Instructional Technology
Conference 2007

Title: Are the skills employers want the skills colleges should be teaching?

Name: Ronald D. Paige

Audience Level: all

Audience: Faculty, Curriculum Designers, Instructional Designers

Length: 50-60 minutes

Abstract:
What skills should colleges teach students entering a high-tech, constantly changing workplace? A quantitative evaluation of employer identified skills will turn up very different instructional criteria than a qualitative examination of individual learning in the workplace. Which skill set should colleges be basing instruction upon? Both. By combining research data from two separate workplace studies, the relationship is explained between the need for structured, task-specific skill-building and the learner’s need for meta-cognitive evaluation skills.

Description:
Are the skills employers want the skills employees need? Or, educationally speaking, what skills should colleges be teaching students who are entering a high-tech and constantly changing workplace? A quantitative look at the skill set being sought by employers looks very different from the skill set a qualitative review of actual workplace learning turns up. Which skill set should colleges be basing instruction upon? Both. Too often, however, the qualitative perspective is ignored or misinterpreted. This presentation is strongly rooted in Bandura’s Social Learning Theory that focuses on the role of individual agency during learning and on Lave and Wenger’s Social Practice Theory that focuses on the negotiated aspects of learning situated within a community of practice. By combining as opposed to contrasting these two seminal learning theories, a compromise arises that helps explain the relationship between the need for structured, task-specific skill-building strategies on the one hand and the learner’s great need for meta-cognitive evaluation skills on the other. The presentation compares research data obtained from two separate workplace studies, a 2006 quantitative study conducted in California and a 2006 qualitative study conducted in New York. The California study, Digital Media Skills: in Demand across California Industry Sectors, was sponsored by the statewide Multimedia & Entertainment Initiative (MEI), part of the Economic and Workforce Development Program. Conducted by a group from various community colleges, the California study was assembled quantitatively from over 1,200 qualified respondents. The study co-coordinator was John Avakian, statewide director of MEI. The New York study, The Role ofSelf-Directed Informal Learning during Career Development, was conducted by the presenter as partial fulfillment for his doctor of philosophy degree in education. The extensive narrative responses of 13 purposefully selected respondents were coded both categorically and holistically to uncover how individuals continue to learn career-related information once they enter the workplace. During the presentation data representing employer needs, technology skills, and actual workplace learning scenarios are compared. The outcomes could and should represent important insights for curriculum building for 21 st century colleges.

Session Type: Lecture/Presentation

Contact information/affiliation:
Ronald D. Paige, Director for Instructional Technology,
Cleveland State Community College
Cleveland, TN
rpaige@clevelandstatecc.edu