Employability Skills Expected from Fresh Civil Engineering Graduates

Transcription

1 Employability Skills Expected from Fresh Civil Engineering Graduates M.M.G.V. SHYAMALEE 1*, W.M.V.S.K. WICKRAMASINGHE 2, S. DISSANAYAKE 3 1 Industrial Training and Career Guidance Unit, 2 Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, SRI LANKA 3 Department of Civil Engineering, Kansas State University, USA * shyamaleemanage@gmail.com, web: Abstract: - Understanding the employability skills expected by employers of fresh engineering graduates will be of great assistance for civil engineering undergraduates to transit smoothly from academic environment to professional life. This paper identifies groups of attributes that are important in explaining such employability skills based on employer expectations. A questionnaire was designed for employers in civil engineering organizations in Sri Lanka. It contains twenty eight attributes that are recommended by Institute of Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL) and as important at present. The importance of attributes was measured using five point Likert scale. A questionnaire survey was conducted among forty eight civil engineering organizations through postal and electronic mail data collection method. Descriptive analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) together with Factor Analysis (FA) were used to extract six employability skill factors that explain 72% cumulative variance shared by all attributes. Employability skill factors were interpreted in terms of groups of attributes having better correlation with each factor. Based on these groups of attributes, employability skills that were most critical are identified as Engineering Design and Construction Standards, Working Attitude, Management Skills, Personal Attitude, Technical and Administrative Skills and Engineering Knowledge. Internal consistencies within each group of attributes and as a whole, were found to be in the allowable range. In addition, there were no significant differences found in importance level of employability skills by the four major sectors of civil engineering works (i.e., Roads, Buildings, Bridges and Factory/Workshop/Plant) followed by the analysis of variance (One-way ANOVA method). Key-Words: - Employability Skills, Principal Component Analysis, Factor Analysis, Attitude, Civil Engineering Graduates, Employer, Attributes 1 Introduction The nature of employability skills that the Sri Lankan industry expects from fresh engineering graduates have changed with emerging new sectors and the continuous changes of the nature of work due to the competitive market and globalization. Sri Lankan universities hold the main responsibility to produce qualified engineering graduates who are equipped with necessary knowledge and skills expected by the rapidly growing industry. The employers seek fresh civil engineering graduates who will be the best fit into their organizational culture. They expect to utilize graduate skills to expand their organizations through the innovative and constructive works of fresh graduates. Hillage and Pollard (1998) defined employability as being capable of getting a job and fulfilling all the work in the job. Employability depends on the knowledge, skills and attitudes of individuals and the way they use those assets and present [1]. Knight and Yorke (2003) defined employability as a set of achievements, understandings and personal attributes that make individuals more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen careers [2]. Yuzainee et al. (2009) examined the employability skill considered by employers in recruiting fresh engineering graduates in Malaysia [3]. This study showed that engineering graduates should have not only excellent academic records but also the ability to perform and demonstrate specific soft skills. Yuzainee et al. (2010) presented important employability skills for an entry level engineer based on the employer expectations in Malaysia. The most sought skill was identified as communication skills while the least one as ISBN:

2 engineering system approach. Data from four different categories of organizations have been used in the data analysis. There were some differences in priorities of employability skills in each category of organization [4]. In Sri Lanka, there has been a great concern among authorities and professional personnel in government and private industries about the necessary practical skills of fresh graduates. Recently, several initiations have been taken by the government to improve some skills that are perceived to be lacking in the fresh graduates at present. For example, improving communication skills and competence in information technology are being currently addressed through several programs such as Higher Education for Twenty-first Century (HETC), a World Bank assisted project. However, the pertaining issues associated with civil engineering graduates might differ from those of the other graduates. Having knowledge on the employability skills required by fresh civil engineering graduates will greatly help them to transit smoothly from academic environment to professional life. As such, this study investigates the employability skills that will be important for fresh civil engineering graduates to succeed in their professional life with the present economic development in the country. 2 Methodology The accreditation manual of the Institute of Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL) describes the generic attributes of an engineering graduate that should be acquired during the engineering degree programme [5]. This study makes use of those attributes together with some other attributes found from the past studies. A questionnaire was designed including total of twenty eight attributes that were considered to be important at present. Each attribute was measured using a five point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5 where 1 indicates for Not Important ; 2 for Fairly Important, 3 for Important, 4 for Very Important ; and 5 for Highly Important. A questionnaire survey was conducted among employers from the government and nongovernment civil engineering organizations. Data collection was carried out through postal and electronic mail facility. Data analyses were conducted by using statistical techniques, namely descriptive analysis, principle component analysis and factor analysis. Through the analyses the twenty eight attributes were categorized into few skill factors that explain different employability skills. Consequently, an employability skill can be evaluated in terms of a group of selected attributes. In addition to that, Analysis of Variance (One-way ANOVA) was used to find out the difference in importance level in skill factors by four different sectors of work such as Roads sector, Buildings sector, Bridge sector and a sector incorporated with Factory/Workshop/Plant works in civil engineering. Main steps involved in descriptive, principle component, and factor analyses are: (1) Calculation of the sample mean and standard deviation of each and every attribute; (2) Computation of intercorrelation matrix and testing factorability of the data matrix using Bartlett s test of Sphericity and Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy; (3) Extraction of the Initial Solution and determination of number of factors; (4) Rotation of factors and sorting out the factor loadings for better indication of loading pattern to the factor; and (5) Grouping out the attributes that highly correlate with each factor and defining the factor names appropriately. 3 Results and Discussion 3.1 Profile of the sample A total of 48 organizations responded out of the seventy five civil engineering organizations contacted. Table 1: Profile of the sample (N = 48) Sample Characteristics Percent (%) Profile of employers Chairman/General Manager 17 Director/Chief Executive Officer 38 Project Manager 23 Senior Engineer 19 Others 4 Specific sectors Roads 26 Buildings 35 Bridges 24 Factory/Workshop/Plant 15 Categories of the organizations Government 33 Non-Government 67 N - Total number of organizations ISBN:

3 The profile of the sample is described in terms of the profile of employers who responded to the questionnaires, specific sectors of civil engineering works carried out by the responded organizations and the categories of the organizations are shown in Table 1. Clearly, the majority of the employers were high ranking officers in their organizations. The respondents were mainly from the Building, Road, and Bridge sectors, however, responses from the sector involved with Factory/Workshop/Plant works was also comparatively significant. Majority of organizations that participated in the questionnaire survey was non-government organizations. 3.2 The importance of attributes as perceived by employers Table 2 presents the values of mean and standard deviation based on the importance of attributes. Table 2: Mean Ratings given by respondents No. Attribute Measured Mean a Std. b 1 Punctuality Commitment Integrity Engineering Fundamentals and Application 5 Written Communication Skills Verbal Communication Skills Problem-Solving Skills Approachability Reliability Conscientiousness Flexibility Tolerance Competence Computer Science and Technology Logical Thinking Engineering Practice Testing Practices Presentation Skills Proficiency Standards Specifications and Inspection Standards 21 Code of Ethics Technical Standards Measurement Systems Design Skills Science Fundamentals Team Work Environmental Constraints Probability and Statistics a Mean Scale: 5- Highly Important to 1- Not Important b Standard Deviation The results showed that the most important attribute among all is Punctuality which scored 4.35 for the mean. This indicates that the employers highly expect engineers to be punctual in all the activities they perform. It is also clearly evident here that except for Probability and Statistics all the other attributes have mean value greater than 3.0. It seems that at present the use of probability and statistical techniques are comparatively low in civil engineering organizations. 3.3 Determination of employability skills The results obtained from the Bartlett and KMO statistics are shown in Table 3. The overall significance of the correlation matrix was found to be (below 0.05 significance level) with the Bartlett s test of sphericity value of This indicates that the data matrix has sufficient correlation to the factor analysis. From the results, a value of 0.76 was obtained for the Kaiser-Meyer- Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy. Hair et al [6] present different index for KMO values ( ) that interpret the degree of common variance such as Don t factor ( ), Miserable ( ), Mediocre ( ), Middling ( ), Meritorious ( ), Marvelous ( ). The KMO value 0.76 lies in the index of Middling which is in the allowable range. From the above results, it is clear that the data sample is adequate and suitable for factor analysis. Table 3: Results from KMO and Bartlett s Test Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling 0.76 Adequacy. Approx. Chi-Square 1055 Bartlett's Test of Sphericity df 378 Sig The principal component factor analysis with a VARIMAX rotation technique was used to generate the factors underlying twenty eight attributes. The eigen values which are greater than one suggested a six-factor solution explained 72.6% of the cumulative variance. Factor 1 was identified as the most effective factor that explained 40.8% of the variance and the other factors explained 10.27%, 6.66%, 5.44%, 4.78% and 4.60% of the variance, respectively. The most of the attributes have loaded heavily only on one factor. The higher loading indicated the ISBN:

4 Factor groupings Table 4: Attributes correlated with selected factors Factor Loadings Communality Eigen Value Percentage of Variance Reliability coefficient Factor 1: Knowledge on Engineering Design and Construction Standards Computer Science and Technology Testing Practices Proficiency Standards Specifications and inspection standards Code of Ethics Environmental Constraints Probability and Statistics Factor 2 : Working Attitudes Reliability Approachability Flexibility Competence Presentation Skills Factor 3 : Management Skills Problem-solving skills Logical Thinking Engineering Practice Design Skills Team Work Factor 4 : Personal Attitudes Punctuality Commitment Integrity Conscientiousness Tolerance Factor 5 : Technical and Administrative Skills Written Communication Skills Verbal Communication Skills Measurement Systems Technical Standards Factor 6 : Engineering Knowledge Engineering Fundamentals and Application Science Fundamentals Total variance explained 72.6 Total scale reliability 0.94 Mean correlation of the attributes with the factors on which they were loaded. The communality of each attribute was relatively high ranging from 0.48 to This indicates that the variance of the original values was fairly captured by the six factors. ISBN:

5 Table 5: Results of one-way ANOVA for comparison of employability skills for major sectors in civil engineering works Employability Skills Factory/ Workshop /Plant Mean Scores Bridges Buildings Roads F Value P Value Sig. diff. between groups Knowledge on Engineering Design and Construction Standards No Working Attitudes No Management Skills No Personal Attitudes No Technical and Administrative Skills No Engineering Knowledge No The value of Cronbach s Alpha was calculated to test the reliability of each factor. The results showed that the values of Cronbach s Alpha of all six factors ranged from 0.67 to 0.88 which are above the minimum value of This is an indication of the reliability of factors (Nunnally, 1967). Table 4 presents the summary of the factor analyses results. The six factors found under employability skills were named as Knowledge on Engineering Design and Construction Standards, Working Attitude, Management Skills, Personal Attitude, Technical and Administrative Skills and Engineering Knowledge. 3.4 Variation in importance of employability skills by sectors of civil engineering works The results presented in Table 5 explain the relationship between the importance of employability skills by the major sectors of civil engineering organizations. The F value represents the ratio between the variance of the mean scores of sectors to the variance of mean scores within the sector. The F value for each employability skills was significant since the P value was greater than Hence, there is no significant difference found in mean scores of each employability skill by sectors considered in civil engineering works. 4 Conclusion This study was carried out to identify the important attributes that fresh civil engineering graduates should have in order to succeed in their professional career. The required data were collected from 48 civil engineering organizations and statistical analyses were conducted using descriptive analysis, principle component analysis, and factor analysis techniques. It was found from the results that the most important attributes are Punctuality (4.35), Commitment (4.19), Integrity (4.17), Engineering fundamentals and Applications (4.10), Written Communication Skills (4.04), Verbal Communication Skills (4.02) and Problem-Solving Skills (4.00). Except for Probability and Statistics the rest of the attributes were received mean scores greater than the average score of 3.0 indicating that they are also considered to be important by the industry. Six employability skills found from the factor analysis include Knowledge on Engineering Design and Construction Standard, Working Attitude, Management Skill, Personal Attitude, Technical and Administrative Skills, and Engineering Knowledge. Among these employability skills, Personal Attitude (4.12) was identified as the most important employability skill that a fresh civil engineering graduate should improve. The order of the importance of the other employability skills was Working Attitude (3.90), Engineering Knowledge (3.82), Technical and Administrative Skills (3.81), Management Skills (3.74) and Knowledge on Engineering Design and Construction Standards (3.57). As per the results of one-way ANOVA, there were no significant differences in the mean scores of a particular employability skill when different sectors in civil engineering discipline were considered. The present contents of most of the engineering curriculums in higher education institutions in Sri Lanka are heavily concentrated on courses aimed at ISBN:

6 developing Engineering Knowledge, Technical and Administrative Skills, Management Skills and Knowledge on Engineering Design and Construction Standards. However, the results of this study reveal that high attention should also be paid to improve the students personal attitude and working attitude. References: [1] J. Hillage and E. Pollard, Employability: Developing a Framework for Policy Analysis, Research Brief, No. 85, Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), London, [2] M. Yorke and P. Knight, Employability in Higher Education, Learning and Employability Series. ESECT: LTSN Generic Centre [3] M. Y. Yuzainee, A Zaharim, M. Z. Omar, M. Azah, M. Norhamidi, M. Ramlee, Employers Selection Skills in Recruiting Fresh Engineering Graduates, International Conference on Engineering Education, December 2009, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. [4] M. Y. Yuzainee, M. Z. Omar and A. Zaharim, Employability Skills for an Entry-Level Engineer as seen by Malaysian Employers, IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON) Learning Environment and Ecosystems in Engineering Education, April 2010, Amman, Jordan. [5] Engineering Program Accreditation Manual, Institute of Engineers, Sri Lanka June [6] J. F. Hair Jr, R. E. Anderson, R. I. Tatham and W. C. Black, Multivariate Data Analysis with Readings, New York:Prentice-Hall Inc., 1995 [7] J. C. Nunnally, Psychometric Theory, New York:McGraw-Hall Inc ISBN: