The measurement of the educational progress can be made on the basis of the quasi experimental approach called reflexive comparison. Reflexive comparison may include the measurement of the knowledge and skill level at the begin-ning of the studies and at their completion. Such an approach seems to be logi-cal when we accept that there are no external factors influencing the skill and knowledge levels of students in the meanwhile.
Typically, it is nearly impossible to separate the learning effects acquainted during the learning process at university and similar effects gained by students who practice working during their studies. In such a situation it is nearly impos-sible to separate the learning outcomes that arise thanks to university efforts and other effects which result thanks to other activities of students. It is especially important when a student is active in e.g. the non-governmental sector, music life and also in pursuing different hobbies. The organizational, practical experi-ence students gain during work in such units is an important experiexperi-ence which increases significantly the employability of graduates.
The above-mentioned difficulties suggested to look for other solutions, which would measure employability skills of university graduates more di-rectly. Coming back to the numerous research studies on the employers’ ex-pectations on the employability skills of graduates it must be admitted that approach: ‘Employer Expectations – University Fulfilment’ creates the most
11 M. Aubyn, Á. Pina, F. Garcia, J. Pais, Study on the efficiency and effectiveness of public spending on tertiary education, MISEG – Technical University of Lisbon, December 2008, Economic and Financial Affairs Directorate, “Economic Papers” 390, November 2009.
European Skills Achievement Test as an innovative tool… 8585 logical dimension of the university effectiveness measurement in relation to graduate employability.
Based on this approach, a project Skills for the Future (SKIFF) was launched by the Institute for Private Enterprise and Democracy with 3 European part-ners (from Portugal, Italy, and Turkey) within the framework of the Erasmus Lifelong Learning Program. The examination of the employers’ expectations was one of the key activities and the gained knowledge could be used to propose the content of specific examination measuring how university graduates fulfil the expectations of employers towards knowledge, skills, and attitudes expected from higher education graduates. The project was started in 2009 and finished in 2011. The main project activities took place in 2010.
The achieved research results on the differences between employers’ expecta-tions and university fulfilment in work attitudes indicated that12:
1. The highest differences between the needs of enterprises and the delivery of higher education institutions observed in Poland were: loyalty to the company, honesty – personal ethics, time-elasticity, and responsibility.
2. The highest differences in Italy concerned loyalty to the company, hon-esty – personal ethics, and respect to others.
3. In Portugal the largest differences concerned: taking the responsibility, honesty – personal ethics, loyalty to the company, and respect to others.
4. In Turkey the largest differences between needs and provision concerned such attitudes as: respect to others, honesty – personal ethics, loyalty to the company, and willingness to take tasks.
It was observed that in all surveyed countries personal values had the highest calibre in expectations and low provision with some variations concerning direct work attitudes, including time flexibility, responsibility and tasks taking. This result shows that enterprises in all participating countries expect from higher education institutions mostly building high personal values and unfortunately the provision of such values by higher education institutions is relatively low.
According to the results in the comparisons between expectations and fulfil-ment in the area of skills, a concluding remark from international comparison seemed to be very surprising. In no surveyed country the technological skills provision was evaluated as a problematic issue. Universities can provide tech-nology application skills on the level that can be developed by enterprises with no big problems. However, problems do exist in different spheres. The problem-atic issues are different in the respective countries13 .
1. In Poland, communication, team work skills, problem solving and enter-prise skills were provided in 50–70% of the required values, constituting the very broad spectrum of problems. 2 key spheres with largest gaps
12 P. Kulawczuk, M. Bąk, A. Szcześniak, P. Bednarz, Skills for the future. How higher education insti-tutions fulfill expectations of entrepreneurs in Europe Insight into situations of Poland, Italy, Portugal and Turkey, IPED, Warsaw 2011.
13 P. Kulawczuk, M. Bąk, A. Szcześniak, P. Bednarz, Skills for the future…
Przemysław Kulawczuk 86
were: interpersonal skills and enterprise and initiative skills. Learning skills and technology skills were provided better. It shows that in general Polish universities cannot offer practical skills that can be highly valuable for companies and the provision is on the level from moderate to low. The spectrum of problems is very broad.
2. In Italy, problems exist in different spheres. It seems that the problem of Italian universities is a low provision of personal behaviour skills. When we take into consideration that the highest gaps were observed in: the ca-pability to accepts and support leadership, adaptation to new situations, the capability to transfer effectively between individual and team work, and, on the same level: negotiation skills, the capability to work across dif-ferent ages, genders, and cultural diversities – we may state that students do not receive answers concerning personal behaviour rules . The higher education schools in Italy, accordingly to opinions of surveyed entrepre-neurs, do not teach skills concerning living with other people. It also must be emphasized that in Italy there was a serious gap between the needs and provision concerning intermediate computer skills .
3. As we can see, the situation in Portugal is more complex, as there are near-ly no problems with technical skills and learning skills. However, there are significantly more problems in enterprise and initiative skills, and in personal planning and organizing. Turkey presents a more optimistic pic-ture; nevertheless, the problem is the lowest average level of expectations of enterprises from higher education institutions.
In all surveyed countries there was one important sphere where provision was significantly lower than needs: it was interpersonal skills connected with human behaviour. Most enterprises observed that new employees cannot func-tion easily after graduating, have important adaptafunc-tion problems, and have dif-ficulties in cooperating with other employees. This definitely can be improved by universities. Another very important sphere where provision is highly unsat-isfactory is the sphere of enterprise and initiative skills. As the issue of interper-sonal skills can be explained to some extent, there is no easy answer why enter-prise and initiative skills are not provided in the needed amount . Learning skills creates significantly less problems. Graduates are ready to learn and universities provide this group of skills relatively efficiently. Surprisingly, the workplace technical skills create the lowest problem. It can be explained that higher educa-tion institueduca-tions strongly orientate their efforts towards technologies and enter-prises can see this effort. The effects of those efforts are rather positively evalu-ated by enterprises.
Based on such observations concerning the differences between employers’
expectations and educational institutions provision, the key problem spheres were indicated as a field for significant improvement. They included the follow-ing skills and work attitudes:
1. Loyalty to the company, 2. Personal honesty,
European Skills Achievement Test as an innovative tool… 8787 3. Taking responsibility,
4. Teamwork,
5. Practical approach, 6. Supporting leadership, 7. Generating solutions, and 8. Building climate of confidence.
Moreover, about 10 less important differences were observed. On the basis of the key problematic issues, the questions checking the approach to the problems were formulated. The questions had a decision making character and typically started with the phrase What would you do if… followed by answers representing the possible reactions .
We did not check knowledge but work attitudes and skills allowing to per-form managerial or independent tasks by university graduates in an enterprise or an institution. The discussion on the contents of the questions measuring the employability of university graduates is presented hereunder.