Employability and Higher Education. How to Match Students’ expectations ?

1. HOLY SPIRIT UNIVERSITY OF
KASLIK
Employability and Higher Education
How to Match Students’ expectations ?
UNIMED General Assembly
Oct. 22, 2015

2. Employability: A Growing Challenge in Higher
Education
Market Needs and Employability Challenges
Moving market
needs and
globalization
Students’ expectations
Facing employment
difficulties, students
consider more and
more university as a
passport to find a job
Students and parents
look for universities
which will provide
students with the best
skills to be employable
Universities
Universities have to face this growing
challenge and to contribute to
the professional integration of students
Universities should provide their
students with technical and professional
skills but also with transferable skills
('soft skills‘) that can be transferred
between different jobs and different
employment sectors.
New emerging
words in Higher
Education:
enterprises,
university-industry
partnerships,
employability,
professionalization
etc.

3. Employability: A Growing Challenge in Higher
Education
A report published by QS and based
on a survey and a series of focus
groups involving prospective students
shows the importance of
“Employability” as a top priority
when choosing between universities.
“Employability” would be the most
important indicator in the ranking as
perceived by students by these
students.
QS Ranking “The Best Universities According to Employers”
Times Higher Education Global Employability University Ranking
The Guardian “Top universities 2015 for employability”
Global Employability Ranking by Emerging (France)
New rankings that are currently
emerging confirm the growing
importance of employability in
Higher Education Trendence (Germany) consulting firms.
http://www.topuniversities.com/blog/what-would-student-created-university-ranking-look

4. Accreditation agencies collect information about employers’ expectations
and market needs in order to include criteria related to students’
professional skills
Employability: A Growing Challenge in Higher
Education
Example: ABET Accreditation
http://www.abet.org/about-abet/history/

5. Prepare Students to Be Employable
Theoretical courses and practical work (lab work, traineeships, research projects and
multidisciplinary team creation projects, etc.), in addition to providing the basic general knowledge
needed to equip graduates within vocational circles and within society.
A wide choice of hi-tech trainings and specializations, which are adapted to the labor market needs
and to the community’s requirements
Personalization of the students’ training: The academic course of each student is adapted to
his/her personal and vocational project.
USEK aims not only to educate students who could find a job shortly after their
graduation, but rather to provide them with the skills to be employable in a long-term
perspective and make them able to learn by themselves even after their graduation:
Transferable skills.
USEK programs: Curricula and learning outcomes are developed in such a way as to
prepare future graduates to the labor market.

6. Orientation and Admission
USEK starts its employability
mission since the admission
phase. It provides potential
future students with
information about job
openings of each program in
order to guide them in their
orientation.
Prepare Students to Be Employable

7. Professional Orientation and Career Services
Prepare Students to Be Employable
 The Career Office has been established at USEK in order to help
students to be well prepared to find a job after their graduation
 The Career Office has developed a 4 year career plan in order to guide
USEK students to build their professional project
 The Career Office is also in charge of developing strong ties with
companies and enhance university-industry partnerships

8. On-Campus Interviewing Program
OCIP
•Preliminary interviews
between students and
employers
•A networking event
Career Panel Discussion
• Encounter with HR specialists,
successful alumni, businessmen,
and professional experts from
different fields
• An opportune moment for the
students to interact with
panelists on what does the job
entail
• Career challenges to meet the
job market requirements
Resources
• Resources to current students
and fresh USEK graduates for
opportunities as well as a
lifelong career development
plan
Professional Orientation and Career Services
Prepare Students to Be Employable

9. Internationalization
Global learning outcomes ; Language policy; International and intercultural skills ; Partnerships
with international companies ; Internships abroad
USEK
Students…
Debate and express their point of view in a foreign language
Demonstrate strong writing and communication skills in several
languages (with professional vocabulary)
Compete in today’s job market both nationally and internationally
Adapt their vocabulary and their practices to interact with people from
different cultures
Demonstrate knowledge and curiosity in other cultures
Adapt and live in a diverse society, are more internationally minded and
able to understand concepts of intercultural communication
Prepare Students to Be Globally Employable

10. Internationalization
Global learning outcomes; Language policy; International and intercultural skills; Partnerships
with international companies; Internships abroad
Prepare Students to Be Globally Employable
EXAMPLE
Faculty of Medicine
22 USEK students who were
residents in hospitals
abroad have been
graduated in 2015
35 USEK students are
currently in hospitals
abroad for their residency
program

11. - The creation of a web site in order to inform students and potential
students about existing subjects in each university involved in the project
and about the employment available in each country. The dissemination of
such information in secondary schools and higher education institutions
aims to effectively help students in the process of choosing their future
university according to their professional goals.
- The creation of an employment center in each of the partner
universities, led by a trained administrative staff. One of the main purposes
of this center is to guide the students in their discovery of the employment
market and tutor them in all the procedures regarding their professional
integration ( e.g. resume writing, getting ready for interviews).
OIPULES Tempus Project
Orientation et insertion professionnelle dans les universités du Liban, d'Egypte
et de SyrieSelected in 2011
Coordinator: Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie – Bureau Moyen-Orient
Institutions from: Roumania, Portugal, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria
Objective

12. http://pmb.lb.auf.org/
OIPULES Tempus Project
“Orientation et insertion professionnelle dans les universités du Liban,
d'Egypte et de Syrie’’

13. Enhancing and reinforcing the role and potential of HEIs in the development
of employability in the Mediterranean countries by adopting a transversal
entrepreneurial mind-set at the HEIs and by opening and structuring the
dialogue between the universities, the enterprises and policy makers
RESeaU Méditerranéen pour l’Employabilité - Erasmus+ Project
Selected in 2015
Coordinator: Unimed
Institutions from: Italy, Spain, France, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia
RESUME Erasmus+ Project
Objective