Most important and prioritised competences of VNU alumni from the perspective of employers Abstract

In the context of the strong impact of the industrial revolution, job skills are changing rapidly, new types of jobs are created constantly, the labor market requires workers who are able to learn new knowledge and skills, adapt to workplace, flexible to move jobs, expand knowledge learnt at university. Applying the theoretical model of the Tuning Southeast Asia project (TASE) on thirteen general competences for university graduates, and the theory of transferable skills after graduating from university, the research team of VNU Institute for Education Quality Assurance surveyed the opinions of VNU stakeholders (employers, graduates and recent graduates, students about to graduate, current students, lecturers, managers) about the general competences of VNU graduates and VNU students in particular. The survey measured three variables, such as (i) importance, (ii) achievement and (iii) competence. From February to December 2018, 818 informants agreed to participate, including 168 employers, 152 alumni, 189 recent graduates in 2018 and about to graduate, 51 lecturers and administrators, 258 students. The findings of the study suggest that employers, alumni, and students rate "general competences" as particularly important. In particular, all stakeholders agree that the most important and priority competence is 'the ability to maintain ethical and professional values', and' 'the ability to apply knowledge into practice". However, the degree to which graduates achieve these general competences is not high. Although the lifelong learning ability is well appreciated, the communication skills, problem solving and especially teamwork skills of students are not appreciated. VNU graduates have lower scores than those surveyed in the TASE project on competences such as 'ability to communicate clearly and effectively', 'show ability to solve problems', 'ability to apply knowledge into practice'. These are the competences of highest priority by employers. The degree to which VNU alumni achieve the competences such as 'critical, reflective and creative thinking', and ' initiate, plan, organize, implement and evaluate activities' is also lower than the alumni surveyed in the TASE project.