The Employers’ Interpretation On Employability Of Master Students

The pressure of job-hunting would become the focus of public attention at the approach of graduation each year. Influenced by the policy of enlargement of postgraduate enrollment, the number of non-graduate masters has surged from 54 million in 2003 to 26 million in 2014, which has been doubled over ten years; the number of master graduates has also soared from 11 million in 2003 to 48 million in 2014, which has quadrupled over ten years. So there exists a huge contradiction between the huge demand for being employed and the current shrinking market for highly educated people. With the demand of being employed increased in recent years, the worrying news of low employment rate of graduate students are ubiquitous. Although the employment rate of graduate students has reference value to some degree, it can not be used as a standard to measure the quality of master’s education because of the impractical expectation of the master students. More and more graduate students take career development prospects as the most important factor in job-hunting according to the annual employment quality report of Nanjing University in 2015. Undoubtedly, a potential and promising career development platform has been an objective more important than just finding a job for graduate students. The same goes for the enterprises employing graduate students, because not only a master employee’s current sufficient skills and talents but also the potential innovations the master employee may bring to the enterprise are needed. The demands for both parties could be described from different angles and regarded as a whole again, which helps both parties to understand employability. After a review of articles of employability in China, it is not difficult to find that few analysis are from the perspective of the employer. Since the enterprises are the main force in employing master graduates, their understanding of employability can indicate more directly the market preference, which may shed light on the postgraduates’ self cultivation and college teaching reform.This paper is to take that as its focus. There are three research questions:first, what are the employer’s peculiar demands for graduates in contrast with undergraduates? Second, what should the post graduate students’ employability model be like from the perspective of employer? Third, how should the self-education of post graduates, the reform of college teaching and the administration of employees of the enterprise be conducted according to the employability model of graduate students?Through interviews instead of the questionnaire survey applied in most of the previous studies of employability, this paper is intended to explore deeply facts and factors implied in the previous data through thorough interviews with totally nine middle or senior managers from the construction industry, communication industry, social services industry and medical industry. Through qualitative research and the use of causal analysis, circular interpretation, retrospective analysis, as well as the type analysis of the needs of employers, the following conclusions are drawn:1. The amendment to the employability KSAIBs model.(1) This paper adds sub-dimensions to the ability dimension which includes the adaptive ability.(2) Replace the sub-dimensions of the behavior representation dimension: achievement, job search behavior, image.2. Build a model of masters’ employability from employers’ Interpretation.(1) Professional knowledge elements under the dimension of knowledge, leadership skills under the skill dimension, communication skills, innovation ability under the ability dimension, learning ability; personality and attitude under the intermediary variable dimension; job search behavior and image under the behavior standard dimension。(2) The recessive and dominance division of RD employability dimension model: elements under skill dimension, capacity dimension and intermediary variable dimension are recessive, ability elements under these dimensions are the real essence to sustain employability; elements under dimension of knowledge, behavior representation dimension are dominance. Normally, the employers infer the hidden elements of the candidate through the dominance elements of the master students.3. Find external influencing factors of masters’ employability.(1) The contents in the external influencing factors. They are college fame, gender, stability and social needs. College fame and gender factors are the most important factors from the view of the employers.(2) The importance of the external influencing factors. There are six employers express the important of these external influencing factors. Even, Some of them insist that they will take students into account on the condition of their external influencing factors are suitable. Thus, the fact indicates that college fame, gender, stability and social needs are really affect the employability deeply. Even, sometimes they are the key factors.At the end of this paper, some suggestions are put forward on the self cultivation of the master students, the reform of colleges and universities and the management of enterprises.As for masters’ self-cultivation:firstly, they should build the correct self cognition, establish a good state of mind, be aware of their own advantages and disadvantages and learn from each other to hunt for jobs near "zone of proximal development". Secondly, they need to establish a clear career planning, do the preparatory work before going to graduate school and do a good job of graduate career planning when at campus as a post graduate. Finally, they should prepare well enough for job-hunting, finish the information collection, resume production, written examination and interview preparation work and do a good job of image improvement in advance and a good self evaluation job after the interviews.As to the reform of colleges and universities:first of all, the theory of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude is to be improved for clear objective orientation; employability should be truly implemented in the curriculum; the employment guidance should be specialized. Secondly, the mechanism of training postgraduate according to different stages should be established:the "two-three-three" master teaching reform plan which is being implemented by Nanjing University can be used for reference.As for the enterprise management:first of all, the management of recruitment process should be standardized to ensure fair and impartial recruitment; at the end of the recruitment process, short-term internship for students to be employed should be arranged. Secondly, reasonable mechanism for personnel training should be established; there should be a complete set of standardized training programs and the foreseeable future career development prospects.