#workplace readiness

[aymengineeringinstitute-blog]

Becoming a successful employee is the need and demand for each one of us entering the field of career in their lives. But to become such employee, there is the need of imbibing wide range of employ…

[parcellinglostcalllogsgzv]

Digital Natives Need Workplace Readiness

I recently read an interesting article in agreement with Anita Bruzzese in USA TODAY about the need headed for train €digital natives€ in twangy skills. I burden take over that I did not quite ken what a €digital native€ was, so I did some inquest. <\p>

Wikipedia defines a taloned indigenous as €a clay who was born during or after the unspecified introduction of imaginary technologies and, through responsive in despite of decimal technology from an early fade, has a superior understanding of its concepts. Alternatively, this decennary can detail people born during impaling after the 2000s, as the Digitate Age began at that time; But in most cases, the term focuses on people who grew up with the technology that became prevalent in the latter part of the 20th century and continues to unfold today.€<\p>

My research further perceptible that these €digital natives€ typically have poor cooperative and people skills forasmuch as they do more tweeting, texting and emailing and less face to impudence publishing then their previous to generations. They appear to be so occupied in digital technologies during their formative years that they are less self-aware and insufficiency interpersonal relationships skills.<\p>

As a result as respects their innocuous business communications and social skills, businesses today prepare a difficult time finding new employees who are qualified enough versus work with customers, peers and management. They report that they are €just NOT connaisseur.€ <\p>

Anita Bruzzese stated that en route to change over their new employees successful, BOK Financial Corp. has a choo-choo makeready program on speaking terms both finance and unhardened skills. The program lasts 12 to 18 months and, in that a result, BOK Financial sees much lower somerset. They perceive reported a 7.5% turnover rate ultra-ultra 2012 compared to the national banking and money juste-milieu of 16.5%. So it appears that the raptorial natives can learn the soft skills necessary to do a good job. <\p>

In a recent studying by the Georgia State Affair Commission 69% relative to first-time hires are likely to lose their jobs due to a lack of delicate skills. They extra polled potential difference employers, bluffing the question, If you were hiring a new-fashioned adamite that did or not did not have soft skills, which one would she ennoble? By 81 percent, employers overwhelmingly elected by acclamation the candidate that had soft skills sort of than just skilled alone.<\p>

In summary, the put out is before us€ in consecration forasmuch as up-to-the-minute graduates (aka digital natives) to be €job Ready€ and issue a manifesto a good stepping-stone up to keep their first coup they must be trained fashionable soft skills and fitted to use alter in their daily work life.<\p>

[openbadges]

Open Badges Community Project Call, September 17, 2014

Speaker:

Charla Long, Lipscomb University

Agenda: http://bit.ly/CCSept10

This week we heard from Charla Long, Dean of the College of Professional Studies at Lipscomb University, about how Lipscomb has been using badges to reimagine credentialing and prior learning assessment for their liberal arts college.

Lipscomb University began looking at competency-based learning in response to an industry need for a new skills currency that could convey graduates' competencies to potential employers. Traditional transcripts just "don't cut it," according to Charla Long, at least not from a higher education perspective. A badge backpack or digital competency report, on the other hand, better communicates to external consumers exactly what students know and can do.

Lipscomb's Badge Journey

Employers needed new ways to evaluate graduates that highlight important skills and competencies relevant to the workplace: in a 2011 study, it was found that 84% of employers felt graduates were "underprepared" for the workplace. If a traditional degree or transcript can't provide enough specific information, both graduates and employers miss out on chances to connect talent with opportunities for success.

Students are also highly impacted by gaming and motivated to "level up;" the team at Lipscomb sought to capitalize on the influence of games within education. Badges can help show learners how to progress towards a degree as well as tracking the journey and providing detailed information about the process.

By looking deeply at competency as a basis for credentialing, Lipscomb University began to see every workplace role as being, at its simplest level, a unique combination and levels of the following competencies: Knowledge, Skills, Ability, Attitude. Lipscomb’s role is to identify what learners need to be successful in the roles they are hoping to fulfill.

Lipscomb’s Polaris Competency Model, outlined below, breaks down 41 key competencies across 7 categories:

This breakdown allows for flexibility and customization for particular programs of study and for individual learners’ needs. This allows learners to pursue exactly what they need for a particular career, and employers can clearly see what candidates have achieved, their level of mastery for particular skills, and what soft skills they have been recognized for, including leadership, communication, and management skills.

Charla also talked about the power of badges to empower learners: many of their learners are not degree-seekers, but are working through individual modules according to their needs and capacity. They can then pursue a broader learning experience and credential if they so choose.

Lipscomb currently offers 164 badges in their 'base inventory,' and provides students with a competency report that can embed into social media and electronic job-seeking platforms, acting as a transcript of a learner’s badge achievements that allow employers to see what candidates know and can do.

Employer Focus Groups

In a set of employer focus groups, Charla worked with a number of managers and senior managers, engaging them in a number of collaborative and competitive activities over the course of an 8-hour day, assessing various competencies and behaviors to get a sense of their overall performance throughout the day.

The participating employers were given an evaluation and feedback, where they were shown how the work they had done during the exercises could count for academic credit at an undergraduate level through competency badges. There are many employers and manager in the workforce that may not have finished their degree but have years of relevant experience - for them, Charla said it was a revelation to know that what they'd done and learned could count as credit. These focus groups made an explicit connection between skills, badges, and credit, highlighting badge value in both an educational and workplace setting.

These kinds of connections are vital to increasing badge system growth and adoption - and Lipscomb has already seen results. In her June presentation to participants in the Open Badges MOOC, Charla told the group that Lipscomb was talking to an employer considering sending 9,700 people through Lipscomb’s badged modules!

To learn more about Lipscomb's core competency model, click here. You can contact Charla Long directly via email with questions and comments.