Here is an outline of the three things I would like to talk about today.
My master's topic can be defined as the career aspirations of 'non computer' based degree holders in TCD. I am in the process of surveying final year Pure Business students and final year History students to get their perceptions of the labour market in Ireland, their career aspirations and finally, their perceptions of what skills they have acquired over their four year degree with particular emphasis on how useful computer skills are for furthering their career opportunities. I have also conducted qualitative interviews with personnel officers in 7 organisations.
I have decided to research this issue because very little work has been carried out in Ireland on how third level students perceive their degrees and how useful they will be in getting them jobs.
Furthermore, while there has been a little more emphasis on the skills shortages that are occurring in the more technical side of third level education, there has been little or no emphasis put on the usefulness of 'non computer based' degree holders such as Business and Arts students and their potential contribution to the Information Society.
What will be their contribution to the Information Society?
Finally, I think that it is necessary to monitor any changes that might be occurring in the sorts of jobs that these graduates want. Early indicators show that Business students, in particular are widening their perceptions of what is no offer to them, this information may also be useful to how non computer degree holders can contribute to the Information Society's economy.
HOW?
This information has been and will be gathered in three ways:
I would like to make a few comments about the Information Society Ireland: Strategy for Action, Report of Ireland's IS Steering Committee published in 1997 and how it relates to my own research.
I am going to concentrate on the preliminary findings taken from qualitative interviews with Irish personnel officers in companies that are involved in Banking, Accountancy, Retailing, Consultancy and Computing and who claim to employ 'graduates of any discipline'. In short, I have focused my attention on the companies that are not employing technical graduates, but require graduates with general skills to fulfil the requirements of their organisations.
These interviews focused on the recruitment strategy for each organisation, and the type of skills that each company are looking for from the graduates that they recruit. In relation to the latter point, computer skills where not seen to be a significant factor for employing someone. In fact, all 7 personnel officers believed that computer skills were good skills to have but all graduates would be trained with the necessary PC skills once employed.
Of the 7 personnel officers interviewed, 2 stated that computer skills were important to the needs of their company, 4 cases stated that computer skills were neither important nor unimportant, and all stated that each graduate could be trained with computer skills.
Most personnel officers said that they expected most of the graduates to have good PC skills, most said that they thought the standards were quite good, but it would not be a reason for employing someone. The reason? The overall majority of interviewees said that computer based training could be done on-the-job.
Other skills such as interpersonal skills i.e. teamwork, analytical, communication, leadership, presentation and listening skills were seen to be essential to the graduates that they employ, and other attributes such as previous work experience, travelling and extra curricular activities were also rated much higher.
Furthermore, in focus group interviews with Business and History students, most students felt comfortable with using computers and all felt happy with experimenting with them for academic reasons and entertainment.
I am not suggesting that all graduates should not be computer literate. I believe that they should and I also believe that the levels of computer literacy in non-computer related degree courses is on the increase. For this reason, I do not think that the contribution that Arts, Business and Humanities graduates should be overlooked in relation to the Information Society. It has been clearly stated by both the HEA and IBEC that these graduates can make a significant contribution to the economy, I also believe that graduates that are not from specialised and technical backgrounds are as employable and useful to many Irish employers as those who fill more specialised roles by graduates from engineering and computer science backgrounds.
I also question the amount of time it will take students in the education system to be Information and Knowledge literate, from my findings I believe that a lot of computer training can be done quickly and on-the-job, so perhaps it might be a viable option for those involved in bringing the future Information Society into the present to focus on how rapidly they can teach all graduates the necessary skills now in order for them to be part of the envisioned Information Society.
email address: mbrttman@mail.tcd.ie