Impact of Education on the Labor Market - Essay Example

? Education and Organizational Change Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 DECLARATION 3 EDUCATION, ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND LABOR MARKET 3 Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 4 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5 2.1 Labor market and human capital 5 2.2 Labor markets and educational gap 6 2.3 Education quality 7 2.4 The changing demands 8 Chapter 3: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 8 3.1 Graduates survey 9 3.2 Employers’ survey 9 Chapter 4: ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA 10 4.1 Data 10 4.2 Data analysis and Interpretation 12 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION, OBSERVATION AND RECOMMENDATION 12 5.1 Conclusions 12 5.2 Observations 13 5.3 Recommendations 13 Bibliography 15 DECLARATION I hereby declare this report entitled EDUCATION, ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND LABOR MARKET is my own effort and has not been plagiarized Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION Labor markets are strongly related to education. High levels of literacy can improve the quality of the workforce. The current demands in the labor market require a decisive approach. The changes in the labor market necessitate proportional alternations in the education systems and curriculum1. The process of measuring the educational disparities must take into consideration the socio-economic implications and the needs of the labor market. Productive employment calls for investment in human resources and the requisite competences. This calls for educational system change. This can be attributed the central role that education plays in social equity and economic productivity. Increasing the number of schooling years is perceived to be one of the strategies of ensuring that education grows to meet the changing demands of the labor markets. The education system has been blamed for being discriminatory. Children from poor background have minimal access to education. This makes the labor market a preserve of the wealthy in the society. The inequalities in the education system have had a negative impact on the poor in the developed and developing countries. Access to training skills and improving access to early childhood have a profound effect of the learning in the schools and job market2. This has also led to the evolution of wage gaps and stratification of the society based on the economic well being. The labor market is keen to have qualified personnel while to education system is ready to offer quality education at expensive fees. The current labor market is segmented along low and high education levels. This has also created an exclusive club of the highly paid with multiple benefits against the lowly paid with minimal benefits. Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Labor market and human capital Addressing education is a complex affair. It must address the various levels of education and the necessary changes at each level. There is an insufficiency in terms of supply for the qualified or specialized personnel. Most of the trained young workers tend to lack the competencies that accompany their workplace job prescriptions. Employers blame the education systems from producing half-baked graduates. There is an urgent need to drastically change the education system of the public sector in order to improve quality. This can inject a level of equality into the education system and introduce the expected changes into the labor market. Organizations believe that productivity is closely related to the quality of employees and competencies3. The needs and the standards of the labor market have been growing and evolving over the decades. This has been attributed to the emerging wave of globalization and technological turbulence over the years. However, the education system has remained unchanged and unresponsive to the changing demands of the labor market. The tertiary education and post-secondary systems have need been customized to meet the expectation of the labor markets4. This has affected organizational performance and the national productivity in many economies. Universities are basing education on commercial rather that competence ideologies5. This has caused a reduction of scientists and engineers. Organizations believe that developing responsive technical knowledge is necessary because it can affect the productivity and employment levels. The policies for technical knowledge demand strategic changes in the current educational systems. The process of globalization is perceived to be speeding the need for education change. There is a growing need to exploit natural resources from home grown educational competencies. This is likely to lead to technical innovation and competitiveness in terms of the use of knowledge. Oil and natural gas resources greatly depend on the competencies available and the availability of cheap labor. There is a relationship between education systems and organizational profitability. The quality of education affects the provision of skilled jobs and the wages within a country. Firms are beginning to develop strong relationships with schools. This aims at long term success in the process of improving capacity and ensuring that students are trained to meet the needs of the labor market. The organizations are therefore given a change to suggest the necessary changes in the education system to ensure the demands of the job market are adequately addressed. This makes it easy to the educational changes to be proportional to organizational changes to needs of the labor markets. There has been a concern that the labor market lacks factual information on the theory of the need for educational change. This can be attributed to the notion that educational systems are supposed to prepare students for flexibility and ability to learning depending of the labor market situation. The labor market expects specialists who are competent. This is attributed to the need to cut on training cost and saving the time. 2.2 Labor markets and educational gap The growing competitive environment is the labor market is also reflected in the education system. The education systems are expected to serve the direct and the indirect clients. Students are perceived to be the direct clients while the employers are the indirect clients. Higher education quality is multifaceted. It is expected to give coherence to education curriculum. This means that the students are expected to be satisfied after judging the quality of the education system. This majorly depends of the short-term components which are in most cases tangible6. The employers speak on behalf of the job markets. They believe that graduates should have the ability to meet the demands of the labor market and perform the work-place tasks with a reasonable ease7. Most of the student believes that education systems should prepare them to get integrated into the labor market. This gives them high expectations on the educational curriculum. The employers have expectations that graduates should be the able to meet the specific competencies needed by companies. This means that the graduates should develop skills that allow them to fit into the labor market with customized abilities to deliver on the expected roles. The gap between the reality and the expectation has generated discomfort between the stakeholders in the education systems and the labor market. There is growing gap between organizational necessities from an individual or graduate and the delivery of the services offered by the higher education institutions. 2.3 Education quality The demands in the labor market have been changing. This can be attributed to the changes that organizations are undergoing. Changes in education systems are the only option is graduates are to remain relevant in the current job market. The recent trends in globalization have had a profound effect on the education outcomes. The demand for skilled labor has shifted owing to the technological changes8. Education must be perceived as a productive input in the acquisition of knowledge and skills that affect the job market. The individual stock of production is an asset to the economic growth. The education systems involved in the preparation for labor market competencies involve multiple levels of formal schooling and job trainings. Years of schooling are used to assess the level of skills needed in the labor market. The quality of education must address the long-term preparation for competencies and the development of specialized competencies to meet the demands of the modern developments. 2.4 The changing demands There are growing demands for skilled workforce. This has been occasioned by the technological changes and integration of the world economy. This demand is driven by the need to expand technologies and remain relevant in the future. The ability to gather and process information has led to knowledge-based economies. The skills needed to perform tasks have been changing. Occupations continue to be in demand. Some jobs are becoming obsolete while others are growing in demand. The changing demands in the organizational performances have caused the education systems to reconsider the training and skills imparted to graduates. There is a dynamic change in terms skills mixture. Graduates are required to have problem solving skills as opposed to the traditional approach of repetitive duties in the office9. The labor market is looking for performance based competencies as opposed to the conventional duty performances. Many governments are introducing technology at the earliest level of schooling with an aim of encouraging innovation. Early childhood development programs are being made compulsory. Education policies are being altered from early childhood to ensure the future workforce is empowered to achieve the national economic vision. Chapter 3: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY The report presents empirical studies of two surveys conducted among graduates and employers. They process involved using collection mechanisms for primary data and indicators. The graduates and employers were used as the respective audiences in the process of preparation. In conduction this research, qualitative research is preferred because of the precision and accuracy. 3.1 Graduates survey The main purpose of using graduates was to assess the level of competences and preparation from the education system of university or tertiary learning institutions. The study was used to assess the nature of experiences and skills imparted in the process of preparation for the labor market10. The students were also expected to give an idea of their assessment of the quality of education and the changes that can lead to increased performance in the labor market. A number of students were expected to state their experiences in the labor market. The study was conducted through questionnaires and collection of data through internet. A total number of 14 students filled the questionnaires out of 15. 3.2 Employers’ survey The perception of employers was expected to play a central role in the process of finding out the changes expected while dealing with organizational and education change. Employers were expected to give an idea of their experience after employing graduates from the same university for three years. Employers were provided with structured questionnaires of with questions on their assessment of the level of competencies of graduates and in general the education system. Chapter 4: ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA 4.1 Data A total of 10 students said they were not very confident with facing the labor market even after completing the university education. Three students said they were very confident. Half of the students said they expected the education system to have a better outcome when they reported at the beginning of the course. One student said he did not expect an effective training in the faculty. Four students said there are satisfied with the education system and the level of skills imparted in their faculty. Only two students said totally satisfied with the university training and were fully confident in meeting the demands of the labor market. This touched on the professional knowledge acquired in the course of the university training. Out of 15 employers, only 6 said they were satisfied with the quality of training the graduates acquired. Those who proposed a change of education system to make it relevant in the labor market were 10. The other 4 said they did not need a change of the education system. Only 1 employer said he was totally satisfied with graduate’s capability to solve problems. This means that 85 percent of the employers wanted graduates to show a greater capability to solve problems and to be creative. This is tied to the number of employers looking for team work. Only 7 employers were satisfied with teamwork capabilities of the graduates. A pie chart of graduate sentiments Fig 1 A graph of the number of employers and graduates verses labor market competencies Fig 2 4.2 Data analysis and Interpretation Most of the students did not have confidence in the skills taught in the education institutions. This was confirmed by the performance record from the employers. Given that only 3 out of 14 students believed they were adequately prepared. This exposed the weakness of the education system. It also consolidated the need to have changes in the education system in order to bring organizational change. Only 15 percent of the employers were confident with the performance of the graduate employees. Most of the employers said that graduates needed creativity, problem solving skills and team working. The survey revealed that 7 students suggested that a change of the education system can be a remedy for the changing demands of the labor market. Chapter 5: CONCLUSION, OBSERVATION AND RECOMMENDATION 5.1 Conclusions The research revealed that employers and graduates tend to have similar expectations with regard to the proposed changes in the education system in order to meet the labor market needs and organizational demands. Graduates are uncomfortable approaching the labor market and organizations when they feel incompetent. This suggests that graduates need practical skills and abilities. Most employers feel graduates lack the competences that can attract them to the labor market. These include communication skills, creativity, problem solving techniques and team work11. Employers are likely to conclude that such skills come through field experience in organizations. Employers and graduates believe that a change of the education system is likely to bring the much needed results in organizations and labor market at large. 5.2 Observations The expectations of the students are changing rapidly. Most of the graduates prefer a curriculum that prepares them for the labor market realities as opposed to conventional concepts that have need outdates. The research showed that the education system cannot entirely ignore the contribution from employers especially with regard to the proposed changes. Employers should be perceived as part of stakeholders in the education fraternity. The research indicated that technology is the greatest factor that has necessitated change in both the education system and the labor market. Therefore, developing new curriculum must be based on the prospects of technological changes in the coming decades. 5.3 Recommendations The government should consider investing strategically in the education changes. This strategy should include hiring teachers, training and subsidizing the cost of education12. This would increase access to education among the members of different levels of the society. The investment in education should start from early childhood education to tertiary education. The education system should be flexible to accommodate the growing demands in the labor market. These demands are shaped by technological advancement and globalization. Graduates are expected to understand the labor market dynamics and develop relevant solutions. The education system is directly proportional to organizational change. This means that strategic change in education system should aim at providing solutions to the organizational and labor market performance. It is recommended that the labor market representatives should be considered in the process of altering education systems. The disparities between the public and private education can hurt the quality of education. This is because the gap between the rich and the poor is attributed to this disparity. It also leads to stratification of education quality and strife. Economic and social equality must be addressed before any meaningful change is introduced in the education system and labor market. Bibliography Chiarella, Carl. Disequilibrium, Growth, and Labor Market Dynamics: Macro Perspectives. Berlin: Springer, 2000. Conrad, Cecilia A. Building Skills for Black Workers: Preparing for the Future Labor Market. Washington, D.C.: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 2004. Kogan, Irena, Clemens Noelke, and Michael Gebel. Making the Transition: Education and Labor Market Entry in Central and Eastern Europe. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2011. Krause, Michael, and Thomas A. Lubik. On-the-Job Search and the Cyclical Dynamics of the Labor Market. Frankfurt am Main: Deutsche Bundesbank, 2007. Morley, Louise. Quality and Power in Higher Education. Maidenhead: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press, 2003. Read More