Perception of students on employability skill for their successful career

Difference between gender male and female from perception of students on basic skills, people skills, personal qualities, thinking skills and sucessful career .... 41 6.2 Difference bet

PERCEPTION OF STUDENTS ON EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS FOR THEIR

SUCCESSFUL CAREER

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

PERCEPTION OF STUDENTS ON EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS FOR THEIR

SUCCESSFUL CAREER

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

In International Business

by

Ms Tran Thi Tuong Vi ID: MBA02042 International University - Vietnam National University HCMC

Acknowledge

My dissertation could not have been finished without the assistance and support of many people over the past six months I would like to take this opportunity to deeply thank all assisted and helped me in any aspects during this research project

Above all, I would like to send my sincere thank to my instructor Dr Truong Quang Duoc – Vice Rector of the International University – Vietnam National university, who encouraged me to register the research and instructed me during the process of doing thesis

Secondly, I offer my regards to Dr Nguyen Quynh Mai, Dr Nguyen Minh Tuan, Mr Nguyen Van Nhan, Ms Tran Thi Ngoc Diep who supported me a lot for my research references and survey

Thirdly, I would also like to express my appreciation for my colleagues Ms Dang Thi Lan Anh and Ms Bui Bich Tram who supported me with delivering, taking back the questionnaires, and inputting the data for SPSS

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for their unconditional love, and

my friends in MBA01 for their supports and creating good conditions for me to achieve my passion

In brief, I am heartily thankful all of you for giving me a hand to complete the research

Plagiarism Statements

I would like to declare that, apart from the acknowledged references, this thesis either does not use language, ideas, or other original material from anyone; or has not been previously submitted to any other educational and research programs or institutions I fully understand that any writings in this thesis contradicted to the above statement will automatically lead to the rejection from the MBA program at the International University – Vietnam National University Hochiminh City

Copyright Statement

This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognize that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author’s prior consent

© Tran Thi Tuong Vi/ MBA02042/2010-2012

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction 1

1 Background 1

2 Problem statement & Rationale of the study 2

3 Research questions 5

4 Research objectives 5

5 Research methodology 6

6 Scope and limitation 6

7 Implications of the study 6

8 Research structure 7

9 Summary of this chapter 7

Chapter 2: Literature review 8

1 Key Concepts 8

2 Basic skills 8

3 People skills 9

4 Personal qualities 9

5 Thinking skill 10

6 Successful career 11

7 Related researches 12

Chapter 3: Methodology 22

1 Research process 22

2 Research model 22

3 Relationship between employability skills and successful career: 23

4 Hypothesis 26

5 Measurement 29

5.1 Questionnaires design 30

5.2 Sample 31

5.3 Sample size 31

5.4 Sampling method 32

5.5 Data analysis 32

6 Summary 33

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion 34

1 Sample demographic 34

3 Cronbach Alpha analysis 36

4 Testing by Exploring Factor Analysis 37

5 Regression analysis 39

5.1 Factors affecting Successful career 39

5.2 Result of testing given hypothesis 40

6 ANOVA Test 41

6.1 Difference between gender (male and female) from perception of students on basic skills, people skills, personal qualities, thinking skills and sucessful career 41

6.2 Difference between 4 universities from perception of students on basic skills, people skills, personal qualities, thinking skills and sucessful career 42

6.3 Difference between 3 age groups from perception of students on basic skills, people skills, personal qualities, thinking skills and sucessful career 43

7 Summary 43

Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation 46

1 Conclusion on main findings 46

2 Limitations 47

3 Recommendations for future researches 48

4 Recommendations for students 48

5 Recommendations for School of Business 49

Appendix 1 58

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE 58

Appendix 2 61

List of Tables

Table 1 Relationship between employability skills and successful career 29

Table 2 Difference between individual characteristics to successful career 29

Table 3 Variable measurement scales 30

Table 4 Sample demographic 34

Table 5 Descriptive statistics for variables 36

Table 6 Results of the Cronbach Alpha for the 5 scales (First and final round) 37

Table 7 Rotated Component Matrixa 38

Table 8 KMO and Bartlett's Test 38

Table 9 Result of Regression analysis 39

Table 10 Result of ANOVA 40

Table 11 Coefficients of independent variables and dependent variable 40

Table 12 Result of testing given hypothesis 41

Table 13 Result of T-test the difference between gender groups 42

Table 14 Test of Homogeneity of Variances between 4 universities 42

Table 15 Test of Homogeneity of Variances between 3 age groups 43

Table 16 Independent Samples ANOVA Test between age groups 61

Table 17 Differences between age group 62

Table 18 Correlation Coefficient between 4 universities 66

Table 19 ANOVA test relationship between indenpendent and dependent variables 67

Table 20 Correlation Coefficient between age groups 68

List of Figures

FIGURE1 The USEM model of employability 13

FIGURE 2 Model of core self-evaluations — career success 14

FIGURE 3 Integrated model to have career success 15

FIGURE 4 Predicting career advancement with structural equation modelling 15

FIGURE 5 Research process 22

FIGURE 6 Research model 26

Abstract

Employability skill, even though has become an important issue in higher education worldwide, in Vietnam it has been emerging only in the last few years The study’s purposes are to analyze how students shape their perceptions about successful career that are necessary for their future careers

Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate which successful career are mastered

by Master of Business Adminstration (MBA) students from 4 universities: International University – Vietnam National University (IU), Banking University in Hochiminh city (BUH), Open University (OUH), Hochiminh city University of Technology (HUTEC) and which is estimated most important in working environment

To achieve this purpose, the study measured the perception of business students about which skills they are good at; which are essential for future success in the work place and the extent

to which skills should be integrated in the curriculum

The population for this study consisted of 350 post graduate business students from 4 different batches The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, EFA, Regression, ANOVA and T-test

The research shows that 4 most important dimension in measuring the perception of successful career are related directly to academic issues:

 Students: Basic skills (4th Ranking), Personal skills (1st Ranking), Personal Qualities (2nd Ranking) , Thinking skills (3rd Ranking)

Keywords: successful career, quality, perception, basic, people, personal qualities, thinking, model, perceive

Chapter 1: Introduction

1 Background

Over the world, for several decades, educators, researchers and employers have showed the concern about which skills the business graduates need preparing for workplace (Gordon & Howell, 1959; Kephart, McNulty & McGrath, 1963; Peirson, 1959) The same expression also appeared in 1980s - 1990s (AACSB, 1994, Green & Seymour, 1991; Levenburg 1996; Porter & MacKibbin, 1988; West & Aupperle, 1996)

Besides basic skills, recruiters are unsatisfied with the entry employees in creative thinking, critical thinking, negotiation, integration, responsibility (U.S Department of Labor Report, 2001; Candy&Crebert, 1991)

In order for the worker to be comfortable in this environment, he is expected to have good interpersonal skill, leadership skill, self-esteem skill (Amini, 1995; Carnevale et al., 1990; Green&Seymour, 1991)

Another important competence that is lacking in many entry-level professional workers is the ability to critically assess the skills they possess, identify the skills that they lack (Candy& Crebert, 1991; Cappelli, 1992; Mandt, 1982; Sheetz & Stein-Roggenbuck, 1994)

If the institutions are unable to help their students to develop those skills, it is unlikely that they will be able to acqire and exhibit other important workplace competences such as personal skills, thinking skills and problem solving skills

Nowadays, Vietnam education system has various fields from science, technology, economics, medicine, pedagogy … Among them, business has risen up as one of the most important major Currently there are many universities have business major which provides learners with fundamental and specialized knowledge, scientific method of thinking and administration skills in corporations, especially business management in Vietnam

In addition, from the training schedule students can learn practical skills, the ability to detect and resolve issues in specific managing situations in order to meet the increasing requirements of employers in the workplace

So far, there are many reports on problem of students’ lacking of successful career after graduating

According to vtc.com, the World Bank has released a report on higher education in East Asia - Pacific region including Vietnam And soft skills training issues for students before graduation is seen as a weakness of higher education in Vietnam There are only 3% of enterprises cooperating with universities or research institutes in recruitment (Khoi Nguyen, 2011: The Enterprise "shake their head" because students lack the soft skills, 2011)

The same concern is also expressed in baomoi.com as Vietnamese recruiters also found big weaknesses in communication skills, English and especially practical knowledge in the working environment of graduate students (Nguyen Hong Diep, 2011: Many graduates lack soft skills, 2011)

In Vietnam, according to a survey published in December, 2011 by the University of Social Sciences, Humanities, Hanoi and Policy Research cooperation projects Fund Rosa - Luxemburg German implementation of the 3,000 graduate students interviewed, 58.2 % do not know where to find a job, 42% do not meet the requirements of employers, 27% whose disciplinary majors are not in line with the market, 18% even can not find a job because employers do not know their training sectors.(USSH, VNU Hanoi, http://www.cepsta.net,2011)

In the Asia series of global education dialogues: with the topic “Successful career in Southeast Asia and the needs of human resource in the new economy - The challenge for higher education”, the international speakers discussed that although having achieved certain results and achievements, education in East Asia in general and Vietnam in particular, still face many limitations as not supply a required number of students who are equipped with the skills that businesses need (T.Anh, 2012)

According to Nguyen Thi Hang, 2012 (former Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Chairman vocational Vietnam), now, Vietnam has more than 50% of the workforce equivalent 10 million workers are not trained basic skills regularly, which

is essentially learned by doing other simple tasks From that we can see the unbalanced overall picture of professional skills of the workforce and academic institutions

2 Problem statement & Rationale of the study

Over the past 3 decades a significant amount of attention in the form of research and

The much cited U.S Department of Labor study (1991) entitled “What work requires

of school”: A SCANS Report for America 2000, focuses exclusive on those skills employers stated were necessary requisites for career success and the extent to which students are able to meet those requirements (Levenburg 1996)

Also studies finished by Carnevale (1990) for the American Society for Training and Development and Mehrens (1989) for the State of Michigan, have highlighted the skills employers considers necessary for the worker to be productive However important researches on which skills and how to prepared college graduates are for the job market is still lacking

The suggestion of The U.S Department of Labor’s Bureau of Statistics (2005) showed that the fastest growing segment of the labor force betwen 2005 – 2010 will be professional and technical occupations From the point of view of Shelly (2004), nearly 50% work force, also a large percentage of college students, held jobs in accounting, business management and computer information sciences, therefore, it is imperative that employers know what extent thse graduates are being prepared for entry-level jobs

Modern employers want entry-level employees to possess the correct combination of successful career to complement job specific skills, such as engineering or accounting skills for example (Carnevale et al., 1990; Green&Seymour, 1991)

While students currently receive adequate training in the theoretical knowledge, the successful career are not receiving sufficient attention In a summary

of 36 studies that were conducted to establish the skills employers regard as important

to entry-level employees, Green & Seymour, (199)9 found that employers placed emphasis on correct work attitudes and generic/non-technical skills Many employers believe that a skills gap exists between what is required in the workplace and what is being provided by institutions of tertiary education Porter & MacKibbin, (1988) writes that there is a mismatch between employer needs and educational response

A survey in year 2010 of 234 recruiters and 3,364 graduates from 20 universities, published in the research “Solutions for Enhancing Higher Education Quality” by Ho Chi Minh University of Pedagogy, uncovered that both graduates and

recruiters shared a common view: 50% of graduates have to be retrained The

main reason is professional skills do not meet the standards of recruiters 36.3% of recruiters responded that students must be retrained in all-around skills, 28.3% in

specialized skills, and 33.6% in both skills and professional knowledge Students are weak at presentation skills, verbal skills, interpersonal skills, teamwork, the ability to apply knowledge to practical situations, and professionalism

Finding from Van Hoa newspaper (Kieu Giang, 2010: Students are lacking of soft skills, 2010), Vietnam Institute of Educational Research said, as many as 83% of students graduated are lacking of soft skills, 37% of students who can not find suitable career due to weak skills

Survey of the Ministry of Education and Training in collaboration with the U.S Educational Testing Service, showed only 50 % of graduates can meet English requirement, and the rest do not respond or need additional training

As investigation of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, (year) 13% of students after graduation have additional training or new successful career, nearly 40% need to be coached in the workplace and more than 41% have to spend probation period to be familiar with their job

Other reports (tinmoi.vn, 2012: Businesses are not eagered with new graduate students, 2012) and (vnmedia.vn, 2010: 90% students lack of soft skills) support the complaints from employers that entry-employees do not have full basic and successful career at work

The rapid technological, social and economic changes have made organizations more complex and heightened the need for providing skills other than technical skills to graduates entering the workplace for the first time Very little progress has been made by tertiary institutions in general to get students practical application of knowledge acquired There is a need to provide last year students with the successful career to satisfy with the demands of the workplace This will enhance their transition from school to the workplace

From those problems above, we need to find out the extent of influence to students’ abilities of getting a job and how to equip these skills The study focuses on which are most necessary skills and the integration of successful career in post graduate business curriculum, the relationship of successful career they possess and how they are successful in career It looks at those successful career employer consider essential as identified by the U.S Department of Labor SCANS report (2004)

as well

This study seeks to provide relevant information to educators, students, and employers about the status of the business school curriculum in preparing last year students for their career sucess The fast advancement and availability of technology have made the global business environment so competitive that entry-level workers need to possess the essential successful career to be productive and bring real value

to their employers

Moreover business graduates specialize training and their dominance in important areas in many corporations make it possible for them to advance to middle and upper management positions in corporations in next 10 to 20 years after graduation (Gordon

& Howell, 1959)

Therefore, it is logical to assume that if these workers are exposed to essential skills required for sucess in the workforce, they can contribute important value to the long-term viability to their employers and companies

3 Research questions

The research looks at the successful career that students consider essential and address the following research questions:

- What skills needed for students to be successful in their career after school?

- Which skill is most important to their successful career?

- How to improve essential employability skills for students?

4 Research objectives

Although there are a lot of studies on successful career have emphasized the weaknesses and strengths of entry level workers from empoyer perspective (West & Aupperle, 1996) Information in this research would be useful in considering that yearly Vietnamese business senior students facing employability skill’s issues in real workplace through the survey and experiences of lecturers and MBA students who have already gone to work

- Identifying which skills needed for students’ success

- Among those skills, determining which skill most powerful impacts on students’ successful career

- Giving out some suggestions to improve employability skills for students

5 Research methodology

The research would use the SCANS report (US Ministry of Labor, 2004) with 4 dimensions: Basic skills, People skills, Personal Qualities, Thinking skills, also from the findings of (Timothy & John, 2011), (Zinta & Brian and Dan, 2008) with the dimension: Sucessful career

The research uses a 5-point Likert scale, with “Very bad” equal to value 1 and “Very well” equal to value 5 Quantitative method will also be used through questionaires in the direct survey or interview

Secondary information source are witndrawn from references of theories from newspapers, magazines, books, reports, results of a conference …

6 Scope and limitation

The survey will be mainly conducted in Hochiminh city, where is convenient for my survey and target group is MBA students from International University (IU), Banking University (BUH), Open University in HCMC (OUH), Hochiminh University of Technology (HUTECH) The other reason for that, the compared results between these institutes will be applied to the curriculums of IU One more reason, these 4 Schools of Business have experiences in training MBA programs and have a large enough number of students for conducting my research

I concentrated on master level instead of undergraduate because nearly half of MBA students have gone to work for few years so they have real experiences in working environments and can estimate well which skills they posses From those I can generate which skills are essential to have good performance at the office

This research will be replicated with a focus on students who have already completed their bachelor degree in business and are employed in an entry-level proffessional position This would enable educators and practitioners to determine if the curriculum

is adequate to prepare students for their first job or if they need to have extensive interaction in the workplace beyond that provided by experiental strategies like internship or part-time job

The limited samples were just conducted by non-profitable and convenient method

7 Implications of the study

This study tries to withdraw which successful career do the students master and they

be some suggestion to help students to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses, then to improve necessary skills Secondly, base on that the right goals, strategies can

be set by themselves It also aims at adding workplace skills to the last year curriculum of School of Business to shoot up skills for students’ careers

I hope MBA students and also lecturers on School of Business will benefit from the study’s findings Therefore, the School of Business learning outcomes will be better and more practical implications will be provided for students

8 Research structure

The structure of the thesis is organized in five parts covering theoretical framework, methodology and the final results The content is organized as following:

Chapter I: Introduction This chapter provides the background, research objectives,

the scope and limitations, the implications of the thesis, methodology, the structure of the research and the reason why I choose the topic

Chapter II: Literature review Chapter 2 presents some previous significant

definitions, concepts and basic theories discussed on the framework

Chapter III: Methodology I explain in detail the methodology used in the research It

introduces basic methodology steps from constructing the sample sizes, evaluate and scale to conducting questionnaires survey Method of collecting and analysing data are also covered in this part

Chapter IV: Data analysis and discussion on findings The phases will be presented to

analyze the data collected through the survey from chapter III and test the Hypothesis research After the analysis, we discuss and summarize findings The final part presents briefly information regarding to main questions and objectives of the research

Chapter V: Implications- Recommendations and Conclusions From the findings of

chapter IV, the study will withdraw implications and recommendations and suggest to

a further improvement in curriculum Results on these information will be proposals for further analysis

9 Summary of this chapter

Generally, this part consists the problem statement, rationale, object, research methodology, scope and limitation, implications of the study and its structure Literature review, key previous concepts, the way how to approaching will be

supported clearly in the next chapter

Chapter 2: Literature review

The first chapter has already introduced shortly about the necessary and significant components of the research The aim of chapter 2 is to show the previous findings, important concepts of successful career

1 Key Concepts

- Employability skill: are competencies considered essential for a worker to possess in

order for him/her to be successful on the job (Carnevale et al., 1990, p.255)

- Employability skill: A set of achievements – skills, understandings and personal

attributes – that makes graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy (Yorke, 2006)

- Employability: is not just about getting a job Conversely, just because a student is

on a vocational course does not mean that somehow employability is automatic Employability is more than about developing attributes, techniques or experience just

to enable a student to get a job, or to progress within a current career It is about learning and the emphasis is less on ‘employ’ and more on ‘ability’ In essence, the emphasis is on developing critical, reflective abilities, with a view to empowering and enhancing the learner (Harvey 2003)

- Successful career: are defined as “skills required not only to gain employment, but also to progress within an enterprise so as to achieve one’s potential and contribute sucessfully to enterprise strategic directions” (Little, 2001)

2 Basic skills

Reads, writes, performs arithmetic and mathematical operations, listens and speaks

(U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

- Reading: Identify relevant facts; locate information in books/manuals; find

meanings of unknown words; judge accuracy of reports; use computers to find information (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

- Writing: Write ideas completely and accurately in letters and reports with proper

grammar, spelling, and punctuation, use computers to communicate information (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

- Mathematics: Use numbers, fractions, and %ages to solve problems; use tables,

graphs, and charts; use computers to enter, retrieve, change, and communicate numerical information (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

- Speaking: Speak clearly; select language, tone of voice, and gestures appropriate

to an audience (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

- Listening: Listen carefully to what a person says, noting tone of voice and body

language; respond in a way that shows understanding of what is said (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

3 People skills

Necessary skills to work, communicate and interact with others (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

- Negotiation: Identify common goals among different parties; clearly present one's

position; understand party's position; examine possible options; make reasonable compromises (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

- Leadership: Communicate thoughts and feelings to justify a position; encourage

or convince; make positive use of rules or values; demonstrate ability to have others believe in and trust you because of competence and honesty (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

- Teamwork: Contribute to group with ideas and effort; do own share of work;

encourage team members; resolve differences for the benefit of the team; responsibly challenge existing procedures, policies, or authorities (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

- Working well in cultural diversity: Work well with people having different

ethnic, social, or educational backgrounds; understand the cultural differences of different groups; help the people in these groups make cultural adjustments when necessary (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

4 Personal qualities

Displays responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management (U.S Department

of Labor, 2004)

- Sociability: Demonstrates understanding, friendliness, adaptability, empathy, and

politeness in new and on-going group settings Asserts self in familiar and unfamiliar social situations; relates well to others; responds appropriately as the situation

requires; and takes an interest in what others say and do (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

- Self-Esteem: Believes in own self-worth and maintains a positive view of self;

demonstrates knowledge of own skills and abilities; is aware of impact on others; and knows own emotional capacity and needs and how to address them (U.S Department

of Labor, 2004)

- Self-Management: Assesses own knowledge, skills, and abilities accurately; sets

well-defined and realistic personal goals; monitors progress toward goal attainment and motivates self through goal achievement; exhibits self-control and responds to feedback unemotionally and nondefensively; is a "self-starter." (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

- Responsibility: Exerts a high level of effort and perseverance towards goal

attainment Works hard to become excellent at doing tasks by setting high standards, paying attention to details, working well, and displaying a high level concentration even when assigned an unpleasant task Displays high standards of attendance,

punctuality, enthusiasm, vitality, and optimism in approaching and completing tasks (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

- English: the language of communication, now is the most widely used language in

the world It is widely learned as a second language in Vietnam and is an official language of the European Union, many Commonwealth countries and the United Nations, as well as in many world organisations (wikipedia.com)

5 Thinking skill

Thinks creatively, makes decisions, solves problems, visualizes (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

- Creative Thinking: Use imagination freely, combining ideas or information in

new ways; make connections between ideas that seem unrelated (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

- Decision Making: Identify goals; generate alternatives and gather information

about them; weigh pros and cons; choose best alternative; plan how to carry out

choice (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

- Problem-Solving: Recognize problem; identify why it is a problem; create and

implement a solution; watch to see how well solution works; revise as needed (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

- Visualization: Imagine building, object or system by looking at a blueprint or

drawing (U.S Department of Labor, 2004)

6 Successful career

Can be defined as the real or perceived achievements individuals have accumulated as

a result of their work experiences (Judge, Cable, Boudreau, & Bretz, 1995) Most researchhas divided career success into extrinsic and intrinsic components (Khapova, Arthur,and Wilderom, Chapter 7; Guest and Sturges, Chapter 16)

Intrinsic career success: is defined as individuals’ subjective appraisal of their

success and is most commonly expressed in terms of job,career, or life satisfaction (Gattiker & Larwood,1988; Judge et al., 1995)

Extrinsic career success: are indexed by three most commonly used criteria :

pay, ascendancy or number of promo-tions, and occupational status The last factor

is perhaps the most intriguing Occupational sta-tus can be viewed as a reflection of societal per-ceptions of the power and authority afforded by the job (Blaikie, 1977; Schooler & Schoenbach, 1994) Occupational status has long been stud-ied in sociology as a measure of occupational satisfaction (the sorting of individuals into occupations of differential power and prestige)

- Pay: the amount of salary/ income people receive (Zinta, Brian and Dan, 2008)

- Promotion or ascendancy: the number of fair promotional opportunities people get in the job (Timothy & John, 2011)

- Organizational Commitment: shows that the employee is willing to stay in the

organization for the rest of his/her career and owns the problems faced by the organization as his own (Timothy & John, 2011)

- Job satisfaction: is traditionally defined as a pleasurable or positive emotional

state that results from one’s appraisal of one’s job or job aspects” (Parker, 2007, p.406)

- Job satisfaction: is an outcome to an individual’s work life, which in turn can

affect personal and organizational outcomes Many factors affect job satisfaction, such as feelings over the workplace, coworkers, and job performance among others (Sharon K Parker, 2007)

All these factors contribute towards the successful career and are measured independently

7 Related researches

Successful career are skills that apply across a variety of jobs and life contexts They are sometimes referred to as key skills, core skills, life skills, essential skills, key competencies, necessary skills, and transferable skills (Commonwealth of Australia, 2012)

Knight (2001) and Yorke (2001) consider the concept of employability to be a synergic combination of personal qualities, skills of various kinds and subject It is a concept that is much more complex than the relatively restrictive key skills agenda, as focused on by Dearing (1997) which has obscured a greater understanding of understanding employability (Yorke, 2001; Knight & Yorke, 2001) Yorke (2001) also little emphasis has been placed upon a student’s personal qualities, but that these could have suggests that traditionally considerable bearing on a particular student’s success

Employability results from a blend of achievements in four broad areas, and is represented in the USEM model of employability'.(Knight and Yorke, 2003 p.8), which considers the following four factors:

 Understanding of disciplinary subject-matter and how organisations work;

 Skilful practices in context (academic, employment, and life in general)

 Efficacy beliefs

 Meta-cognition

FIGURE1 The USEM model of employability

According to Timothy & John (2011), there is a need for individuals who have the confidence and assertiveness to adapt to and create positive change in contemporary organizations The concept of core self-evaluations provides one way to conceptualize this requisite positive self-construal They begin with covering the concept of core self-evaluations, highlighting what has been learned about the relationship between core self-evaluations and attitudes, motivation, performance, and career progress After this review, implications of the core self-evaluation construct for challenges in contemporary organizations are reviewed Specifically, the potential importance of core self-evaluations for creative performance, transformational leadership, coping with organizational change, and managing “boundaryless” careers is discussed

FIGURE 2 Model of core self-evaluations — career success

Findings from Zinta, Bryan, Dan (2008) showed that many researchers have called for

an examination of the roles that alternatives to traditional mentoring play in

individuals’ career success This study tests how important, but less examined factors,

such as employees’ direct leader, personal and work factors such as ability and the

formality of the organization, and employees’ engagement in career management

strategies relate to career outcomes Mechanisms intervening in the relationship

between mentoring alternatives and career success were examined, including the

moderating effect of individual differences (e.g., proactive personality, career

motivation, and career stage) and the mediating role of employees’ career

self-efficacy We discuss how our results continue the examination of alternative sources

of mentoring and contribute to existing theory Finally, we elaborate on the practical

importance of our results for situations where alternatives to traditional mentoring are

needed

FIGURE 3 Integrated model to have career success

Ronald, Stuart, Elsa, (2012) also gave out findings as leadership skills and information technology skills needed for job performance were shown to be significant contributors to recent graduates’ career advancement potential Work ethic and critical thinking skills were found to be closely linked with leadership skills Additionally, management skills, leadership skills, and basic literacy and numeracy skills received from recent graduates by their employers were found to be the strongest predictors of graduates’ career advancement potential

FIGURE 4 Predicting career advancement with structural equation modelling

Coopers and Lybrand (1998) defined ‘successful career’ in terms of four key areas: 1) Traditional intellectual skills – e.g critical evaluation, logical argument;

2) Key skills – communication, IT, ect Personal attributes – motivation, self-reliance 3) Personal attributes - motivation, self-reliance

4) Knowledge of organizations and how they work

There are several synonyms - core, key, generic, personal transferable skills, common, work or Sucessful career related skills – this is another of the reasons why it is difficult to conceptualize what is meant by successful career Added to that, ‘skills’ are often referred to as capabilities, competencies or attributes, levels or learning outcomes, thus compounding the sense of confusion

Successful career are also sometimes referred to as generic skills, capabilities or key competencies The Successful career discussed here build on the Mayer Committee’s Key Competencies, which were developed in 1992 and attempted to describe generic competencies for effective participation in work

In the workplace, learning is less formal and structured than in the educational institutes The graduates are required to display more initiative and assume the responsibilities for his own learning This runs counter to the typical higher education atmosphere where the learning environment is more predictable and structures (Candy

& Crebert, 1991; Wallhaus, 1996)

In the U.S, the Association of Training and Development U.S recently conducted a study of basic skills on the job Conclusion was made with 13 basic skills needed to succeed at work:

1 Learning and study skills (learning to learn)

2 Listening skills (Listening skills)

3 Presentation Skills (Oral communication skills)

4 Problem-solving skills (Problem solving skills)

5 Creative thinking skills (Creative thinking skills)

6 Personal management skills and self-respect (Self esteem)

7 Skills targets / create motivation (Goal setting / motivation skills)

10 Teamwork skills (Teamwork)

11 Negotiation skills (negotiation skills)

12 Skills efficient organization of work (Organizational effectiveness)

13 Leadership itself (Leadership skills)

In Australia, Business Council of Australia (The Business Council of Australia - BCA) and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Australia (the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry - ACCI) with the sponsorship of Ministry of Education, Training and Science (the Department of education, Science and Training - DEST) and the National Education Council of Australia (the Australian National Training Authority - Anta) has published "practice skills for the future" (2002) The book shows that the skills and knowledge that employers who require mandatory Professional skills (successful career) are the skills needed not only to obtain Sucessful career but also to progress within the organization through the promotion of individual potential and contribute to the strategic direction of the organization The skills included are 8 practice skills as follows:

1 Communication skills

2 Teamwork skils

3 Problem-solving skills

4 Creative skills and adventure

5 Skills to plan and organize work

6 Personal management skills

7 Learning skills

8 Skills and technology

Government of Canada also has a charge of skills development for workers Ministry

of Human Resource Development and Skills Canada (Human Resources and Skills Development Canada - HRSDC) is responsible for building strong human resources and competitiveness, helping Canadians improve productivity and decision making to improve the quality of life The ministry also launched studies to the list of necessary skills for workers Conference Board of Canada is a non-profit organization in Canada dedicated to research and analyze economic trends, as well as operational capacity of institutions and public policy issues The organization also has researched and compiled a list of professional skills for the 21st Century (Successful career, 2000) includes individual skills such as:

1 Communication skills

2 Problem-solving skills

3 Thinking skills and positive behaviors

4 Adaptive skills

5 Skills working with people

6 Research skills, science, technology and mathematics

The British government also has agencies in charge of skills development for workers Ministry of Innovation, Universities and Skills was established on the server 06/28/2007, 6/2009, is attached to the Ministry of Economy, Enterprise and Innovation Legislation to create the new Ministry of Economic International, Innovation and Skills The ministry responsible for matters relating to adult learning, part of higher education, skills, science and innovation (Source: http://www.dius.gov.uk/) Certification bodies and standards program (Qualification and Curriculum Authority) also provided a list of important skills including:

1 Calculation skills

2 Communication skills

3 Study skills and personal capacity

4 Skills to use information technology and communications

5 Problem-solving skills

6 Skills working with people

Singapore Government's development agency working with WDA (Workforce

Development Agency) WDA has established a system of professional skills ESS (Singapore Successful career System) consists of 10 skills (http://wsq.wda.gov.sg/ GenericSkills ):

1 Workplace skills and calculations

2 Skills to use information technology and communications

3 Problem solving skills and decision making

4 Creative skills and adventure

5 Communication skills and relationship management

6 Lifelong learning skills

7 Thinking Skills global open

8 Self-management skills themselves

So in the world conception about skills has very early and many people are increasingly interested in it New researchers are focusing on education to improve skills to fix the culture and living conditions, to help people find a positive way in life

by themselves

Recently there are many researcher studied the information process skills for pedagogy students such as Prof Tran Trong Thuy (1984), Dr Ngo Thi Thu Dung (1995), Nguyen Quang Uan (2007), Dr Nguyen Minh Tuan (2011) They were interested in the research of forming skills problem in community

Besides, there is also a research on community skills for economic students by Nguyen Thac (1997) and Hoang Anh (2001)

Synthesis and study of the actual in Vietnam, 10 the following skills is fundamental and of prime importance for workers in this era:

1 Learning and study skills

2 Personal leadership skills and personal image

3 Creative thinking skills and adventure

4 Skills to plan and organize work

Basic skills - Ronald, Studart & Elsa (2012)

- Human Resource Development& Skills Canada HRSDC, 2000

- Singapore Government’s Development Agency, (2007)

- U.S Association Training and Development,

- Human Resource Development& Skills Canada HRSDC, 2000

- Business Council of Australia BCA & ACCI (2002)

- Singapore Government’s Development Agency, (2007)

- Thuy Tran T (1984)

- Dung Ngo T.T (1995)

- Uan (2007)

- Tuan (2011) Personal qualities - Yorke & Knight (2001)

- Business Council of Australia BCA & ACCI (2002)

- Singapore Government’s Development Agency, (2007)

- Thuy Tran T (1984)

- Dung Ngo T.T (1995)

- Uan (2007)

- Tuan (2011) Thinking skills - Ronald, Studart & Elsa (2012)

- Business Council of Australia BCA & ACCI (2002)

- Human Resource Development& Skills Canada HRSDC, 2000

- Singapore Government’s Development Agency, (2007)

- Dung Ngo T.T (1995)

- Uan (2007)

- Tuan (2011) Sucessful career - Ronald, Studart & Elsa (2012)

- Timothy & John (2011)

- Zinta, Brian & Dan (2008)

- Thuy Tran T (1984)

- Dung Ngo T.T (1995)

- Uan (2007)

- Tuan (2011)

Chapter 3: Methodology

Chapter 2 presents the concept of successful career, the factors and theoretical

models Based on theoretical foundations, research models and theories are built,

chapter 3 aims to introduce research methods with statistical analysis tools to assess

the scale, the concept of research and test the hypotheses outlined in the model This

chapter includes: (1) study design and (2) quantitative research

1 Research process

FIGURE 5 Research process

Research process starts with literature review and second is research model and

hypothesis Then getting feedbacks from respondents by pilot test and reliability test

After that I complete measurement and generate questionnaire before collecting data

The last step, I use reliability test again, EFA, CFA, ANOVA The result will be

summed up with discussion and recommendation

2 Research model

Based on the previous findings that were discussed in chapter 2, I generated a

research model in to have a successful career, people in general, students in

Reliability test Draft

measurement Questionnaire

Recommendation

and organizational environment, they need successful career as basic skills, people skills, Personal skills, Thinking skills as almost parts

The model research by US Department of Labor, SCANS report (2004) suggested four most effective skills to students

3 Relationship between employability skills and successful career:

According to Peter Knight & Mantz Yorke, (2010), employability is "A set of achievements, understandings and personal attributes that make individuals more likely to gain Sucessful career and to be successful in their chosen occupations"

From the University of Kent Careers and Employability Service’s report, 2012, successful career and career sucess have tight relationship as these below factors:

- Knowledge and abilities relating to a particular job;

- The ability to identify suitable job opportunities;

- Self-presentation (on applications and at interviews)

- External factors such as the job market and personal circumstances

Employers look for a range of skills in graduate applicants, many of which are common to a number of different career areas Those most frequently mentioned are communication, teamworking, leadership, initiative, problem-solving, flexibility and

enthusiasm

According to The Department of Education, Sucessful career and Workplace

Relations (DEEWR, 2013), “Successful career for the Future” site highlights a range

of ‘employability’ skills as important not only to gain a job, but to progress within an

do the job 'Successful career such as the right attitude, energy and urgency are

important no matter where young people work or what work they do 'There are eight key successful career that jobseekers must be mindful of in their phone calls, cover letters, job applications and interviews

- Become an above-average person and work on yourself

- Develop an above-average handshake, an above-average smile, above-average skills, above-average passion, and an above-average walk

- In such a competitive job market if you demonstrate how you have developed and used these successful career you'll be well on the way to getting that job.'

- Get the Skills: Communication, Teamwork, Problem, Initiative and enterprise, Planning and organisation, Self-management, Learning, Technology

Borrowing ideas from Manish Shama, (2012) “Soft skills in relation to successful career as survival skills to meet the challenges of tomorrow” Failure to equip young

people wth the job readiness skills critical to job success is equivalent to placing employability barriers in their path Thus employability becomes visible when

graduates demonstrate the ability to adapt and contribute productively to the work environment

There is obviously an important inter-relationship between assets and deployment The extent to which an individual is aware of what they possess in terms of

knowledge, skills and attitudes and its relevance to the sucessful career opportunities available may affect their willingness to undertake training and other activities

designed to upgrade their skills etc

Findings from National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE, 2012)

pointed that the last few years, the outlook of students’Sucessful career after school has not been good and the results students gain have not been also On the

improvement of Sucessful career, More than one-quarter (25.5 percent) of the Class of

2012 that applied for a job has one in hand, these low results have shown that the practices students have been using to gain a job has not been effective for three

quarters of the graduates On receiving job offers, among 2012 graduates who applied for a job, only 44.2 percent received at least one job offer As in the increase above, the 2.8 percent increase is not very encouraging Again, it points out the

Yet it is clear that the current skills and Sucessful career system is not fit for purpose Evidence from the Leitch Review as well as subsequent research from the UK

Commission for Sucessful career and Skills (UKCES) has demonstrated that the UK has performed poorly in terms of basic and intermediate skills which will lead to lacking of qualification and soft/ generic skills

(Lizzie Knight, 2012) For institutions, it could be thought a challenging notion that a degree, any degree, is the key to employability, since universities are structured

heavily towards degree specialism in their research and administrative functions, and not explicitly towards generic skills It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that

emphasising generic competencies of a degree, rather than direct subject knowledge, has not been more heavily debated and criticised by HE institutions

However, educational institutions have sought to take advantage of the link to

Sucessful career opportunities and to promote this aspect of their product (Ivy, 2001)

In other words, the need for individuals to increase their own career prospects by undertaking tertiary study has become a core part of institutional branding

The SCANS Report, 2004 also concluded that US companies must demand a

standard of high performance in "excellence, product quality, and customer

satisfaction" by demanding a competent worker who is able to evaluate and

correct performance, who is technologically literate, who is able to work with others, and who is a flexible as well as a continuous learner The report also asserts that in order for business to meet this challenge, schools must prepare young Americans for this demand by designing a new curriculum that will allow learning to take place "in context" by putting educational objectives within a real environment rather than one

of abstract isolation In other words, lessons must be relevant to children and

connected to real world applications and situations, since " good jobs depend on people who can put knowledge to work."

The SCANS Report outlined and examined the demands of the nation's workplace and concluded that " more than half our young people leave school without the knowledge or foundation required to find and hold a good job." Obviously, the

SCANS Report caused quite a stir in education, as school boards, administrators, and teachers were shown that they simply are not teaching our nation's students what they need to know in order to be prepared for the work force of today— the work force of

the 21st century

Nowadays, many countries around the world there are many research institutions on the necessary skills on the job

For years we only think of labor export, but a new reality challenges Vietnam workers

in times of crisis to foreigners who are fighting for our work We could lose their home market

Clearly this essential soft skills not only help employees to improve productivity, workflow efficiency, which is actually very helpful in every facet of life in the family

in society at work, improving significantly higher quality of life and social culture, helping to change Vietnam human face Learn from the advanced industrial countries, the state needs to build a national program on soft skills, set up a specialized agency responsible for building the system of skills, training and quality monitoring functions power of the labor force

FIGURE 6 Research model

4 Hypothesis

 H1: There is a positive relationship between Basic skills and successful career

In the 21st century, the employers considered basic skills as “core capabilities underlying all of education and work” (Wallhaus, 1996, p.15) In such environment,

apply basic mathematics techniques to approach and solve problems (Bartholome, 1991; Levenburg, 1996; Van Horn, 1995) Furthermore, the tight relationship between Basic skills and is also stated in U.S Department of Labor (1991 and 2004),

Lawrence K Jones(1996,) The University of Kent careers and employability service’s

report (2012), Sarina Russo Institute (2011)

 H2: There is a positive relationship between People skills and successful career

Teamwork, Leadership, Negotiation and Works with diversity are becoming an important elements in the coporate culture of many organizations in America (Carnevale (1990), Green & Seymour (1991), Katzenbach & Smith (1994), U.S Department of Labor (1991 and 2004), The University of Kent careers and employability service’s report (2012), Sarina Russo Institute (2011)

From the point of view of William Brock, the chairman of the SCANS report (1991), interpersonal skills were considered as the ability of worker to “work on team, to teach, to negotiate and be able to serve customer”

 H3: There is a positive relationship between Personal qualities and successful career

Lawrence K Jones(1996), created a list of 17 foundation skills that every worker will

need to succeed including Socialbility, Self-esteem, Self-management, Responsibility Besides, in developing society, these 4 qualities are getting more and more essential

in finding a good job Workers who possess good personal qualities are able to make meaningful contribution to their employers (U.S Department of Labor (1991 and 2004)

 H4: There is a positive relationship between Thinking skills and successful career

Students who possessed creative thinking, Problem solving, Decision making, Visualization skills are able to work independently of others and effectively function

in groups as well (Carnevale (1990), Katzenbach & & Smith (1994), U.S Department

of Labor (1991 and 2004)) These skills bring serious impacts to thw workplace to find suitable solution, create new innovation, products and services that make the organization become more competitive (Green & Seymour (1991)