Self-evaluation of skills requirements: Female graduates in the Jordan

1
Self-evaluation of skills requirementsFemale
graduates in theJordan
2
The aim of the study

• The aim is to explore the extent female
  university graduates in the Hashemite Kingdom of
  Jordan have acquired important skills so as to
  enter and improve their position in the labour
  market

3
The structure of the presentation

• Methodology of the study
• Main findings from the analysis of the
  questionnaires
• Main findings from the analysis of the university
  curricula
• Policy implications and recommendations

4
Theoretical Considerations

• The highly educated women constitute a human
  capital of high value for the country for social
  and economical reasons.
• Highly educated women by being integrated more
  easily into the labor market contribute a lot
  into a gradual transformation of the
  stereotypical representations about the role of
  woman in society.
• Mothers qualification is one of the most
  important factors determining the cultural
  capital of a family, which in turn affects
  significantly the chances for success of the next
  generations.
• No human resources are lost in the attempt
  Jordanian society to adapt to globalized
  knowledge society functioning under the
  conditions of new economy.

5
Methodology of the study

• Literature review of existing studies and
  information
• Distribution of a structured self-administered
  questionnaire during the period from March to
  October of 2006 to a sample of four hundred
  female graduates of 20 Jordanian universities.
  The sample was drawn using systematic strata
  random sampling technique.
• Analysis of the curricula of sixty seven optional
  and obligatory courses offered in the Applied
  Science Private University and the University of
  Jordan along the dimensions of
• Their type (obligatory or optional)
• The scientific field they fall into (humanities,
  social sciences or sciences engineering)
• The skill(s) that is (are) cultivated through
  their content
• The skill(s) that is (are) cultivated through
  their method of teaching

6
Target Group

• Jordanian Universities female graduates
• Graduated since 1998 and onwards
• Employed by the government, private and NGO
  sectors
• With experience no less than one year in the
  Jordanian Labor market

7
The Profile of the respondents
Feature Range or Categories with high frequency distribution Median or dominant category
Age 20-48 26
Area of residence Amman (84.9), Elsewhere (15.1) Amman (Capital)
Family income Less than 250 JDs (44.1), 251-500JDs (45.4) 251-500JDs
Marital status Single (58.9), Married (40.9), Single
Type of school they graduated themselves Governmental schools (64.9), Private schools (34.1) Governmental schools
University they graduated from Jordan University (32.8), Hashemite University (8.8), Yarmouk University (8.6) Jordan University
Field of study Social sciences (66.8), Sciences-Engineering (27.3), Humanities (5.9) Social sciences
Postgraduate studies No (90.7), Masters (7.6) No
8
(No Transcript)
9
The Questionnaire

• Thirty five questions (mainly closed) organized
  in five sections
• Background Information
• Studies in higher education
• Current or past experiences in the labor market
• Career expectations and their future orientations
  in the labor market
• Self-evaluation of acquisition of skills (ICT
  skills, English language skills, communication
  skills, interpersonal skills, leadership skills
  and problem solving skills)

10
Limitation of the study

• There were certain constraints in getting filled
  questionnaire from different organizations due to
  the technique used for data (people are not
  committed and un-interested)
• The size of the sample was not attained due to
  the problems mentioned above
• For an integrated understanding of the dynamic of
  the labor market, there should have been a focus
  group discussion with the employers
• The analysis of the curriculum has to be further
  investigated

11
Research Findings
12
Reasons for choosing the current job
I choose my current job because I am interested in this kind of a job 34.2
I choose my current job because it's too much related to my study 44.4
I choose my current job because it gives me the chance to develop 24.2
I choose my current job because the salary I gain compared to the job I do is tempting 4.1
I choose my current job because I have no choice 27.8
I choose my current job because for other reasons 2.7
13
The five most important issues for choosing a job
Fair management 91.3
Acquiring new skills 89.5
Pleasant people to work and cooperate with 88.8
Good health insurance and other benefits 80.8
Creative work 78.5
14
Self evaluation of competence in the six skills
(very and rather competent)
ICT skills 72.4
English language 66.6
Communication skills 79.7
Interpersonal skills 82.3
Leadership skills 77.8
Problem solving skills 73.3
15
Current or past experiences in the labour market
(I)

• More than 9 in 10 women have a full time job
  which in most of the cases (almost 7 in 10) is of
  high status (legislators, official managers,
  professionals).
• The graduates though in the field of sciences and
  engineering seem to be more likely to obtain high
  status jobs and more relevant to their studies
  jobs than those in the fields of social sciences
  and humanities.
• The high status jobs that the vast majority of
  the female graduates have, could possibly explain
  the high level of satisfaction they take from
  them in almost 9 in 10 cases.
• Among the most important reasons for choosing
  their current job are its relevance to their
  studies (4 in 10), their interest for it (3 in
  10) as well as the chances it provides them to
  develop (2 in 10).

16
Current or past experiences in the labour market
(II)

• Almost 7 in 10 consider their current job as very
  relevant or rather relevant to their studies.
  About 30 (those working in lower status jobs) do
  not find these jobs very relevant to their
  studies. Besides, the relevance to the studies is
  positively related to the satisfaction from the
  job.
• The graduates, despite their young age, are quite
  mobile in the labor market (half of them have
  worked in the past). About 7 in 10 have achieved
  upward mobility, only 1 in 10 had downward
  mobility) and 3 in 10 seem to have been trapped
  to lower status jobs. The graduates in sciences
  and engineering seem more easily to achieve
  upward mobility.
• The most important reasons for quitting a job,
  seem to be those related to the issue of personal
  development (43.9) followed by issue of the poor
  working conditions (23.6).

17
Career expectations and future orientations (I)

• The future career plan for almost 7 in 10 is
  related to the rather secure prospect of working
  as an employee. Only 2 in 10 women seem to have
  entrepreneurial orientations.
• Married women tend more to start their own
  business than working as employees.
• They consider the labor market as very
  competitive since for over than 6 in 10
  considered as absolutely helpful the mastery of
  more than two skills. The women though who want
  to start their own business or are indeterminate
  tend to consider it as more demanding since they
  regard two or more skills as helpful while those
  planning to work as employees tend to consider as
  helpful just one skill.

18
Career expectations and future orientations (II)

• The skills that most of the female graduates
  consider as helpful in achieving their future
  plans are the a) interpersonal skills (33.3)
  and b) the ICT skills (32.8).
• Half of the women in the sample claim that they
  have acquired the core required skills through
  both academic study and previous job while in
  addition to that one in four claim that they have
  acquired them through academic study only.
• The female graduates underemphasize issues which
  have to do with practical aspects of their job,
  in favor of aspects that have to do with the
  quality of their working environment as well as
  the opportunities offered for personal
  development.

19
Self evaluation of the acquisition of skills (I)

• The vast majority of the graduates consider as
  important or very important for entering the
  labor market all six of the core skills.
• The graduates consider themselves as quite
  competent in all six skills in percentages
  exceeding 65 (from 66.6 in English language up
  to 82.3 in interpersonal skills). A slight
  tendency was though observed to evaluate
  themselves as rather more competent in the non
  formally accredited skills rather than in the
  formally accredited skills of ICT and English
  language skills
• Those who have done postgraduate studies are also
  more likely to feel confident in more skills than
  those who have not.

20
Self evaluation of the acquisition of skills (II)

• According to the respondents the ICT skills and
  the skills in English language have been mainly
  acquired through the attendance of academic
  courses in University. The non formally
  accredited skills ( communication, interpersonal,
  leadership, problem solving skills) though have
  been mainly acquired through experiences in
  previous jobs.
• Despite the fact that the respondents state that
  they have mainly acquired only the formally
  accredited skills of ICT and English language on
  average each individual graduate regards the
  university courses as helpful in acquiring about
  4 skills of the six in total.

21
Curricular Analysis of the Universisty Courses (I)

• Through the rough analysis of the content of 67
  courses in total, it was found that the skills
  that are cultivated are the a) problem solving
  skills (12 instances), b) interpersonal skills
  (12 instances), c) communication skills (10
  instances), d) ICT skills (5 instances), e)
  English language skills (3 instances) and f)
  leadership skills (2 instances).
• The ICT skills and the skills in English language
  in particular are mainly cultivated by delivering
  specialized relevant courses. The problem solving
  skills are mainly cultivated through calculation
  based courses, while the interpersonal and the
  communication skills seem to be cultivated
  together by courses dealing with selfs
  attributes and human behavior like those related
  to aspects of Psychology.

22
Curricular Analysis of the University Courses (II)

• One could tentatively conclude that the optional
  courses tend more than the obligatory ones to
  cultivate generic skills (this happens in 9 out
  of the 21 cases of optional courses and in 2 out
  of 7 cases of obligatory courses).
• Furthermore, it was found that the content of all
  five of the courses in the field of sciences and
  engineering analyzed promote at least one kind of
  skills while only 16 out of the 41 courses in the
  field of social sciences and 5 out of the 15
  courses in the field of humanities do the same.

23
Policy implications and Recommendations (I)

• Relevance to female graduates studies is a
  criterion of high priority for women to choose a
  job, it is recommended that more schemes aiming
  at the career guidance of women should be
  implemented.
• The importance of the issue of personal
  development for determining the preferences of
  the female graduates in the labor market suggests
  that special motives should be provided to the
  organizations of both private and public sector
  for re-skilling through special training schemes
  for educated female employees.
• Extensive and thorough investigations should be
  arranged so as to explore the specific social or
  other conditions that seem to be responsible for
  the fact that almost 30 of the female graduates
  do not work in jobs suitable for their
  qualifications. Remedial polices should be
  devised on the basis of the results of these
  investigations.

24
Policy implications and Recommendations (III)

• 4. The fact that a great number of the female
  graduates states that most of the core skills
  have been acquired from previous experiences in
  the labor market leads to the suggestion for more
  practical training schemes during the main course
  of the university studies so as more women to
  gain the practical experience and the skills they
  need earlier.
• More highly educated women should be encouraged
  to start their own business either through the
  implementation of special schemes for
  entrepreneurship of youth or through the
  establishment of special financial incentives
  (low interest loans for starting a new business,
  tax reductions, etc).