Transferable Skills as Facilitator for Placement amongst B School Students

 

Dr. B. Janakiraman

Professor, Department of Management Studies, Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, P.B.No:6429, Gollahalli, Govindapura, Yelahanka, Bangalore-560 064

 

ABSTRACT:

Transferable skills are capabilities which can be taken from one activity to another, like communication and time management skills. They are extremely valued by employers and a major priority for learning some of them during education. They play an important role in getting placement. Personal transferable skills are particularly important to the management graduates and are identified skills like communication skills, networking skills, teamwork skills, certainly position as the most imperative skills.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

As a B-School or MBA graduate hunting for employment, one might have come across the term transferable skills and be surprised without knowing the meaning of the term. This is a precise set of skills that don’t fit in to a particular position, industry or role; they are universal skills that can be transferred between roles, positions, departments and organizations. Employers often give importance to these skills because they can be utilized in many ways in the workplace. Transferable skills are those that one builds up as he/she progresses through employment, education or training. Communication, problem solving and teamwork are all illustrations of transferable skills because they can be applied in any role, education or vocational training. As such, it is significant that one stresses on his/her transferable skills in the resume and during the interview. These skills will be very successful in  persuading a potential employer about the suitability of one’s candidature for the position applied for, even if the candidate do not necessarily have the experience.

 

In order to prepare the students for their careers require the balance of technical and non-technical skills in the curriculum. The professions are very complex and constantly changing which makes the necessary preparations equally complex and dynamic according to Kavanagh and Drennan. (2008) Milner and Hill (2007), in their survey, found considerable vagueness over what exactly is meant by the word ‘skills’, with different views emanating on both the range and scope of skills and the positioning of skills.

 

Definition of Transferable skills:

The term ‘transferable’ is explained by other expressions like generic, transversal, and employability which makes its precise definition difficult. In the literature 'skills' are frequently mentioned as attributes, capabilities or competencies (Jones, 2010). Lack of clarity in defining Transferable skills is well acknowledged by The National Skills Strategy and providing alternative names such as horizontal skills, basic skills, soft skills or key skills add to its complexity according to (Forfás, 2007). Ballantine and McCourt Larres (2009:388) note that “transferable skills include a range of generic skills such as communication skills, written skills, interpersonal skills, critical, judgment and analytical skills” as there is no clear definition exists. Garvin et al., 1995; Greenan et al., 1997; Kennedy and Dull, 2008 also include skills such as teamwork, leadership, time-management, researching skills, ethics, conflict resolution and economic awareness.

 

Various transferable skills needed for B School students:

Critical thinking Skill:

Critical thinking is the capability to think clearly and logically, appreciating the rational connection between ideas. Critical thinking has been the subject of discussion since the time of Plato till today. Critical thinking might be depicted as the ability to involve in reflective and free thinking. In essence, in critical thinking one is expected to use the reasoning skill. Critical thinkers meticulously inquire ideas and theories rather than agreeing to them at face value. Critical thinkers will strive for identification, analysis and solution of problems in a systematic manner rather than by intuition or instinct.

 

Business Strategy:

Being aware of strategy in business is a basic skill, whether one is joining a small business or a large corporation. The term strategy is employed to explain a set of actions, plans and goals regarding how the business is going to compete in the actual market with their products or services.

 

Crafting a business strategy and executing it is not that simple, but understanding what is expected to accomplish this is important. This transferable skill is concerning comprehension of how to put together a strategy which contains careful planning, market knowledge and defining organizational objectives. These skills would be advantageous in any role.

 

Leadership and Team Management:

Leadership and team management requires taking charge and motivating others effectively to accomplish specific goals at individual, team and organization levels. Having leadership and team management skills will signify that you can successfully manage groups and entrust responsibilities, plan and organize a variety of assignments, solve problems and resolve conflict, craft and execute decisions and train others. These skills need not be workplace-related, but can be acquired through a group project, through internship experience or through voluntary work.

 

Problem Solving:

Every business comes across problems and if one can display his/her ability to solve problems, this will be a major advantage for one's application. Certain issues are simpler to solve than others and often they associate to the achievement of goals than the obstacles that prevent these goals from being achieved.

 

Teamwork Ability:

Collaborative working is sine-qua-non to any organization. Employers desire that their staff work together for the accomplishment of organizational goals. Teamwork requires accepting responsibility for one's work, receptive to other's ideas and suggestions, developing bondage with staff across the business and instituting communication channels to avoid duplication of work and sharing credit.  The organizational stff is expected work like members of a relay race.

 

Daa Analysis:

Data Analysis is a main task in many different organizations. Recognizing patterns, understanding patterns, metrics and ability to evaluate information will add value to the business. The difficulty of analysis will depend on the organization and the exact role, but an aptitude to unravel information, digging out results from the data and developing reports is a precious transferable skill. Ability to utilize databases to collect data, analyze it and then decipher the information that has been collected etc will enhance contribution of the role occupant to the organization.

 

Communication Skills:

Being able to communicate perfectly is the most important employability skill for management students. Verbal communication is about communicating precisely and succinctly with others, be it a customer or a colleague. In the organizational context one will be called for to present information to a variety of audiences both within and outside the business. Being able to communicate clearly to even people who do not have an understanding of one's work, expressing one’s ideas in a rational, structured and effective way is important.

 

Written communication is also vital. Good writing skills are as significant as oral communication skills. Employees will be required to prepare reports and describe specific details regarding products, services and business operations. Predominantly written communications are created to persuade the reader to take some action, hence natural ability to write persuasively and engage the reader is needed in written communication skill.

 

Presentation skills can be utilized in a variety of environments like team meetings, client presentations, one-on-one meetings with a supervisor, individual staff evaluations, and committee meetings, Presentation skills are central because the presenter has to understand the audience and accordingly ascertain what information will be most essential and pertinent to them for the desired outcome.

 

Time Management:

Time management is the way in which one budgets and plans his /her time to perform certain tasks. Time management enhances productivity, meaning that more work can be completed in less time. Good time management includes planning the day, reducing distractions and performs regular reviews and time-audits to ensure progress. A major factor in time management is prioritization, and it is only with practice that one can learn to prioritize the activities more precisely, concentrating on the most urgent activities rather than less important tasks. Ability to prioritize also shows that one has a strong balancing ability and knows to differentiate between what is important and what is urgent.  These skills like time management and ability to prioritize are universal in nature and appreciated in all organizations.

 

Commercial Awareness:

Business awareness or commercial awareness is having a thorough knowledge of the market place in which the business or service is carried out and an appreciation of what contributes to business success. This skill demands demonstration of exercising sound judgment and having a good work ethic. This skill involves understanding the sector to which organization belongs, awareness of the political and economic issues affecting the organization, awareness about the competitors and an understanding of the commercial priorities of the organization.

 

Listening and Providing Feedback:

Listening is the capability to comprehend and decode messages and it is vital to all communication. Poor listening skills lead to a break in the communication process, and also irritation or frustration on the part of the sender. Better listening skills - and the resultant feedback - can increase service quality, augment productivity and pave way for better information sharing.

 

Initiative and Resilience Skills:

Initiative requires going beyond the job description. It means not being solely concentrated on routine work but looking out for opportunities and offering ideas for the growth of the organization. Often companies fetch people with diverse skills than promoting from within because they bring in fresh ideas which help the growth of the company. Resilience is a basic quality required for future workers. As companies experience ever-increasingly swift changes, resilience will turn out to be vital to employees and organizations.

 

Intrapreneurial Skills:

Entrepreneurship education in the university curriculum is of recent origin. Harvard Business School was the leader in 1947 to introduce a basic course on entrepreneurship. (Volkmann 2004) From then on entrepreneurship programmes are proliferated globally and it has been predicted that entrepreneurship programmes will turn into one of the most important academic branch of learning for business education in the years to come especially in the light of ‘Make in India’ initiatives. Intrapreneurs are employees working in a company who assumes responsibility for converting a concept into a profitable business proposition through calculated risk taking and innovation. In other words Intrapreneurs are employees who think putting himself in the shoes of an entrepreneur.

 

Listening Skills:

The working environment is highly cutthroat, and employers are hunting for employees with vibrant and adaptable skills. One can work on developing explicit skills that will permit him /her to match the expectations of the employer. One such adaptable skill is Listening skill. A good listener will be valuable as he/she will accomplish things effectively in organizations. Active listening includes, besides listening, comprehending and appreciating what the other person is saying. Hence this skill provides an edge over the other employees.

 

Networking skills:

An often unnoticed skill, networking skill nurtured by participating in study group discussions and more can facilitate running meetings in organizations smoothly, develop customer relations and improve inter-personal relations in organizations.

 

Decision- making skills:

The decision making process in an organization depends on leadership style and culture of the organization. Various organizations use various approaches of decision making from centralized to consensus-based approach. A thorough reading of the job description will facilitate the understanding what kind of decision making skills the employer is looking for and emphasizing the same.

 

Planning skills:

Planning skills facilitate one to foresee organizational needs and to achieve organizational objectives. Transferable skills in planning may include identification of needs and required resources to achieve the organizational objectives. This skill demands information gathering, forecasting, envisioning and envisaging the business environment constantly.

 

Negotiation and Persuasion skills:

Persuading requires ability to convince others to take suitable action. Negotiating necessitates discussion and reaching a mutually acceptable agreement. Influencing includes both of these.

 

 

Work Survival Skills:

Accepting responsibility, attending to details and punctuality are the hallmark of the work survival skills. Such people are capable of enlisting help and they always set and meet deadlines.  They are liked by all due to their cooperative nature and objective orientation.

 

Importance of Transferable skills:

Personal empowerment is feasible as it facilitates using and applying one’s specific knowledge acquired during higher education. For example effective presentation of discipline specific data is facilitated if one knows SPSS well. Enabling one to perform different roles than what for he/she had been educated is possible through one’s transferable skills. For example though one is qualified in psychology he may do social work comfortably if his interpersonal skills are high.

 

Transferable skills are mutually complimentary in nature. For example listening, which is an interpersonal skill is closely connected with one’s communication skill also. Transferable skills are the record of skill assets that help one to move into and stand out in a new role. These skills guarantee your professional buoyancy and the robustness and endurance in one's career. Moreover these skills permit one to more easily and willingly search lateral magnitudes in one's career and attain added skills and expertise. While highly specific skills may be needed  to build one's competitive advantage and ensure accomplishment  in a particular position or organization, it is the transferable skills that guarantee he/she  do not become professionally stagnant or obsolete over time. If one wants to acquire a good job opportunity, he/she has to demonstrate a precise set of skills required for the position. Some of these skills will be particular to the industry whereas others (transferable skills) are those that one can  cultivate and widen throughout his/her career. Transferable skills are likely to fetch the following advantages for both the candidates and the employers:

 

·      Flexibility:

In an ever more competitive jobs market, organizations crave to recruit employees who can diversify and finish multiple tasks and roles. When one has a diverse skill set, this will position him/her apart from the other applicants and shows he/she has  immense flexibility.

 

·      Diversity:

The more transferable skills one has, the more diversity he/she can put forward to the prospective employer. The experiences that one had during his/her studies, work experience or academic projects would permit him/her to cultivate variety of skills, many of which can be applied in any role.

 

 

·      Portability:

The nature of transferable skills means they can be carried with oneself when he/she  move jobs. As the career progress happens, the skills that one possesses currently will widen and new ones will be gained too.

·      Employability:

Even if one has very modest experience, building an impressive curriculum vitae around his/her transferable skills will fortify the chances of success. Although direct work experience is not there, these transferable skills will reveal that adapting to new demands is not that difficult.

 

The importance and relevance of transferable skills is now recognised not only by higher education institutions and professional industry bodies, but also by governments and accrediting bodies for quality assurance (Treleavan and Voola, 2008).

 

Review of Literature:

McKinlay, B (1976) conducted an appraisal of various methods for grouping jobs, and their use for identifying the components of commonality involved when people make career changes and comprehending better the elements of occupational adaptability and skill transfer. An exploratory study was conducted by Ashley, W. L., and Ammerman, H. L (1978) for  testing the utility of three classification schemes in recognizing  the transferable characteristics of tasks in varied occupations.

 

According to Chan (2012) in the dynamic knowledge based society of today, the employers expectations for employability of skills of candidates have gone up considerably which resulted in many unresolved issues regarding generic skills.

 

There is incongruity on the definition of transferable skills. A variety of expressions have been used interchangeably to define the concept of generic skills opined Barrie. (2005). Secondly, academic practice does not match the  expectations of employers in respect of  B School graduates. Although employers anticipate B school graduates to be skillful in generic skills, it is tough to incorporate transferable skills into university curriculum because these skills are dependent on the context and their application varies among different fields. According to the Stewart and Knowles’s (2001) study of firms in Greater Nottingham, the small enterprises gave more importance on graduates having a range of transferable skills than the larger companies.

 

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

1.    To bring to the fore the importance of transferable skills among B School students for getting placed.

2.    To identify and list the skills where the students are relatively stronger.

3.    To identify and list the skills where the students are relatively not that stronger and suggest ways to improve their skill sets.

 

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The validity of any research depends on the systematic method of collecting the data and analyzing the same logically and sequentially. An extensive use of both primary and secondary data was made in the present study. The present study has been mainly based on survey method. Primary data have been collected by issuing questionnaires directly to the student respondents who are studying post graduate degree in management. Totally 100 students were chosen. The data so collected has been analyzed using mean scores for each skill with the help of statistical package for social sciences.

 

Limitations of the Study:

A limitation of this study lies in its small sample size. However there exists the potential for studying these skill sets for a wider population and in other sectors as well. Additional research and inquiry on transferable skills is certainly needed, may be including some more factors.

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

A questionnaire was prepared covering the identified elements of skill sets of transferable skills by the author, who plans individual profiling service in future. All the 20 elements of transferable skills in the questionnaire of the present study were subjected for mean value analysis to find out the skill sets where the students are stronger and where they are found wanting.

 

TABLE NO.1.0 shows the reliability statistics and proves the data could support 90.4 percentage reliable to do this analysis. The developed questionnaire has undergone Cronbach Alpha testing for testing its reliability and the value is given below:

 

TABLE NO.1.0 Reliability Statistics:

Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's Alpha	Cronbach's Alpha Based on Standardized Items	N of Items
.904	.908	100

 

Data is collected from 100 post graduate students studying for a management degree. The mean values were calculated and the same is given below in Table 1.1.

 

 

Table 1.1.  Transferable skills among B. School Students

		Critical Thinking skills	Analytical /Research skills	Problem solving skills	Oral Communication skills	Written communication skills	Presentation skills	Networking skills	Listening skills	Intrapreneurial skills	Time Management skills
Mean		3.562	3.642	3.736	3.704	3.508	3.550	3.700	3.908	3.778	3.626
Median		3.600	3.700	3.800	3.800	3.600	3.600	3.700	4.000	3.800	3.600
Mode		3.600	4.000	4.200	4.000	3.600	4.000	3.600	3.80a	4.000	3.60a
Std. Deviation		0.559	0.462	0.542	0.528	0.585	0.522	0.498	0.496	0.454	0.565
Percentiles	25	3.200	3.400	3.400	3.400	3.200	3.200	3.400	3.600	3.400	3.200
	50	3.600	3.700	3.800	3.800	3.600	3.600	3.700	4.000	3.800	3.600
	75	4.000	4.000	4.200	4.000	3.950	4.000	4.150	4.200	4.000	4.000

 

 

 

Table 1.1 Cont........

		Team work skills	Decision Making skills	Planning skills	Conflict Resolution skills	Leadership skills	Negotiation/Persuasion skills	Information Management skills	Work Survival skills	Quantitative/Technology skills	Imitative resilience skills
Mean		3.800	3.812	3.856	3.730	3.838	3.758	3.548	3.810	3.602	3.523
Median		4.000	3.800	4.000	3.800	4.000	3.800	3.600	4.000	3.600	3.500
Mode		4.000	3.800	4.000	3.800	4.000	4.200	3.800	4.000	3.200	3.500
Std. Deviation		0.829	0.494	0.454	0.482	0.503	0.506	0.485	0.534	0.701	0.555
Percentiles	25	3.250	3.600	3.600	3.450	3.400	3.200	3.400	3.200	3.250	3.250
	50	4.000	3.800	4.000	4.000	3.800	3.600	4.000	3.600	3.500	3.500
	75	4.000	4.200	4.200	4.200	4.200	3.800	4.200	4.200	4.000	4.000

 

 

 

 

Chart No. 1. Transferable skills among B School Students

 

 

FINDINGS OF THE STUDY:

From the study the following findings were drawn:

1.    The study has found out that listening skills, planning skills and leadership skills are relatively higher amongst management students.

2.    Skills like written communication skills, presentation skills, critical thinking skills, information management skills, initiative taking and resilience skills are relatively found wanting.

 

SUGGESTIONS:

By taking initiatives like Writing short sentences which are easier and graduating to write short paragraphs with clarity looking for potential pitfalls and removing them Written communication skills can be developed. Gradually a student can work on multiple topics so that expertise is increased.

 

Developing presentation skill is not that easy as public speaking is universal in nature. Initiatives like rehearsing the presentation multiple times, attending presentations by others so that the strategies and tactics can be emulated, not attempting to cover a great deal of  material in too little a time, actively engaging the audience, using humour wherever possible and joining clubs like toastmaster may facilitate developing this skill.

 

Critical thinking involves theorizing, employing, examining, synthesizing, and assessing information generated by, scrutiny, experience, manifestation, rationalizing, and communication. Initiatives like understanding the links connecting ideas, establishing the significance and weight of arguments, distinguishing, constructing and appraising differing contentions, identifying instability and inaccuracies in reasoning and move toward problems in a steady and methodical way. Capturing the available opportunities, cooling down when upset, building competence, starting networking and creating connections and self motivation are some of the strides that can be adopted by students to develop initiative and resilience skills.

 

CONCLUSION:

The transferable skills tenets are becoming increasingly relevant and critical for one’s success in the realm of placement in today’s dynamic, tech-savvy business arena. Improved skill sets and the ability to effectively use it in the present by bringing the right relevance and ability to foresee the course of direction the business is heading only can pave way for one’s career success.

 

REFERENCES:

1.     Altman, J. W. (1976) described the facilitators of transfer while studying the transferability of occupational skills.

2.     Altman, J. W. Transferability of vocational skills: Review of literature and research ( Info. Series No.103). Columbus: The Ohio State University, The Center for Vocational Education, October1976

3.     Ashley, W. L., and Ammerman, H. L.  (1978).Identifying transferable skills:  A task classification approach.  Columbus, OH:  The National Center for Research in Vocational Education, The Ohio State University

4.     Ballantine, J., and McCourt Larres, P. (2009). Accounting Undergraduates’ Perceptions of Cooperative Learning as a Model for Enhancing their Interpersonal and Communication Skills to Interface Successfully with Professional Accountancy Education and Training. Accounting Education, 18 (4-5), 387-402

5.     Barrie, S. C. (2005). Rethinking generic graduate attributes. HERDSA news, 27(1), 1-6.

6.     Chan, C. K. Y. (2012a). Identifying and understanding the graduate attributes learning outcomes in a case study of community service experiential learning project. International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life Long Learning, 22(1), 148-159.

7.     Fisher, A. G. and Jones, K. B. (2010). Assessment of Motor and Process Skills. Vol. 1 Development, Standardization, and Administration Manual (7th ed.) Fort Collins, CO: Three Star Press.

8.     Kavanagh, M., and Drennan, L. (2008). What skills and attributes does an accounting graduate need?

9.     Evidence from student perceptions and employer expectations. Accounting and Finance, 48 (2), 279-300.

10.   McKinlay, B. Characteristics of Jobs that are Considered Common. Columbus, Ohio. Center for Vocational Education. 1976

11.   Milner, Margaret M. and Hill, Wan Ying, Examining the Skills Debate in Scotland (August 2007).

12.   Stewart, J. and Knowles, V. (2000a) Graduate Recruitment and Selection Practices in Small Businesses, Career Development International, 5(1), pp. 21-38

 

 

 

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