Significance Of Employability Skills And Its Linkage With The Sustainable Development Framework Of The Government Of Wales (essay).

Organizational Culture and Strategy

Understanding how important employability skills are along with key skills has helped me tremendously in my professional development.

The Government of Wales Assembly tries to integrate all the educational entities with one concept. The concept is to develop global citizenship with the help of sustainable development.  There is framework prepared by the WAG named as One Wales One Plant to serve this purpose. The Glyndwr Graduate has taken the elemental philosophy to promote global citizenship. The Glyndwr Graduate has developed some fundamental policies to develop essential soft skills. All these soft skills are delivered in the modules taught at the University of Glyndwr.

As Banks and Barlex (2014) mentioned that the significance of employability skills are increased for the graduates. Presently recruiters look for soft skills of applicants rather than hard skills. According to Brooks et al. (2012), there is an explicit linkage between successful employment after graduation and employability skills.   

In this report, the significance of employability skills has been analyzed.   In addition, it is also evaluated how the external drivers of the government of Walsh have forced the university to apply Macro level action. These Macro level measures have a high impact on the module delivery system at the Micro level. Initially, an overview of organizational strategies and corporate culture has been given in this report.  The impact of organizational culture and strategy for the teaching practice has also been analyzed.  The concept of employability skills has also been discussed and its linkage with the current policy named as “One Wales, One Earth” has been analyzed. The conceptual framework required to support soft skills are discussed. There are also some recommendations given in this report. These recommendations are helpful to provide an efficient way to promote employability skills in graduates, who are willing to take part in the labor market.  

Brown and Carasso (2013) had provided the concept of organizational culture has been provided. Presently, organizational culture has become an important part of education and academic research. It suggests that development of an effective organizational culture is an essential component of organizational success. It has highlighted the significance of the strategic change.  According to Ellis (2015), development of effective leadership is a crucial part of organizational culture.  It is the process in which knowledge is “developed, shared, maintained, and utilized.” Organizational culture is related to the value and behavior that help to develop ethical and healthy work environment in an organization (Desha and Hargroves 2014). It represents the collective beliefs, principles, and values of peoples working in an organization.  

Employability skills

Handy and Hains (2015) had highlighted the necessity of accent various organizational strategies in the higher educational institutions. There are various organizational strategies and tips can be promoted in order to gain best possible outcomes for Higher Education (HE) organizations. Effective application of business strategies on micro and macro level needs to be considered. From Welsh Assembly Government (2012) it is found that, the organizational strategy requires to be focused on the population of an organization. It has to be organized in accordance with requirements or needs of people. For example, all legislative measures and policies need to be developed in accordance with the needs of the society. Micro level is described as the structure of an organization and the method, which has a direct impact on the long-term process of an organization. 

According to Hirsch (2012) employability skills refer to the set of skills, attributes, and understandings that help graduate students to get a job and. These skills also help graduate students to become successful in their particular occupation. Employability skills have various benefits in community, economy and the society. It is very essential for graduate students to understand that those skills they acquire during the time of study will help them to become a successful employee in future. It also provides them some social and economic advantages and promote sustainable benefits.   

 Howie (2011) had conducted a survey of employees to find out their most valuable characteristics.  The most desired characteristics for employees are analyzed as the employability skills.  There are various categories of employability skills have been examined in research works. These skills are divided mainly into three categories.  They are such as personal abilities, practical competencies, attitudes, qualities. As Knight and Yorke (2013) stated that, there are various skills required for employees to become successful. These skills are like communicational skills, team-working skills and project management skills. Lifelong learning methods need to be developed in such a way that students can improve these skills. All the educational programs needed to be drawn up in order to promote personal developments of students. The education system must have the long-term vision to develop employability skills within all students. As Lang (2012) suggests that, the employability skills must have to be linked with legislative framework and policy regarding social exclusion and equality. It has to be a part of economic competitiveness, which drives higher skills within students.

The government of Welsh has developed a governmental policy named as “Education for Sustainable development and Global Citizenship” (ESDGC) (Bachelor 2016). Wales is one of the few countries to have this policy. The Government of Wales has a very strong accent on the sustained development of students in Wales. The WAG has analyzed those issues, which have the effect on the sustainable development of business and peoples of Wales. Depending on the analysis, the WAG has developed a strategy named as "One Planet One Wales." It is a policy, which provides the framework to HE institutions of Wales. It helps to develop employability and global citizenship. All the educational organizations of Wales require having policies covering ESDGC. Sustainability needs to be formulated in the management of schools, transports, estates. The government of Wales has drawn up and act named as Government of Wales Act, 1998. This act helps to promote sustainability in every activity.  The primary focus of the Wales government is to develop a set of skills, attitudes, and values required to promote sustainability.      

Education required for global citizenships and sustainable development

As Bradshaw and Mayhew (2015) mentioned that, in order t become sustainable, policy needs to be developed to support social justice. It also needs to provide equal opportunity to all the peoples. This policy also needs to promote traditional cultural and natural environment. In accordance with these requirements, the Wale government has developed a sustainable policy named as "One Wales One Planet." This policy has the aim to develop a healthy environment and society. According to Arthur and Bohlin (2015), each person in the society has their roles to create a healthy environment. A healthy eco-system framework needs to be developed by the government, to promote sustainability in the society. This policy also has highlighted the requirement for improving the lifestyle of those people living in disadvantaged in the community of Wales. It recommends focusing on improving child poverty rate of Wales. It also promotes employability for future generation (Alvesson 2012). In comparison with other developing countries, Wales has the highest rate of Child poverty. According to the survey done in the year of 2008, it has been found that there are more than 180,000 (more than 29%) children of Wales live beyond poverty level (Gravells 2012). The lower rate of education is the primary reason for this high degree of the incidence of poverty.

The inputs are given by the macro level source can affect an organization (Owen-ja 2013). It can be stated more explicitly that, societal macro-culture has the highest impact of an organization. The government of Wales is highly focused on the development of fair society.  They also try to develop ethical principles for social justice. The governments of Wales have established policies and legislations that have a positive impact on the organizational culture. Employability skills are an imperative part of the core values of Glyndwr University (Glyndwr University 2013). The university considers that HE has a very crucial role to play to develop employability skills in students. The university focuses on establishing personal and professional skill development for all students. It helps them to become contentious persons who can actively participate in the career market. It also contributes to improving the society and community of Wales as a whole.   

The Glyndwr University has developed its strategies to develop skills and attributes of students depending on five broad categories. However, some of these categories overlap with each other. The university must have to recognize and create opportunity. The university has to promote independent thinking of the students to support independent study. It also provides students the opportunity to increase their confidence related to their personal skills. The University has the objective to develop life-long learning for all the students at international level. It is also a future oriented aim of this university. The primary purpose of the Glyndwr Graduate scheme is to develop essential skills of students. The policies implemented by the HE institution are to promote employability for the graduate students. As Wilton (2011) stated that, development of the main skills is required to establish and develop the ethical, comprehensive environment.         

"One Wales one plant."

According to Welsh Assembly Government (2012), education has a vital role to play in the welfare of children. Education can help children to develop to develop their personality and intellectual capability. It also contributes to promoting skills for citizenship and social development. The governments of Wales have developed their sustainability policy named as "One Wales One Plant."  It is the responsibility of the teachers to established appropriate program to promote employability skills. As mentioned Alvesson (2012) that, employability skills are needed to be taught along with citizenship. It is the primary principle of   "One Wales One Plant."  As Owen-ja (2013) stated that, there is an adamant relationship between individuals and society. Hence, it is the responsibility of the HE organizations to promote citizenship alongside with traditional academic teaching.  

Various challenges have to face during the higher education. The increased global competitiveness is the one of those major challenges (Clare Thomas 2011).  It requires having equilibrium between different factors that can ensure sustainable social justices with sound financial performance. Thus, it is highly needed to develop a suitable framework for HE institutions. In Wales, the ESDGC framework has been drawn up to promote employability skills among students of Wales. The government of Wales has developed appropriate policies and legislations in accordance with the ESDGC framework. It provides adequate opportunity to the graduate students of Wales to improve their employability skills. ESDGC is a flexible approach that every HE institution in Wales can apply individually. This framework helps to analyze the role of ESDGC on the employability skills, learning, teaching, leadership, audit on curriculum and institutional management.    

This report has clearly described the research process need to be adopted by every institution. It also helps to describe how the lecturers can implement those frameworks in their subject of delivery. As Alvesson (2012) mentioned that, in order to become truly effective it is required to provide some training for teachers. These training must have the aim to tackle with the power of ideology. Applying the bottom-up approach in the organizational culture is necessary. As Gravells (2012) opined that, it is the responsibility universities to promote employability in the first and second year of study. It has to be an important part their syllabus as well. As the third year is the most critical stage of any course, students have to face a tremendous amount of stress at this stress (Swansea University 2011). Thus, it is not suitable for any university to include employability skills in the third year. In addition, students also have to learn about the application methods. They must have the knowledge about how to write Cover letter, curricula vitae and of application letters. All these employability skills will help to students to secure a job in future. There are also high requirements of conducting group projects and group presentations. As Lang (2012) mentioned that, group projects help to develop effective team working capability. During teamwork, students require having effective communicational skills. At this point, students can demonstrate their leadership capabilities to conduct a job. All the team members have their different perspectives related to the job. Hence, it is the responsibility of a leader to solve all the conflicts and motivate students to fulfill a job successfully. Universities need to remember that teamwork is the central part of any job. According to (Bachelor 2016), it supports empowerment that can help to prevent various constraints occur during a project. It also encourages the multidisciplinary approach of working that can increase responsiveness and flexibility. 

The Glyndwr has developed the strategy in accordance with the WAG policy. This policy is known as “The Glyndwr Graduate.” A clear set of aims has been given in this policy. It also provides all the graduate students the opportunity to improve their personal skills that can enhance their employability level. The Glyndwr University tries to stay committed to the “One Wales One Planet” framework.  The university has implemented employability skills at every program organized by the University.          

The Glyndwr University has embedded both employability and essential competencies in every module taught in the organization. The university has embraced various approaches to bring employability skills in different sessions. The university has adopted cooperative learning as a part of micro level teaching practice. Management of the University has developed a grad project that all the students need to submit in the third year of study. This project is has combined all employability skills and critical skills that students learn throughout their whole study. This university also provides the opportunity to gain scenario based or practical learning experience to the students. All the students have to take part in a group activity, where they have to manage a practical situation. All students have their individual roles to be followed. Various areas needed to be covered by the students in this project.  Students have to develop their analytical skills and communicational awareness. They must have to develop effective communicational skills to improve teamwork performance. Appropriate decision-making capability is required to be established, so that students become capable of taking crucial decisions in critical conditions. Students have to learn how to take initiatives for any job. According to Alvesson (2012), student life is the best stage to develop leadership capability. Students need to select which type of leadership is best suited for them. There are various others skills are required to be developed by students during their study. They are like innovation, time management, numeracy skills, negotiating; organization, IT skills, problem solving and networking.

It has been analyzed that the practical learning or scenario based learning provides students an idea about the real working situation. It is also found that scenario based learning is very much helpful to combine employability skills in the modulus as required by the Glyndwr Graduate policy and "One Wales One Plant" framework.   

            In this report there are various recommendations have been given in order to promote employability skills in universities.

• The university requires increasing and improving global competitiveness. As Lang (2012) mentioned that, studying in foreign countries help to increase cultural awareness and their independence. These factors help them to secure a job in future. In addition, students have to learn about various foreign languages, which can be helpful in their job.
• The teachers can be given training in accordance with the deliverance of ESDGC in the University. In addition, there must be separate classes need to be offer in the first and second year of study that is focused on numeracy and employability skills.
• The University has to develop programs where students can take part in social events. It will help the student to gather enhanced idea about the real world and society.
• The university has to take initiatives to make foreign language classes available for students. It will increase the level of employability of students in Wales.

Conclusion

In this report, a proposal for amended version of ESDGC framework has been given. This framework has to be applied to all the universities of Wales. It helps to meet all the criteria given in the policy developed by the government of Wales named as "One Wales, One Planet." It is very necessary for Higher Educational Institutions to motivate employability skills for all the graduate students. All the universities need to implement employability skill studies in the first and second year of study. It will improve organizational culture and team working capability among students, which can help them to secure a job in future. Implementing ESDGC policy framework at the micro level of the organization has a high impact on the micro level of education delivery system. 

Reference list

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