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 In
most conversations with industry about how they evaluate new
student hires and what they are looking for in the ICT
workforce, the subject of “soft” or “employability skills”
comes up. Frequently, industry complains that people today:
- Do not show up on time for work
- Do not call if they are going to be late or have other
important issues
- Do not have adequate “outside the box” problem solving
skills
- Lack a broad understanding of business organization
and operations
- Are not adequately socialized or have problems working
efficiently in groups
- Do not communicate efficiently and effectively, in
writing or in person
- Do not take charge of their own growth, continuing
education and advancement
- Have unreasonable initial expectations for salary and
prestige
- Lack broad cultural skills needed for global
operations or diverse communities
- Need too much direct supervision
They expect technical knowledge and skills, but need these
employability skills also. They complain to education that
education needs to do a better job imparting these skills.
Arbitrating this discussion back to education, educators
respond that this wasn’t historically its job. In the past,
students picked this up from family, church, community, work
outside of school, or elsewhere. “What do you want me to stop
teaching so I can start teaching this stuff?”
Ultimately, this issue is a joint challenge to pedagogy, a
challenge to both education and industry. These soft or
employability skills are learned with real world or real
world-like experience. Most classrooms consist of “talk and
chalk” lecture and highly defined labs, which are nothing like
the real world environments students will be asked to add
value to in the workplace. How can ICT education provide
students with real world experience?
MPICT can help
with this very important issue by:
- Championing and disseminating its importance
- Promoting and disseminating Experiential Learning
Strategies, like
- Problem/Case-Based Learning
- Internships
- Mentoring
- Service Learning
- Job Shadowing
- Apprenticeships
- Challenging industry to “put skin in the game” to make
these strategies successful
- Replicating and sharing best practices.
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