifying free riders, setting up the expectations, understanding group dynamics and adjusting marks accordingly (Adwan, 2016; Bong and Park, 2020; Lam, 2015; Sprague et al., 2019). Peer assessment tools, such as SPARKPLUS, should be used to mitigate the free-rider problem and to allocate marks for group assessments to individuals more fairly (Bayne et al., 2022). Therefore, our recommendation is to use a peer assessment tool to assist in mitigating the free-rider problem and to allocate marks for group assessments to individuals more fairly. Personal integrity, reliability and relationship, and engagement of project management graduates can be enhanced by embedding this recommendation into the design of group-based assessments. Peer assessments are recommended to use in group assessments to avoid freeriding issues, therefore, the inclusion of peer assessments students’ integrity, reliability and make them more engaged in the process of group-based assessments. These skills are part of the “people” cluster of the ICB.4 standard. Recommendation #8: Students’ oral presentations on a given task(s) can be one of the ways of identifying potential free-riders in teams. A few participants proposed that peer evaluations of group members are not necessarily effective but rather create competitive and unhealthy environment in groups which is consistent with the previous research (Dommeyer, 2012). One of the other ways of recognising equal contribution by group members and assessing their understanding of the product is embedding an oral presentation as part of the assessment. Regardless of the implementation of peer evaluations, it is recommended to use oral presentation as one of the assessment artifacts which is expected to improve students’ presentation skills while recognising potential non-contributors. During the oral presentation, students present their work to the class audience which helps them polish their communication, engagement and time management skills. In addition to group members’ peer evaluations and oral presentations on the tasks, the rotation of leadership role and reflection on the group dynamics can help identify potential free riders. During the leadership role rotation, free riders will not be able to perform as expected. A reflection piece helps academics understand the internal functioning of the group. The rotation of responsibility makes the student responsible for their work and be aware of their accountability. Therefore, personal integrity and reliability of the ICB standard is served by this recommendation. In addition, a reflection on group work can R.J. Tumpa et al.
Project Leadership and Society 4 (2023) 100084 11 contribute to self-reflection of the “people” cluster. Reflection is a powerful tool which help students learn from their experience. Recommendation #9: Adjust the marks of an individual only in an extreme case when there was no contribution at all. Free-riding and social loafing behaviour is strongly discouraged in group assessments (Abernethy & Lett III, 2005; Maiden and Perry, 2011). Adjusting non-contributing students’ marks is a common practice in group assessments to deal with the free-riding issues (Fete et al., 2017). The interview findings and the results of focus group complement each other in this ground. However, the findings suggest that marks of potential free riders based on peer assessments should be adjusted in extreme case scenarios when a group member did not contribute at all towards group work. When it comes to evaluations, human factors are involved. Therefore, instead of changing grades on minor deviation, which can cause intra-group competition, academics should consider only major deflection. This practice in group-based assessments is expected to enhance students’ integrity, reliability, self-management, time management, relationship and engagement of the “people” and “practice” clusters of the ICB.4 framework. Recommendation #10: Academics’ involvement throughout the process of group-based assessments must be maintained. The focus group findings broadly support the interview findings. The majority of the focus group participants indicated that academics should guide students throughout the process of group-based assessments which appeared to be one of the common themes in the existing literature (Bayne et al., 2022; Bramley, 2020). Academics can assist students in many ways such as arranging consultation (Augar et al., 2016; Volkema, 2010), improving intra-group dynamics (Bailey et al., 2015; Smith and Rogers, 2014) and motivating the students to achieve their goals of the project (Mellor, 2012). The active engagement and involvement of the academics in the process promotes the fair distribution of work and fairness in grading (Chapman and Van Auken, 2001) and helps distinguish between actual loafers and strugglers, therefore, allowing individuals to take preventive measures to avoid destructive impacts on the group (Freeman and Greenacre, 2011). However, the focus group participants indicated that excessive supervision may hamper students’ ability to resolve conflict and other problems that emerged in the process of working in a group. Academics’ support and guidance during the process of group-based assessments can improve students’ integrity and reliability as students may have periodical meetings with their facilitators. Regular communication or scheduled meetings with academics and group members is expected to enhance students’ communication skills, relationship, engagement and teamworking skills. Students can become more results oriented when academics are an active part of the process. Skills of the “people” cluster are facilitated by this recommendation. The above discussion not only helped refine the original recommendation but also provided new insights into the design of group-based assessments. The focus group findings did not reveal any new distinct recommendation to be added to the original ten recommendations. Table 4 lists the refined recommendations together with the further relevant insights that emerged from the study. 5.2. Conceptual relevance between recommendations and skill development Each recommendation has potential to contribute to one or more skill development mentioned in either of the clusters of the ICB.4 standard. “Self-reflection and self-management”, “personal communication”, “personal integrity and reliability”, “relationships and engagement”, “leadership”, “teamwork”, “conflict and crisis” and “negotiation” are influenced by the majority of the recommendations. All these skills form part of the “people” cluster. This reiterates the purpose of group-based assessments in the project management curricula as through group assessments, academics emulate the real-life team working environment (Forsell et al., 2020). Being able to work in a team and demonstrate other interpersonal skills are required in project management (Ramazani and Jergeas, 2015). In addition to contributing to “people” skills development, these recommendations can be significant to other skills development in “practice” and “perspective” clusters. The competencies under the “practice” and “perspective” clusters are mostly influenced by the group task. While group-based assessments are influential in developing soft skills, technical or hard skills are polished using appropriate, challenging and complex group task. Fig. 2 shows the conceptual relevance between the recommendations and skill development outlined in the ICB.4 framework in the categories of People, Practice and Perspective. 6. Conclusions, limitations and further research The aim of this paper was to validate the proposed ten recommendations for designing group-based assessments by Tumpa et al. (2022a) which focuses on enhancing the employability skills of project management graduates. Group-based assessments have been embedded into the curriculum for decades in order to respond to employers’ demands of developing employability skills in project management university graduates. The study fine-tuned the original recommendations and provided new insights. These recommendations can be incorporated into the design and administration of group-based assessments to make it fit for the intended purpose. In addition to the validated recommendations, the findings of the focus groups provided multiple new perspectives for the consideration of academics. The recommendations provided in this paper are expected to ameliorate the effectiveness of group-based assessments to prepare the project management graduates Table 4 The list of the refined ten recommendations with further insights. Refined recommendations Further insights REC 1 Group tasks should be challenging, complex and project based. REC 1 Consider the program level before deciding on the types of tasks. REC 2 Students should be provided with training on team building activities to work in groups. REC 1 Group tasks must be designed to meet subject learning outcomes. REC 3 Teachers should aim to form groups to mirror the usual practice of a project environment where project team members have rare opportunities to choose who they work with. REC 5 Class size should be taken into consideration when forming groups so that teachers can give equal attention to each group. REC 4 Groups should be constructed by analysing students’ backgrounds, nationalities, languages, genders, ethnicity, and cultures to replicate a real-life project environment. REC 8 The rotation of responsibilities among group members brings free riders into the limelight. Therefore, academics can take the necessary steps to deal with the issue appropriately. REC 5 A typical group should consist of three to five members unless informed otherwise by the nature, and scope of the group task. REC 8 Students can reflect on the dynamics (positive or negative) of the group and learn from the experiences. REC 6 Groups should maintain a team charter with established ground rules, the expectation of team members, and guidelines. REC 10 Academics should be aware of both the positive and negative dynamics of groups and guide accordingly. REC 7 Peer evaluation tools should be used to mitigate free-riding problems and allocate marks fairly depending on the contribution to the students. REC 10 Academics should balance their interference or intervention in the group dynamics as students are expected to learn how to deal with these challenges, thus developing leadership skills which is key to future employment REC 8 Embedding an oral presentation is recommended regardless of the use of peer assessment which complements the peer evaluation process. REC 9 Adjust the marks of an individual only in an extreme case when there was no contribution at all. REC 10 Instructors should support and provide guidance to students engaged in group work assessments R.J. Tumpa et al.
Project Leadership and Society 4 (2023) 100084 12 for the labour market. While the paper makes a significant contribution to the existing body of knowledge, some limitations need to be addressed in future efforts. The provided recommendations were based on the project management academics’ perceptions of the best practices considering the employability skills required for project management graduates which may not be generalisable to other disciplines. The project management academics in the focus groups engage in face-to-face teaching environment (except during the COVID-19 pandemic); therefore, the best practices may not be suitable for group-based assessments conducted purely in online settings. The findings are appropriate for groups which have a mixture of domestic (English being the first language) and international (English not being the first language) students. Hence, the recommendations are not necessarily applicable to disciplines where all students in groups speak English as a first language. The focus groups were based on two geographical regions, Australia and UK (western-centric countries). The findings reported in this paper may be different in another country. Furthermore, the selected project management academics shared their opinions based on their experiences of dealing with students who have little or minimum working experience. So, the findings may not be transferred to students having a great deal of working experience in real world projects. When developing the recommendation presented in this research, only project management academics’ perspectives were taken into consideration. Therefore, the exclusion of project management students’ opinions is considered as a limitation of this research. Future research could investigate whether the work experience of students informs the design of effective group-based assessment execution differently from what has been found in this research. Moreover, a future research agenda may include the investigation of any deviation in these recommendations for groups which have no cultural diversity. Finally, the viewpoint of students as key stakeholders was not taken into consideration when developing this comprehensive set of recommendations and techniques. Students’ standpoints could be taken into account to further refine the best practices and gain a deeper understanding of the process. Conflicts of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Data availability Data will be made available on request. References Aaron, J.R., McDowell, W.C., Herdman, A.O., 2014. The effects of a team charter on student team behaviors. J. Educ. Bus. 89 (2), 90–97. Abernethy, A.M., Lett III, W.L., 2005. You are fired! 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