Keowords: Core Competence Indicators, Internship, Insurance Education. 1. Introduction

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1 Applying AHP Method and Modified Delphi Method to Develop Insurance Education Internship Core Competence Indicators for Higher Technological and Vocational Institutions Lun Hao Lin a *, Shuhui Hao a, and Paosi Pang a a Department of Insurance and Financial Management, Takming University of Science and Technology #56, Sec.1, Huanshan Rd., Neihu District, Taipei City, 11451, Taiwan, *Corresponding Author: kevin@takming.edu.tw ABSTRACT The objective of this study is to establish internship core competence indicators and analyze their relative weights and sequence of importance at higher technological and vocational institutions (HTVIs). This study may serve as a guide for training insurance talent, developing internship programs, and planning internship contents to, in turn, develop appropriate and practical internship program contents, reinforce competency cultivation. Firstly, literature review was utilized to draft internship competence indicators and the appropriateness of each competence indicator was decided through the Modified Delphi Method. Secondly, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was employed to grasp the relative weights and sequence of importance. Research findings are summarized in the following. Internship core competence includes: teamwork, personal management, and basic skills. There are 16 core competence indicators, such as active attitude and behavior. The order for core competence indicators in sequence is active attitude and behavior, communication coordination, teamwork, work ethics, interpersonal relationship,...etc. Keowords: Core Competence Indicators, Internship, Insurance Education 1. Introduction 1.1 Research background and motivation In the Bologna Dclaration signed jointly in 1999 by education chiefs from European countries, enhancing citizens employability is identified as a primary goal for reform in Europe s higher education system. Moreover, a survey by the National Youth Commission (NYC) found that, in addition to professional knowledge, employers in fact pay more attention to social freshmen s work attitude, stability, pressure resistance, communication ability, and will to learn, etc., or so-called core employability. As a result, cultivating students employability will be an imperative international trend in the future (Department of TVE, MOE, 2009). In order for the insurance industry to continue to introduce outstanding talent in response to a fast-changing economy, Student Internship is a way for the insurance industry to find good talent (Gardner & Schmit,1996). In implementing off-campus intership of insurance education at technology colleges, students may experience the workplace early, shorten their exploration period, establish correct working attitude, and thereby increase their opportunity to be employed enhance their self-employability from learning by doing, doing by learning (Stock,2004). This study attempts to employ internship core competence indicators relative to weights and sequence in importance. It is hoped that this will serve as a guide for insurance 1

2 talent cultivation and planning of off-campus internship course contents, thereby cultivating core employability from off-campus internship. 1.2 Research purpose and problems Based on the foregoing research background and motivation, this study s purpose is as follows: 1. Constructs a off-campus internship core competence indicator framework for. 2. Analyzes relative weights and importance of the off-campus internship core competence indicator framework for technological college insurance education. In order to achieve the above purpose, this study seeks to answer the following 2 questions: 1. What are internship core competence indicator items and competence indicators of? 2. What are relative weights of internship core competence indicator items and competence indicators of, as well as their importance sequence? 2. Literature Reivew 2.1 Origin and development of Insurance education began to sprout in Taiwan in the 1950 s. From the 1980 s onward, colleges increased fast and significantly. Junior colleges were changed to technological colleges, and colleges were upgraded to technological universities. This not only made higher technological and vocational education (TVE) students no longer come principally from junior colleges, but it also made a change to relations between supply and demand (Huang & Lai, 2009). Originally, departments in the higher education insurance field were named insurance department or bank insurance department. After 1990, in response to changes and upgrades, related departments at technological colleges and junior colleges were renamed risk management and insurance department, insurance and financial management department, financial and risk management department, etc. And courses were also adjusted to go with the industry s pulse. Huang & Lai s (2011) research suggests that, before and after their change of institution, Taiwan s higher technological and vocational education schools (technological colleges) were significantly affected by variables such as school size, No. of teachers, No. of students, and No. of RMI subjects. Before and after their change of names, higher technological and vocational education schools (universities of science and technology) were significantly affected by variables such as No. of teachers, No. of students, and No. of RMI subjects (Lai & Huang,2011, 2011). America-based Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business s (AACSB) recognition criteria encourage schools to develop their curriculum by using their own advantages, such as location, partnerships, opportunities of employment, etc. This is considerably favorable to those schools located at the center of the insurance industry. By taking advantage of this, they can recruit excellent and stable talent from the industry as teachers to facilitate their curriculum development (Gardner& Schmit, 1995). 2

3 Rabel (1992) and Gardner&Schmit (1995) both believed that offering good teaching and reinforcing links with the insurance industry, will facilitate insurance education to develop. America-based CPCU s research (1993) suggested that university insurance education introduce more industrial support and education and training. Gustavson (1991), Gordon&Howel (1959), Porter & McKibbin (1988), et al. also indicated that the insurance industry should facilitate insurance education for long-term development. Skipper pointed out that, as far as insurance is concerned, only first-rate curriculum, as well as good employment prospects, can draw more students into risk management and insurance education for training (Skipper, Harold D. Jr, 1994). Although studies seldom discussed about insurance education, they consistently stress that insurance education s development relies on more meaningful industry-academy cooperation relations with the insurance industry. 2.2 Core abilities 1. Definitions and implications of core abilities (1) Definitions of core abilities Core ability, employability, and employability skills are common terms which are widely adopted by countries around the world. They refer to abilities which are required by employment at different workplaces. Core abilities or basic abilities lay stress on common requirements at different places (Jian-Hua Shen, Zhao-Yu Lai, Chun-Mei Zhou, Shu-Xiang Xu, 2004). (2) Implications of core abilities A. Core ability indicator structures in Britain and Australia In Britain, common abilities required at workplaces are referred to as key skills, including communication, applying numbers, information technology, teamwork, improving self learning and performance, problem solving (Weinert,1999; Kearns,2001). In Australia, key skills include gathering, analysis, and information organizing ability, ability to communicate concepts and information, ability to plan and organize activities, ability to work with other people and team, ability to utilize mathematical concepts and skills, ability to solve problems, ability to utilize technology, etc. (ANTA,1999). B. Core abilities in Canada In response to needs for manpower in a new century, Canada lays stress on progress by individuals at workplace and competing with other countries on the global market. For that goal, Employability Skills is crucial, which consists of fundamental skills, personal management skills, and teamwork skills. C. 3 fundamental skills and 5 abilities developed by SCANS America s SCANS divideds abilities required at workplace into 3 fundamental skills and 5 abilities (Carnevale, 1991). The 3 fundamental skills include: basic skills listening, speaking, reading, writing, math; thinking skills creation and thinking, decision making, problem solving, visualization, learning how to learna and induce; personal qualities responsibility, self-respect, self management, integrity. 5 competencies include: resources, information, interpersonal skills, systems, and technology. D. Core abilities valued by America s insurance industry Cheshier & Heflin s (1997) research indicates that important skills include teamwork, written and oral communication, listening, resolving 3

4 conflicts, etc. Cassidy, Marshall & Hollman s (1998) research aimed to discuss about the appropriateness of constructing insurance expertise and core abilities, as well as their sequence in importance. Resaech found that among the core abilities valued by the insurance industry, oral and written communication has high importance. Other important core abilities include problem solving, defining problems, interpersonal skills, listening, reading, critical thinking, and so on. (3) Summary of the draft off-canpus internship core ability indicators for Summarizing the above-mentioned Employability Skills skills, America s SCANS core abilities (1991), British core abilities (Weinert, 1999; Kearns, 2001), Australian core abilities (ANTA, 2001; Down, 2000), American researchers (Cassidy, Marshall & Hollman, 1998), suggested that the insurance industry should highlight core abilities. This study divided them into basic skills, interpersonal management skills, and teamwork skills, totaling 18 ability indicators, as shown in Table 1. Table 1 Draft off-canpus internship core ability items and ability indicators for Off-canpus internship core ability items Draft off-canpus internship core ability indicators Basic skills Oral communication, verbal communication, reading, math, listening, foreign languages, computer operation, numbers application, and thinking and problem solving Personal management Aggressive attitudes and behavior, time management, skills creation solving, continual learning Teamwork skills Communication and coordination, teamwork, interpersonal relations, work ethics, planning & organization Source: compiled by researchers. 3. Research design and implementation 3.1 Research structure Based on questions to be answered, and logical relations between methods, this study s structure is shown in Fig. 1. 4

5 Literature review Insurance education & core ability Input Research process Draft off-canpus internship core ability items and ability indicators for Modified Delphi method Appropriateness & importance of off-canpus internship core ability indicators for technological college Analytic Hierarchy Process Weights & importance sequence of off-campus internship core ability indicators for higher Concrete results Output 1. Construct off-campus internship core ability indicator structure for technological college insurance education 2. Analyze relative weights of off-campus internship core ability indicator structure for Fig.1: Research structure 3.2 Methodology 1. Modified Delphi Method When a Delphi team consists of more than 10 persons, it has the smallest error and the highest reliability (Brooks, 1979; Parente & Anderson-Parente, 1987). This study is based on criteria of statistics of conformance of opinions to serve as an indicator for expert questionnaire serveys. Conformance criteria adopted views from Fahety, Holden & Wedman, as shown in Table 2. In respect of conformance examination, if experts opinions were highly consistent or medium conformance, then this questionnaire was finished. Table 2. Criteria for conformance of this study Conformance degree High Medium Low Quartile (Q) Q <Q 1.00 Q>1.00 Source: Fahety (1979), Holden and Wedman (1993) 2. Analytic Hierarchy Process AHP was utilized to construct a weight system relative to ability indicators. In respect of research, it was designed to combine professional concepts, knowledge, and math statistics. By applying AHP to understand pairwise comparison matrixes and eigenvectors to determine relative weight of each affecting factors. Repetitive confirmation increased the questionnaire s reliability. Applying AHP, 5~15 experts were best (Zhen-Yuan Deng, 2005). (iii) Research subjects Name list for this study was selected by purposive sampling. And in order to give consideration to both the property insurance and the life insurance industry, 11 insurance firm directors were selected for this survey, including from human resource, office duty, and business department. In addition to 4 technological college insurance education senior researchers, expert questionnaires totaled 15 copies. 5

6 4. Research Results & Discussions 4.1 Results from modified Delphi In this study s secondary questionnaire, there were 18 items with which experts had a high consensus (86%), 3 items medium consensus (14%). Based on this study s criteria, if there were 85% of the items with which experts had a high to medium consensus, this questionnaire was completed. Therefore, this Delphi expert questionnaire was finished. For consensus statistics with this study s 2 questionnaires, see Table 3. Table 3. Statistics of conformance of off-campus internship core ability indicators with the 2 Delphi questionnaires in this study No. of items (percentage) Conformance First Second Intership High 7 (33%) 18 (86%) Core abilities Medium 13 (62%) 3 (14%) Ability indicator Low 1 (5%) 0 (0%) Source: Compiled by the researchers Results from the second implementation of Delphi method suggestst that the average score of importance of all items of off-campus core ability indicators for reached over The Foreign language ability indicator showed lowest in importance in the two surveys, we decided to delete it. Besides, both math ability and applying numbers ability were very close, they were combined into applying numbers and math ability to maintain basic abilities at 7 indicators. This corresponded to less than 7 in the number of elements contained in every hierarchy or sub-hierarchy in AHP. From above, this study has deleted 1 item ( foreign language ability ) and combined into 1 ability indicator (combine math ability and applying numbers ability into applying numbers and math ability ). We generalized 3 off-campus internship core ability items and 16 off-campus internship core ability indicators. 4.2 AHP questionnaire results 1. Relative weights of AHP survey results The core abilities indicator was divided into 3 off-campus internship ability items basic skills, personal management skills, and teamwork skills. After analyzing relative weights of the 3 ability items of the basic skills, conformance analysis of the questionnaire shows that the conformance rate (CR) was lower than 0.1 (CR = 0.00). This indicates conformance in questionnaire answering was relatively good. Besides, regarding relative weight analysis of ability items, relative weight of basic skills was 0.188; relative weight of personal management skills was 0.342; relative weight of teamwork skills was As a result, core abilities items in relative importance in order are teamwork skills, personal management skills, and basic skills. 2. Relative weights of off-campus internship core ability indicators for technological college insurance education 6

7 The basic skills ability item was divided into 7 indicators such as oral communication. In comparing their weights, CR was lower than 0.1 (CR = 0.01). This shows that conformance in questionnaire answering was relatively good. The personal management skills ability item was divided into 4 indicators including active attitude and behavior. In comparing their weights, CR was lower than 0.1 (CR = 0.01). This suggests that conformance in questionnaire answering was very good. The teamwork skills ability item was divided into 5 indicators such as communication & coordination. In comparing their weights, CR was lower than 0.1 (CR = 0.00). This indicates that conformance in questionnaire answering was very good. For relative importance of indictors on ability items, please refer to Table 4. Table 4. A comparison of general ability indicators of off-campus internship for Ability item Weight Sort Indicator Weight Sort Total weight Total sort Oral communication Verbal communication Reading Listening Basic skills Computer application Apply numbers & math ability Thinking & problem solving Active attitude & behavior Personal Time management management Creation & skills solving Continual learning Communication & coordination Teamwork Teamwork Interpersonal skills relations Work ethics Plan & organize activity Source: Compiled by the researchers General ability indicators dimension 4.3 Discussions This study found that among the off-campus internship core ability indicators, active attitude & behavior was most valued in order of importance, followed by communication & coordination, teamwork, and interpersonal relations, etc. Among the 5 indicators of teamwork skills, communication & coordination came in No.2 overall in importance, followed by No.4 teamwork and work ethics in juxtaposition, interpersonal relations No.7, planning & organizing activity No.11. 7

8 This shows that teamwork skills was highly important in off-campus insurance internship. Cassidy, Marshall & Hollman s (1998) research indicated that important skills in the insurance industry in the 21 st century includes teamwork skills, verbal & oral communication, listening, conflict solving, etc. Teamwork, listening, and conflict solving proposed by that research, echoes this study s off-campus internship core abilities teamwork (No.3) and listening (No.10). Research by Cassidy et al. (1998) shows that among the core abilities valued by the insurance industry, oral communication and verbal communication are highly important. Other important core abilities include: problem solving, problem defining, interpersonal skills, listening skills, reading, critical thinking, and so on. Among them, work ethics was put in the category of professional knowledge by the original authors. This study placed it in core abilities and was sorted very high in importance. Besides, interpersonal relations (No.5) in this study and interpersonal skills in that study were both sorted high in importance. This suggests work ethics and interpersonal relations are relatively important in workplace in the insurance industry and off-campus interniship. Moreover, oral communication and written communication are highly important. Oral communication (No.12) and written communication (No.14) in this study are not noticeable. Thinking and problem solving (N0.9), listening (No.10), reading (No.15) are not consistent with the above-mentioned study. This difference with this study may be because that study was not aimed at off-campus internship. 5. Conclusion And Suggestions 5.1 Conclusion 1. Off-campus internship core ability indicator structure for technological college insurance education and relative weights This study generalized an off-campus internship core ability indicator structure for and relative weights. Off-campus internship core ability items are in order of relative weights: teamwork skills, personal management skills, basic skills. Their off-campus internship core ability indicators include 16 indicators such as active attitude and behavior, as shown in Fig. 2. 8

9 Selection of criteria for off-campus internship core ability indicators Off-campus internship core ability item / relative weight Basic skills (.188) Personal management skills (.342) Off-campus internship core ability indicator / relative weight Thinking & problem solving (.262) Listening (.252) Oral communication (.150) Computer operation (.098) Written communication (.097) Reading (.072) Apply numbers & math (.069) Active attitude & behavior (.475) Continual learning (.238) Time management (.177) Creation and solving (.110) Communication & coordination (.258) Teamwork Teamwork (.206) skills (.471) Work ethics (.206) Fig. 2. Off-campus internship core ability indicator structure for technological college Interpersonal relations (.192) insurance education and AHP analysis Plan and organize activity (.137) 2. Order in importance of off-campus internship core ability indicators for This study found that general ability indicators for off-campus internship are sorted in importance and shown in Table 13. Table 13. Off-campus internship ability indicators sorted in importance for General abilities of off-campus internship 1. Active attitude & behavior 7. Plan & organize activity 13. Computer operation 2. Communication & coordination 8. Time management 14. Written communication 3. Teamwork 9. Thinking & problem solving 15. Reading 3. Work ethics 10. Listening 16. Apply numbers & math 5. Interpersonal relations (.090) 11. Creation & solving 6. Continual learning 12. Oral communication Source: Compiled by the researchers 5.2 Suggestions 1. Value internship content and plans corresponding to off-campus core ability indicators Taiwan s off-campus internship content was designed to highlight acquisition of professional knowledge more. In the future, it is suggested to integrate core abilities into internship content or activity and construct a further learning basis and life-long learning ability. For example, we suggest arranging training courses and internship like work ethics, interpersonal communication and expression training, workplace dressing code, to raise students employability (core abilities). 2. Suggestions on way and design of off-camp internship It is suggested that off-camp internship content adopt team discussions, role play, situational simulation, etc., in planning and design, to cultivate independent thinking, teamwork, communication and coordination, interpersonal relations, etc., in students. Besides, we suggest consulting experience of insurance internship programs promoted 9

10 in the United States. In general, student internship programs often allow observing (by shadowing observing) their job instructors and allowing interns to practice part of their basic job duties. REFERENCES Brooks, K. W. (1979). Delphi Technique: Expanding Applications. North Central Association Quarterly, 53(3), Carnevale, P. (1991). America and the new economy. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Cassidy, S. M., Marshall, R. A. & Hollman, C. (1998). Future Directions in Undergraduate Insurance Education: Academic and Real World Perspectives. Risk Management and Insurance Review, 2(1), Cheshier, P. A. & Heflin, T. (1997). The Class of 2000: Preparing the Risk and Insurance Employce for the 21 st Century. American Risk and Insurance Association meeting. Connecticut Chapter, The Society of CPCU. College Students Attitudes about Insurance. CPCU Journal, 46, Deng, Zhen-Yuan (2005). Plan Assessment Method and Application. Keelung: Logistics and Planning Center, National Taiwan Ocean University. Employability skills 2000+(2001), /learning-tools/employability-skills.htm(retrieve date: November 12, 2001) Faherty, V. (1979). Continuing Social Work Education: Results of a Delphi Survey. Journal of Educationfor Social Work, 15(1), Gardner, L. A. & Schmit, J. T. (1995). Collegiate Risk Management and Insurance Education, The Journal of Risk and Insurance, 62(4), Gardner, L. A. & Schmit, J. T. (1996). Student Internships Develop Jobs and Talent. Best s Review Property/Casualty Edition, 97(4), Gordon, R. A. & Howell, J. E. (1959). Higher Education for Business. New York: Columbia University Press. Gustavson, S. G.(1991).Crisis on the Campus. Best s Review Property/Casualry Ed. 91: No. 9, Holden, M. C. & Wedman, J. F. (1993). Future issues of computer-mediated communication: The results of a delphi study. Educational Technology Research and Development, 41(4), Huang, L.A. and Lai, L. H.(2011). A Review of technical and vocational education upgraded in Taiwan based on risk management, insurance and finance education. Contemporary Management Research, 7(3), Kearns, P. (2001). Review of research generic skills for the new economy. National Center for Vocational Education Research: Australia. Lai, L. H. and Huang, L.A.(2011). Change risk based on the RMI-related department in the technical and vocational education: The Taiwanese education viewpoint.the IUP Journal of Risk and Insurance, 8(4), Parente, F. & Anderson-Parente, J. (1987). Delphi Inquiry Systems. In Wright, G., & Ayton, P. (Eds.), Judgmental Forecasting. NY: John Wiley & Sons. Porter, L. & McKibbin, L. E. (1988). Management Education and Development. New York: McGraw-Hill. Rabel, W. H. (1992). A manual on how to manage an effective collegiate program in risk management and insurance. American risk and insurance association meeting. 10

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