Baruah, Bidyut Jyoti orcid.org/0000-0002-4733-6156, Ward, Anthony Edward orcid.org/0000-0002-6100-8845 and Gbadebo, Adeyosola Adekunle (2016) What do job adverts tell Higher Education about the ‘shape’ of Biomedical Engineering graduates? In: International Conference on Advancements of Medicine and Health Care through Technology, MediTech 2016, 12-14 Oct 2016.
Abstract
Higher Education Institutions are required, at least in some Countries, to design their curricula taking into account the needs of relevant industry. Use of Industrial Advisory Committees is a common way of demonstrating this input. This paper explores an additional window to industry needs through the textual analysis of job advertisements. 36 internet published adverts using the “Biomedical Engineering” search phrase were downloaded and textually analysed to identify the mentioned technical skills, generic skills and the adjectives used to describe the required level of proficiency in them. Results of the analysis of these adverts, using qualitative re-search analysis software starts to reveal a relevant technical skills hierarchy that Higher Education can use to help inform curricular designed for this employment pathway. The analy-sis of the generic skills reveals those rated important by em-ployers for different levels of jobs, again of potential use to curriculum designers. Finally the results reveal the adjectives used to show the level of ability employers seek of their gradu-ates. Herein lies a significant difference across the supply and demand side of the first employment transition. The difference can be rationally explained but does not help in closing the gap between what Higher Education provides in terms of gradu-ates and what Industry seeks. The paper concludes that dia-logue between Industry and Higher Education could usefully focus on the way skills are defined and claims of ability war-ranted as a means of closing the “Higher Education is not gives us what employers want” claims.
Metadata
Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Keywords: | Skills Analysis, Skills hierarchy, Biomedical Skills, Graduate Skills, Employability. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Electronic Engineering (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 24 Nov 2016 10:48 |
Last Modified: | 25 Dec 2024 00:08 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:107634 |
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Filename: Job_Analysis_v3.pdf
Description: Ward, Baruah, Jackson and Gbadebo 2016