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

1. Self-evaluation of skills requirements:Female graduates in theJordan

2. The aim of the study • The aim is to explorethe 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 fromthe analysis of the questionnaires • Main findings fromthe 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 2006to 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

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

13. The five most important issues for choosing a job

14. Self evaluation of competence in the six skills (very and rather competent)

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 self’s 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).

25. Policy implications and Recommendations (IV) 6. All six of the core skills should be more extensively cultivated through both the content and the method of delivery of all the university courses. In specific for the subject specific skills of ICT skills and English language skills it would be preferable to be cultivated primarily through the provision of more relevant courses but also through the adoption of teaching methods that use ICT technologies as learning tools and English speaking bibliography as educational material. The more generic skills are suggested to be promoted through mainly the teaching methods adopted in each university course (small scale project work, team-work, group discussions, students’ presentations, applications of theory in real life authentic problematical situations, etc).

26. Policy implications and Recommendations (V) 7. University structuresfor assisting students and graduates in integrating successfully within the labor market either in enhancing the Careers Services (interface between universities and the labor market) or in the form of Skills Training Centers (Continuing Personal Development Centers).

27. Potential Future Steps • A follow up qualitative study for deepening our understanding about the gaps in skills of young women graduates, in order to assist them in integrating successfully within the labour market. • Based on the outcomes of the survey as well as of the qualitative follow up study, a curriculum that provides the needed skills for the target group could be proposed. • A qualitative study to explore the needed skills required by the Labor market (employers: private and public sector) to match the supply with the demand of the market. • Establishing a structure (accredited by universities)to delivertraining on the required skills could be undertaken either by ZENID alone or by a consortium of ZENID with various universities in Jordan.