Employer requirements of economics graduates and the implications for undergraduate economics programs

In recent years there has been considerable debate about the general decline in the number of students undertaking bachelor degrees and majors in economics. The discussion has stemmed mainly from a supply-side perspective of the economics education market. The goal of this paper is to add another dimension to the debate and report the results of a survey of employers of economics graduates. Drawing on the extensive customer services literature it is argued that a market oriented, or demand-side analysis is also an important component in redressing low student enrolments and retention. A first step in adopting a market oriented approach is to determine the skills required of the economics graduates entering the jobs market. With the support of The Economics Society of Au~tralia, twenty-nine public and private sector employers were surveyed in 2002. The aim of the survey was to establish the demand for economics graduates with bachelor and honours degrees, the skills and knowledge required of these graduates, and the performance of such graduates. The study found that economic knowledge and skill were important to employers. However, the skills rated most important by employers were the more general or 'generic' skills of clear writing, data analysis, interpersonal skills and a practical problem-solving orientation. While graduates generally performed satisfactorily in relation to the economic skills required by employers, this was not the case for generic skills. The result of the survey findings have some significant implications for the content and teaching of undergraduate economics programs. This paper outlines these implications and also discusses areas for future research It is argued that such research should aim to utilize both the demand and supplyside perspectives with the development of more precise definitions and measurement of the economic skills required by the various stakeholders in the economics education market.

Can experiential learning improve emotional intelligence and can that, in turn, improve the work performance of middle managers?

A group of middle managers in the Australian arm of a large Global company participated in a program of experiential leadership training over a period of one year. One aim of the program was increased interpersonal skills and awareness. Change was measured using a mixed quantitative and qualitative longitudinal design. Pre and post-training measures of emotional intelligence were obtained using the EIQ (Dulewicz & Higgs, 2000) and compared with content analysis of journals kept by participants during the program. The dependent variable was measured by pre and post training measures of work performance. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for management development as well as for further research.

Social entrepreneurship and experiential learning

Social entrepreneurship is a growing, but currently ill-defined area of innovation and business development. It is about accountability not just to commercial imperatives but to the wide range of stakeholders in a social enterprise, potentially an area of great tension. Social responsibility is about a commitment to society, entrepreneurship is usually understood to provide a business outlook on the enterprise – it needs to be sustainable commercially.

To educate the modern or millennial learner (born after about 1980 and grappling with burgeoning youth needs for creative employment development) into developing a small to medium enterprise with a social responsibility, modern postgraduate coursework programs have looked closely at experiential learning. This provides a performative learning through transforming theory into applied situations. The workplace based projects used for the postgraduate programs are effective immersive learning. This paper will include a case study of two postgraduate coursework units New Ventures in Creative Enterprise, and Building Creative Teams, part of a Masters in Communication/Creative Enterprise. These provide experiential learning about strategic planning for startup creative businesses, and work-based projects which build on interpersonal skills for ongoing success.

Perceptions and misperceptions of computing careers

Two issues were addressed. 1. Women are underrepresented in computing courses and in the computing workplace. Despite almost two decades of recognition of the issue and of intervention to correct it, the proportion of women in computing continues to decline. 2. There is a shortage of people with appropriate skills and qualifications in computing, and, more specifically, a need for people with particular personality attributes. There is an increasing demand for computing personnel to have good communication and interpersonal skills, but the predominant personality types of computing people do not include these characteristics. The research relating to the underrepresentation of women was conducted as a series of interviews with university students, female computing professionals and secondary school girls. The main findings of these studies were: 1) schoolgirls are interested in careers that are interesting and varied and provide opportunities for interaction with others; 2) schoolgirls perceive computing as involving working alone; 3) women working in computing describe careers that are interesting, varied, and people-oriented; 4) tertiary computing students equated 'computing' with 'programming'; and 5) single interventions are unlikely to result in individuals in the targeted group deciding to study computing. The perception of schoolgirls that computing involves working alone, which is reinforced by many tertiary computing courses, suggested that the type of person who is likely to be attracted to computing is one who would prefer to work alone. It was predicted that schoolboys would have similar perceptions of computing. Thus, computing is likely to attract students who would prefer to work alone. For various social and stereotypical reasons addressed by previous research, these students will be predominantly male. In the final study, preferred Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Strong Interest Inventory personality types were suggested for computer programmers, systems designers and systems analysts. The existing literature and the 'types' of 72 study participants tended to confirm that 1) certain personality types are overrepresented in computing; 2) these types are well suited to programming and design tasks; and 3) there is an underrepresentation of individuals who have the combination of analytical, communication and people skills that are required particularly of analysts but also of many others working in computing today. Interviews with participants supported the earlier findings that computing careers are perceived by students to be technical and involve working in isolation, but for many computing people this is not the reality.

Social entrepreneurship and experiential learning

Social enterprises and entrepreneurship are about accountability not just to commercial imperatives but to the wide range of stakeholders in a social enterprise, potentially an area of great tension. Social responsibility is about a commitment to society or community, entrepreneurship is usually understood to provide a business outlook on the enterprise - it needs to be sustainable commercially and balanced carefully.
To educate the modem or millenniallearner (born after about 19t1O and grappling with burgeoning youth needs for creative employment developmem) into developing a small to medium enterprise with a social responsibility, modem postgraduate coursework programs have looked closely at experiential learning. This provides a transformative learning through workplace-based projects and strategic business conceptuaUsing. This paper will include a case study of two postgraduate coursework units New Ventures in Creative Enterprise, and Building Creative Teams, part of a Masters in Communication/Creative Enterprise. These provide experiential learning about strategic planning for startup creative businesses, and work-based projects which build on interpersonal skills for ongoing success.

Attachment as a predictor of leadership and follower outcomes

Research has suggested that effective leadership, specifically the utilisation of transformational leadership behaviours, is heavily entrenched in a leader’s interpersonal skills. However, few studies have investigated the interpersonal factors that drive appropriate use of transformational and transactional leadership in leader-follower settings. Attachment theory provides a robust framework in which to chart the developmental precursors of effective leadership that underpin positive leader-follower relationships and potential organisational outcomes. In this study, 46 manager-non manager dyads recruited from a Victorian education institution, a national telecommunications company and a Victorian real-estate business (managers – Mean age = 48.5 years, SD = 7.78, non-managers – Mean age 43.92 years, SD = 8.72) took part in an online questionnaire. Participants completed measures of attachment, leadership behaviour and organisational citizenship behaviour. Path analysis revealed that manager’s attachment style significantly predicted follower ratings of transformational and transactional leadership behaviours. Additionally, follower ratings of leadership were associated with organisational citizenship behaviour. Thus, it is concluded that attachment theory provides a valid framework in which to understand follower perceptions of leadership behaviour and subsequent organisational outcomes. These findings are discussed within the context of attachment theory and the leadership literature.

Benzodiazepine use of community-based violent offenders : a preliminary investigation

Objective: To explore the relationship between benzodiazepine use and violent crime in a sample of community-based offenders. Methods: Participants were recruited via drug diversion and treatment programs in Melbourne, Australia. Data regarding benzodiazepine and other substance use, mental health, personality characteristics, and crime involvement were collected through semistructured interviews conducted in 2011. Participants (n = 82, 79.3% male) were 21–56 years old, predominantly Australian-born (89%), with 14.6% identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders. Eligibility criteria were having been charged with a criminal offence in the previous six months and at least monthly benzodiazepine use. Group differences between violent (n = 11) and nonviolent offenders were assessed via independent samples t-tests (two-tailed) and nonparametric tests. Results: Individuals charged with violent index offences were significantly more likely to use higher average doses of alprazolam (p = 0.040) and exhibit benzodiazepine dependence (p = 0.037) as well as report high levels of sensation seeking, prior violence, and the diagnoses of depression and personality disorder than individuals charged with nonviolent index offences. Conclusions: The findings suggest the existence of a complex dynamic between mental health and violent offending that may be influenced by benzodiazepine use, in particular alprazolam. A core implication of these preliminary findings includes attending to the interpersonal skills and adaptive coping resources of violent offenders.

Strategies to develop divided attention skills through video game training

Research .over the past two decades has confirmed the learning opportunities that video games can offer. The objectives of the current study were to investigate the ability of video games to enhance divided attention skills and compare these skills based on individuals' level of expertise in video game playing. Female participants aged between 17-25 years categorised as experts or novices, were divided into experimental and control groups. All participants completed the pre and post-test of divided attention between which only the experimental group received video game training. Results indicate that participants who received video game practice achieved an increase in their dual-attention skills compared to those who did not receive any training, with novices displaying a greater
enhancement in perfonnance. Implications include the provision of video game training to enhance divided attention skills in air pilot training, driving, and heavyequipment operation apart from other tasks necessitating dual-task efficiency.

Comparing alternate teaching styles to teach computing skills to girls in their English classes

Low female participation rates in computing are a current concern of the education sector. To address this problem an intervention was developed — computing skills were introduced to girls in their English classes using three different teaching styles: peer tutoring, cross-age tutoring and teacher instruction (control). The sample comprised 136 girls from Years 8 and 10 from a single-sex government school. A pre-test post-test quantitative design was used. To describe the students perspectives, qualitative data were collected from six focus groups conducted with 8–10 students — one from each of the six classes. It was predicted that cross-age tutoring would yield more positive effects than peer tutoring which, in turn, would yield more positive effects than traditional teacher instruction as assessed by achievement on class tasks and attitudes towards computing. The hypothesis was not supported by the quantitative analysis, however in the qualitative data cross-age tutoring was appraised more favourably than peer tutoring or teacher instruction. The latter was the least preferred condition due to: (1) inefficiency; (2) difficulty understanding teachers' explanations; and (3) lack of teacher knowledge. Problems with the implementation of the intervention identified in the focus groups were teacher differences, system failures, missed classes, lack of communication, and selection of computing activities. Practical suggestions were provided relevant to the introduction of cross-age tutoring and the use of computers within secondary level English classes.

The oral language skills of young offenders: a pilot invesitgation

Although there is a large body of evidence attesting to the poor social skills of juvenile offenders, few workers have examined the underlying language skills of this population. This pilot study investigated the language skills of a group of young offenders in comparison to non-offending school students. Data were gathered from 15 community-based young offender males, aged between 13 and 21 years (M = 16.5 years, SD = 2.1) from the Victorian southern region Juvenile Justice Units. The comparison group comprised 15 male students, aged between 15 and 17 years (M = I 6.4 years; SD = 0.5 I) from government high schools in south-eastern metropolitan Melbourne. Each participant completed a narrative discourse task and measures of speed of processing, and abstract language. It was hypothesised that the young offender group would perform more poorly on each of the language tasks than the comparison group. Independent t tests (with a modified alpha level to control for family-wise error rates) showed that there were significant differences in the expected direction, on all language measures. Notwithstanding the pilot nature of the investigation, implications of these findings for both further research and intervention/early intervention are described.

Computer and IT skills of Australian first-year university undergraduate students

The use of computers and information technology is becoming more widespread in chemical education and in the wider community and workforce. Universities are increasing the use of computers and information technology in their teaching and learning programs. The Australian situation, reported here, can be viewed as a microcosm, reflecting a world-wide trend.

The penetration of general IT literacy and ability amongst Australian undergraduate students is rising rapidly. This paper reports surveys of the detailed IT skills of Australian undergraduate students. To the best of our knowledge, apart from our own work, there have been no other published surveys of specific IT skills. Most students have some reasonable computer skills at the start of their university studies, but the level of skill is not uniformly high. In fact, many IT literate students lack a sufficient level of skill to use the new technologies, including full use of web-based flexible learning. There is an urgent need for IT training for university students in order to achieve successful learning outcomes using IT and to satisfy the needs of future employers.

This article, which is the second in a series (1) of investigations on the computer skills of undergraduate students at the start of university, is an expanded version of a paper presented at the World Chemistry Congress held in Brisbane (Australia) during 1-6 July 2001.

Can an online tutorial pass the test for library instruction? An evaluation and comparison of library skills instruction methods for first year students at Deakin University

An online, interactive tutorial, Smart Searcher, was introduced at Deakin University as part of the Iibrary's information skills program in late 2000. As liaison librarians responsible for library skills training we wanted to compare and evaluate this mode of instruction with our normal face-to-face delivery of library instruction. This study found that students with face-to-face instruction did, in fact, gain higher posttest mean scores than students completing the online tutorial. Also, students attending these library sessions felt more confident about their library skills than those in the online tutorial only session.

Learners' perceptions about the relationship between music education and generic skills development : a case study within the Australian higher education sector

A major issue emerging from the research and debate concerning quality in higher education has been an emphasis on the value of the acquisition of generic skills by undergraduate students, as indicators of quality in education. Music educators have long recognised the contribution music makes to the general education of learners. Learning in and through music can present varied and complex means for the acquisition of generic life skills such as: problem solving, decision-making, critical thinking, oral and written communication and teamwork. This paper documents one particular course of action that was implemented within a university undergraduate primary teacher education program, to systematically gauge learner perceptions about generic skill development/enhancement before and after participation in the music component of the core arts education subject.

Culturally specific prejudices: interpersonal prejudices of individualists and intergroup prejudices of collectivists

The authors propose that the nature of prejudice differs across cultures. A model is introduced that proposes that the interpersonal perspective associated with individualist cultures (Westerners) leads to interpersonal prejudices, whereas the intergroup perspective associated with collectivist cultures (Easterners) leads to intergroup prejudices. These prejudices, in turn, are argued to impact on the outcomes of individuals working in intercultural teams. An organisational diversity climate of openness fostered by diversity oriented HRM and the combined use of individualist and collectivist HRM policies and practices is proposed to minimize the negative effects of such prejudices can be minimized.