Research On Promotion Employability Among Local Undergraduate Students

Ever since the popularization of higher education,college students' “employment difficulty”has become a more and more prominent problem,receiving widespread attention in society.At the same time,businesses are paradoxically experiencing “hiring difficulty.”The coexistence of employment difficulty among college students and hiring difficulty among businesses indicates a mismatch of supply and demand in terms of recent college graduates' skills and level of ability.The general conclusion reached by research into this phenomenon is that lack of ability is the major reason for employment difficulty among recent college graduates.Clearly,then,the key to solving college students' employment difficulty is to develop and upgrade their core ability.Different perspectives hold slightly varying definitions of “core ability.”Universities and university professors are more concerned with the development and improvement of students' professional abilities;college students care more about individualized skill improvement that facilitates their personal development;while businesses(employers)pay more attention to abilities and qualities that match the job—in other words,whether they can successfully carry out the responsibilities of the position to be filled.This is,of course,the major standard of employers when hiring recent college graduates.This study is based on the business' s(employer's)perspective,introducing the concept of “employability”and taking it as its core concept.Compared with the concept of employability with our usage,in this paper,it more strongly emphasizes the supplydemand balance of the labor market,viewing both the labor market and individual recent college graduates to better understand the problem of employment difficulty.The concept of employability is also beneficial for the overall planning of university talent development centers and service demand guidance to comprehensively deepen educational reform.This study aims to answer the following questions: a)Which abilities do recent college graduates generally lack?;b)Which important abilities and factors play a key role in the recent college graduate labor market?;c)How should we develop and improve these core abilities and factors among college students;and d)Who should develop and improve these core abilities among college students?When discussing the issue of recent college graduate employment and the core influencing factor of employability,we must distinguish between the different types of institutions of higher education.Local undergraduate colleges mainly cultivate application-oriented personnel for the service sector and for local economic and social development.This is distinct both from the goal of high-level research universities to produce academic personnel,and from the goal of vocational colleges to produce skilled workers.Since the application-oriented workers from local undergraduate colleges have to face and deal with practical problems on the job,their employability is a matter of obvious practical importance.Based on an understanding of the cultivation of applicationoriented personnel at local undergraduate universities,and learning from and building on the foundation of the research findings of other scholars on the component factors of employability,this dissertation takesthe four important factors oflocal undergraduate students' professional ability,communication ability,problem-solving ability,and other necessary skills to form a hypothesis.It also conducts initial verification through already existing results of investigations into recent graduates and employers.Upon this foundation,the author designed a questionnaire on the employability of local undergraduate college and university students,administered the questionnaire to 286 businesses(employers)on the component factors and development and improvement of the employability of local undergraduate college and university students,further verified the 24-factor hypothesis regarding the employability of local undergraduate college and university students,and analyzed and extracted 4 common factors for employability from the 16 core factors: 1)“professional ability”(composed of 2 skills: basic professional cultivation and applied professional ability);2)“communication skills”(composed of 7 skills: initiative,expressive ability,group work ability,adaptability,interpersonal ability,ability to earn the trust of others,and sense of social responsibility);3)problem-solving ability(composed of 6 skills: executive ability,learning ability,ability to handle stress,reactive ability,creative ability,and management and coordination ability);and 4)the other necessary skill,represented principally by the measure of mental health.The main research emphasis of this dissertation begins from recent college graduates' first time seeking a job.Based on the perspectives of various direct stakeholders in this process,including universities,students,businesses(employers),and the government,it discusses the methods for development,improvement,and safeguarding of the employability of local undergraduate college and university students.This study asserts that institutions of higher education,students,businesses(employers),and the government should all carry out their respective duties to develop and improve the employability of recent college graduates,building a mechanism of “shared responsibility”to this end.The duties of local undergraduate colleges are to manifest the goal of cultivation of application-oriented personnel and a matching structure of standards and design;reform the personnel cultivation model;make efforts to improve the employability of college students;and place an emphasis on embeddingemployability development and improvement into course design,classroom education,and rich and varied activities on and off campus.The duties of local undergraduate college students are to actively take on the main responsibility for employability development and improvement;attain an accurate understanding of the significance of occupational preparation as early as possible;attain an accurate understanding of the importance of employability for smooth entry into a profession;set a career plan that suits one's personal development and vision,as well as a matching study plan;gradually internalize the idea of employability development and improvement until it becomes a part of one's behavior;and form a dynamic psychological adaptation mechanism in order to better adapt to societal demands and changes.The duties of businesses(employers)are to actively participate in practical activities for the development and improvement of college students' employability;and actively take on the social responsibility and duty for development and improvement of college students' employability.Local institutions of higher education,businesses and students themselves are the threefulcra of college student employability development and improvement.Onlyif these three fulcra are simultaneously applied to the process of talent cultivation can we maximize the effectiveness of employability development and improvement.The government should implement policies safeguarding employability development and improvement of local undergraduate college students;guide local undergraduate colleges in responding to applied undergraduate,taking the path of differentiated and specialized development;build a system and mechanism to prevent discrimination in employment,especially discrimination based on which school the applicant attended;spark the inherent motivation of local undergraduate colleges to develop and improve student employability;establish a system to evaluate the performance of local undergraduate colleges in their efforts to develop and improve student employability;and create policies to incentivize businesses(employers)to participate in the integration of industry and education and take on the duty of developing employability among college students.This study begins with analysis of the relevant literature,learning from domestic and international research findings on ability,employability,and employability development.Through a theoretical analysis of the function and effect of universities,university stakeholders,and USEM ability structure,it answers the questions of “why”we must develop and improve college student employability,“who”must take on this task,“what”exactly we must develop and improve,and “how”to achieve this.This forms the theoretical foundation of this study.Upon this foundation,this study,based on USEM theory and the hypothesized component factors of college student employability,and through empirical research of the market and of employers,proposes core factors of college student employability.In addition,based on an investigation of the level of employer satisfaction regarding the employability of recently graduated students just one year out of college,it proposes a method for local institutions of higher education to comprehensively develop and improve college student employability,and a safeguard mechanism of “shared responsibility”among the government,students,and employers to participate and coordinate together in the development and improvement of college student employability.This dissertation is composed of seven parts: the introduction,five chapters,and the conclusion.The introduction mainly introduces the background,meaning,thought process,and method of topic selection.Chapter 1 is a review of the relevant research.Chapter 2 principally introduces the theoretical foundations of the research,discussing the development and improvement of college student employability from three angles: the function and role of universities,university stakeholders,and the USEM ability structure theory from the field of psychology.Chapter 3 mainly develops a hypothesis on the employability of local undergraduate students,and uses already existing investigative results to preliminarily verify this hypothesis.Chapter 4 is on empirical research.Through a questionnaire-based investigation and statistical analysis,it further verifies the hypothesis on the component factors of the employability of local undergraduate college students,providing a reference point for practical methods to improve the current situation of employability.Chapter 5 proposes a practical method for the development and improvement of college student employability from the perspective of local undergraduate colleges.Chapter 6 proposes a design of the safeguard mechanism of “shared responsibility”from the perspective of government,students,and businesses(employers).This study principally resolves three problems: 1)Why local undergraduate colleges should develop and promote college student employability;2)Which particular skills related to employability should be developed and improved in order to promote employment of local undergraduate students;and 3)How to develop and improve the employability of local undergraduate college students.The research conclusion on the above three questions represents a new contribution,and is valuable for the improvement of the quality of talent cultivation and the employment of recently graduated students of local undergraduate colleges.