Student Development and Engagement, Employability, Teaching & Learning in Higher Education

Higher education in India, like in any other developing country is facing sharp criticism for its apparent inability to provide education, relevant to the needs and aspirations of the knowledge seekers apart from providing employability.  The phenomenon of ever escalating unemployment in the area of educational interest has further aggravated the problem of Higher Education. Interestingly the statement made as early as 1985 “the whole process of higher education has become warped, dysfunctional, producing a number of unemployable young women and men” (The challenge of Education) holds well till date.
Unlike any of the professional courses in India, Journalism & Communication and Media Education has never been considered to garner the professional status. The course originates way back in 1948 when Aligarh University launched its Diploma course in Journalism, has seen massive change sprouting out to the under-graduate and master degree courses by various Universities and its affiliated college. This has made the institutions offering media and journalism courses, toddle for placements. 
It seems the present approved curriculum for BA Journalism & Communication and Media Education courses in particular, the Universities by itself does not offer any scope for employment on one end, while an attempt never made to study focusing the attention on students satisfaction who have joined these courses are on the other adds to it.
The locale of the study is carried out in aided and private colleges affiliated to Bangalore University. The research study outlines targets the policy makers of University to rejuvenate the skill component which leads to innovative thoughts and knowledge based research in teaching courses of Journalism & Communication and Media Education.
Objectives:
1.  To critically analyze the present status of curriculum in terms of learners satisfaction.
2.  Examining the perception of available skills in the present trainers by the students.
3. To arrive at a workable model synchronizing academic practices with industry requirements.

Employability of graduates in the East African Region has remained a major challenge and one that the higher education sector has not been able to adequately address. As the enrolment in higher education continues to grow, unemployment remains the biggest challenge facing young graduates. A recent study shows that over 50% of Kenyan graduates are not job-ready at graduation. Other countries in the East African region have higher rates.
This study therefore sought to answer the questions why the university graduates are not well prepared for work and what the higher education institutions should do to develop a holistic approach to learning that will build the competences required in the job market. This study is the result of a twelve-month project, which aimed to gain a clear understanding of how Kenya Methodist University is developing the competences required by the job market in its undergraduate students, determine the perception of the students in regards to the skills acquired and developed through their study and get feedback from the industry on the competences the students have developed. The study used a range of activities to gather data on students’ work readiness as well as faculty capacities. Activities included seminars with the faculty, self-evaluation sessions with current students and an evaluation by the industry. Twenty five (25) faculty members were engaged in the seminars to explore the methods that have been applied in class and the outcomes from the courses taught. Thirty five students (35) were engaged in the self-evaluation program during which they were to determine what skills have been acquired through their study. Ten (10) industry players were engaged in the final workshop to evaluate the abilities of the students together with thirteen (13) internal stakeholders.
The study revealed that 35% of the faculty members give students only knowledge and therefore it is upon the students to decide how they apply the knowledge. 69% of the students are not able to articulate what skills have been acquired through normal class work and are not able to relate how their knowledge is applicable in the different activities they engage in outside class. The study concludes that, while the lecturers may have the knowledge in their fields of expertise, they lack the art, and to some extent the willingness, to transmit and develop the knowledge and the required competences for work in the students. The curricula do not adequately outline the expected learning outcomes in terms of competences and therefore the lecturer does not design assessment activities that measure the needed competences.
Keywords: Graduate Employability, Faculty Development, Skills, Competencies

Breaking the Triple Lock: Further education and transformative teaching and learning Purpose This paper explores data from the UCU Further Education in England: Transforming Lives & Communities research project and through this develops a distinctive, theorised conceptualisation of transformative teaching and learning (TTL). Design/methodology/approach The research used an approach grounded in critical pedagogy utilising digital methods, including video'd interviews, to collect narratives from learners, teachers, family members and their communities from colleges across Britain. Findings Within a context in which there are structural pressures militating in favour of instrumentalising students in further education, TTL offers a way of theorising it as a transformative critical space that restores students' hope and agency. The research provides evidence of how further education offers this " differential space " (Lefebvre 1991) and subverts the prescriptive, linear spaces of compulsory education. While productivist approaches to vocational education and training support ideologies that legitimate prescribed knowledge, reproducing inequality and injustice through the practices employed (Ade-Ojo and Duckworth 2016, Duckworth and Smith 2017b), TTL shifts to a more holistic approach, achieving a different level of engagement with learners. Practical implications The findings suggest that the TTL lens is a way of focusing on the dignity, needs and agency of further education students. The lens allows us also to identify how the existing structures associated with funding and marketisation can undermine the potential of TTL to activate students' agency through education. Originality/value (mandatory) Extending on existing literature around transformative learning, and drawing on a range of theoretical frameworks, the article formulates a new, contextually specific conceptualisation of transformative teaching and learning.

(2018). Employability of international students: Strategies to enhance their experience on work integrated learning (WIL) programs. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 9(1), 62–83. Abstract This paper presents a systematic qualitative review of relevant literature, documents and reports, and critically discusses issues facing international students undertaking work-integrated learning (WIL) activities as part of their higher education in Australia. Initiatives utilised to better support international students on these WIL placements are described. Based on an evaluation of the data reviewed, the discussion highlights two main challenges to international students' employment experiences: a limited competence in English communication, and a limited understanding of the local working context. In seeking explanations for the above, the authors identified factors such as inadequate student-entry procedures, limited opportunities for socialisation, limited input in cultural protocols, and the lack of soft-skills training. The recommended solutions include more uniformity between government and employer sectors, increased acceptance and support for multicultural diversity, an openness towards diverse ways of thinking, and an enhancement of training in diverse communication styles.

Outbound Training (OBT) is in the Centre stage in the periphery of management domain. It is indeed an area of opportunity to
encourage more reciprocate approaches over other methods of conventional training. The motion of time has changed the
dynamics and dimension of business stream, so training methods also demands the change of its approach towards more resulted oriented and innovation to have substantive outputs. Training has been a roller coaster ride since it has entered into the territory of challenging business environment with the factor of changing business approaches under the influence of globalization. Now, when the management education is on the threshold of a new orientation, particularly Indian management education envisages a multi-dimensional stride to unleash its value in comparison with Global standard, training methods to improve student’s management skills need a face lift to embrace the said challenges. This study envisages the challenges OBT takes over other methods of traditional training in management education. Satisfaction about OBT training in students is abundant that has been proven from this study. Leadership development is the key factor among Indian management students that reflect their employability which cause major concern for corporate. This study highlights the influence of OBT to create more impact on Indian management students in embedding managerial skills, particularly leadership has been well acclaimed among
management students. In addition, that OBT need more core competency driven training activities need to be incorporated to reach to the accuracy of accomplishing skill development among students.

The current research explores the issue of risk-taking among Algerian FL students who are participants in the ‘Young Arab Voice (YAV)’ program in Algeria. This later is an association that affords youth with the opportunity to develop their transferable skills such as creativity, critical thinking and problem solving within national and international scales. One of the predominant realities of young generation in Algeria reveals an urgent need to enhance young people’ skills in various domains, and allow them to act out and speak up their culture to the world. The YAV serves as an interactive space where such skills or talents can be constructed, fostered, and updated within a globalized thinking. It helps the participants to come out of their comfort zone and decreases the feelings of anxiety when opening the self to the world. However, some young students find this work of involving themselves in the social world as a risk that may drive them towards failure against others’ cultural voices. Thus, YAV principles raised in our minds the need to explore the extent to which risk-taking is expanded in Algerian youth’s voices that are outstanding among the worldwide ones without possessing any fears. To probe the above aim, this study adopts an exploratory design that uses both qualitative and quantitative methods.  An online questionnaire is administered to students of English, who were participants in the YAV Program. Moreover, for more details on the phenomena, we have conducted an interview with these students. The findings show that the YAV activities helped students to get rid of their anxiety when speaking in public places and developed their willingness to take risks and take part in the debates and the discussions. Therefore, this study recommends adopting the activities used in the YAV program into University programs for the sake of developing the EFL students’ risk taking. This later is very important as it is considered as a first step towards entering the world of employability and the professional life. 
Key Words: YAV, Risk Taking, Employability

Enterprise is becoming a more important part of UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) activity as a source of revenue, added value to students, and broader demonstration of the contribution of HEIs to the economy. Despite this there is little information on the overall provision of business services by HEIs in the UK and even less on that which involves students engaging with consultancy. In this paper, our focus is on the latter: the role of students in university business consultancy within the disciplines of marketing, media and creative industries.

In this report we present:

– An overview of how involved students are engaging in knowledge exchange through consultancy via a comprehensive audit of all 164 UK HEI’s. Here, we identify different models of student consultancy in terms of their links to research and education, and offer some more broader reflections on the way that UK universities are engaging with business.

– Through four case studies (with a total of 32 interviews and 3 focus groups), an analysis of the key tensions, barriers and motivations (both internal and external) in integrating students in consultancy in ways what benefit them, academic staff, HEIs and external organisations.

– The implications for the management of such projects, and a series of recommendations for those who wish to involve students in university consultancy services.

The report should be essential reading for academic leaders and staff involved in delivering education for employability.

The Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education introduced Bachelor programmes with a three year duration at the end of the 1990s, and simultaneously the Industrial Training was deleted from the programme. Shortly afterwards, it was voluntarily re-introduced by some faculties, although it was not made compulsory. The Faculty of Foreign Languages and Communication is, to some extent, a late comer to this programme in UPM (starting in 2014). With coordination and good planning, both Industrial Training and the “Final Year Research Project” (“Bachelor Thesis”) in 2014 should result in enhancements to the programme for the education and development of foreign language students.
The key benefit resulting from the reintroduction of Industrial Training in the foreign language curriculum (in 2014) will include an improvement in the students’ ability to determine worthwhile employment and to increase their “workplace readiness”. The terms “Industrial Training”, “Practical Training”, and “Internship” will be intermixed in this paper and have the same meaning. Whilst exam orientated students initially perform well within their specialization, after commencing employment they often face challenges and difficulties that they are not fully equipped for, and Industrial Training can help them to be better prepared to face such problems. The “UPM - Department of Communication” has run a successful Industrial Training programme for over five years, and graduate employability has increased significantly, as confirmed by lecturers in other UPM institutes, such as the Food and Sciences Faculty. Such faculties are orientated towards technology and engineering, and they experience few problems in determining appropriate internships. In contrast, this is not the case for most foreign language students in Malaysia, especially for French and German undergraduates. Whilst English undergraduates, (the second language for many Malaysians), may seem to have a natural advantage, it is also not easy for them to find appropriate internships where native English communication is commonly used. Although issues relating to students of Bahasa Melayu who are studying in FBMK are not addressed in this discussion, it is relevant to lecturers who teach and to students who study foreign language minors, e.g. Russian, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Turkish, Spanish or Burmese. Without doubt, there are similar opportunities for these students as there are for students of European languages.