Graduate generic competences from the perspective of VNU employers

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a shift to new ways of working, prompting companies to reimagine how, where and by whom work gets done (World Economic Forum & Watson, 2020). This shift was already under way with the technological changes of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Employers are looking for workers who are able to learn new knowledge and skills, adapt to the workplace, be sufficiently flexible to move jobs, and expand on the knowledge learnt at university. Applying the theory of generic competences and the model of thirteen generic competences for university graduates of the Tuning Asia - South East project (TASE), this research investigates the perspectives of VNU stakeholders about the generic competences of VNU graduates. In particular, this paper discusses the employers’ perspective of VNU graduates’ generic competences. Although employers rate all generic competences as important, they evaluated graduates’ achievement of seven generic competences as being at a less than satisfactory level. The findings of the research point to the need for the university to focus more on developing generic competences throughout the delivery of programs.

Keywords

• employer perspective
• graduates
• generic competences
• vietnam national university hanoi (vnu)