PRESENTATIONS
Volodymyr Naidiuk
Rishiram Aryal, University of Bolton, UK
Title: Empirical research on the skills gap associated within the UK education system, focusing on young adults (16–25) and formulating guidelines for a sustainable future world of work.
8th International Conference on Globalisation, Entrepreneurship, and Emerging Economies (ICGEEE)-2023
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Yeah my name is Vladimir Vladimir nuk I just recently graduated from Bolton University MBA program uh but I studied in region College London so thanks a lot for all my uh teachers and thanks a lot to my uh tutor Mr risham arel uh who helped me and uh assisted me throughout
My uh working on my thesis and so I’m happy to present it here in this conference this is my first experience but I’m sure first of of many in the future uh and just happy to say that I just got my recent grades and uh I got
Distinction in my MBA so really honored about this uh but I’m presenting this topic because I believe that this can be interesting for to taking it to the next level possibly uh on to the DBA level I’m thinking about this so to do the doctor in Business Administration uh so
It would be very uh nice and valuable for me to get your feedback and um uh your thoughts about uh my research topic and whether uh it is uh uh you know whether I need to take it to the next level uh so basically this is my poster
Presentation and the topic is the empirical res search on the skills Gap Associated within the UK education system focusing on young adults 16 to 25 and formulating the guidelines for a sustainable future world of work uh a little bit of background I am entrepreneur by myself uh I I’m running
The business for like last 10 years and uh I have my my I have my own education consultancy business which helps students International students uh uh basically from Ukraine mainly because I originally I’m from Ukraine but I live current l in the in the UK uh so from
Ukraine Eastern Europe and I’m trying to develop and recruit students from other countries as well uh to to study in best uh schools colleges and universities so when I’m working with students and families the first question comes like what shall we study what program should we choose because it is very important
And it influences their future career choices and as we now live in the world which is very disruptive uh by the covid by the uh you know the fullscale war against Ukraine by other by technological advancement as well so there are a lot of things going on
Around this area and uh uh I want to uh and my topic of research is mainly based on the post 16 UK education system as it actually uh the time when uh students study and then they prepare for their future world of work so basically the question of my research is whether the
UK education system post 16 education system prepares them for the future world of work well or not and whether they they are ready the students are ready to tackle all the difficulties that uh you know of the world that we are living in so basically as I’m saying
Uh The crucial time in young people’s life has traditionally been the move from education to job and the skills Gap caused by the education system is quite a critical issue now and the research investigation the factors that contribute to this problem within the UK education system and the effect that
This Gap has on young people’s employment uh possibilities and the difficulties education institutions have in resolving that problem so the research aim is to exam examine the factors and implications on the skill Gap within the UK education system and formulate guidelines for the sustainable future world of work uh the research
Objectives are to identify the gap between the current education uh system and the skills required for the uh Workforce to explore the need of Forward Thinking and adaptable approach in the education industry to prepare students for the future of world of work and to formulate guidelines for a sustainable
Future world of work it is called empirical because it is based on the Practical exper experience my practical experience in this area and also all the participants that uh took part in This research like in the interviews that I conducted the survey I did is actually the current students current professors
And teachers and current people and people who work in different companies so basically I uh try to involve uh the main stakeholders in this research which are uh the students uh the uh professors or you know the University or college or schools uh employees and of course the companies like HR from different
Companies so the literature review and uh is based on two main areas so the first area is actually what is the post 16 education system and what are the problems it facing in order to prepare students for the future world of work it covers the main uh areas in UK post
Education system like a level programs bchs T levels uh further education colleges and of course universities uh I also touched uh the very important problem actually is the difference and the Divide between the uh private education system and the State education system as actually the Gap is quite huge
There as well and the from the and the other part the second part is actually investigating the skills Gap what is the skills Gap uh what are the type of skills like for example we uh discussed already today uh the that there are uh um there are soft skills hard skills
Digital skills and also the new type of skills that are uh kind of progressing that and developing now it is called Green skills as well so basically I’m covering the main three which are the soft skills the hard skills and the digital skills uh so from the literature review
Uh we can see the huge problematic in this area which is of course the first one is that uh the need rate is quite High the need is the uh students who are not in education employment and training uh so the uh and the students we are
Talking about is actually from 16 to 18 here so the neat rate is quite high and around 700,000 young adults here in the UK are not in education employment and training also uh according to different uh research the previous researches that been conducted by the uh Dr Allison Wolf
By the uh David sainsbury sainsbury reports uh they all confirmed that the post 16 education system does not prepare well for the 21st century skills the other problem is actually that we can see that for example further education colleges students that PR that should prepare students for the this
Vocational programs heart skills that are very important for different engineering and medical uh transportation and other Industries Logistics Industries uh the the decline for the last 10 years here in the UK was dramatic this most was like 50 50% declined of the number of students the also the other problem is
Actually that The Graduate unemployment rate is quite High comparing to the national average so this is 12% compared to like around four national average and this is also the last but not the least and very important qu thing is that uh to and to think about in terms of the
Future profession is actually that uh 88% of the new jobs by 2035 will be at The Graduate level so can you imagine like 88% will be the new jobs so basically the schools the university programs maybe do not have even the programs yet that would prepare them the
Students well and to to to get them the necessary skills to be prepared for this new jobs uh so in terms of the methodology I used the sundress research onion different layers uh this is first of all the mixed method data collection which is deductive and uh inductive approach I
Use the philosophical stance which is interpretivism and positivism uh so the research is based as I mentioned already before on survey of the main stakeholders which are who are the Educators the employer employers the companies and the students and uh I also had the interview uh I inter
Interviewed uh like around at that time it was 12 but actually I have even more so around 20 people from also different stakeholders to get the overall picture and of course the data analysis uh the time Horizon is cross cross cross sectional and the techniques and procedures is as I mentioned survey
Questionnaire face-to-face interviews and data analysis some of the information I’m I’m sorry I couldn’t cover everything but uh uh yeah some of the uh information from my uh data analysis and interviews here so for example uh as we can see uh the interviews and the survey confirmed that the topic is quite
Relevant and there is a gap and problematic here for example out of five the current education system addresses future workplace needs so only like three uh 2.5 uh out to five average score so which is uh we can see that there is area for improvement then the skills gap between what is thought
Versus what is needed is also is quite High 3.5 again uh out of five up toate curriculum versus future Workforce so the respondent says that only like 3.5 out of five that they believe that the curriculum is uh up to date uh also the question for example more emphasis
Should be on soft skills and in the curriculum and they confirmed and we see that the high uh grade here also I didn’t mentioned that I divided my participants like the ages 16 25 so actually this the actual students now and 26 plus like to see the and to
Compare the difference between their answers uh so they they all believe that there should be more emphasis on soft skills in the curriculum also uh we can see see that more resources should go to Korea guidance this is even like almost five out of five and the respondents
Believe that there are a lack of resources going to the career guidance collaboration between institutions and employers we can see that the the uh the rate the the grade here is very low so all the respondents believe that there should be more collaboration between institutions and employers and also the
Changes in the education system are needed to prepare for the future Workforce so the respondents confirmed that yes uh 4.1 and 4.4 that they believe that the CH changes are needed to this uh I must say that uh it’s not that I painted a bit of like very
Negative uh picture but actually there are a lot of things going on uh in terms of uh improving this and Tackle this problems so for example U the Department of Education is doing a lot of work here as well as well and one of the solutions
They they’ve taken uh this you can see uh in this uh uh uh graph to the left where the problematic in literature review uh which Solutions have been taken so for example RPA which is a raise of participant age so for example the until 2013 I believe that the uh compulsory
Education was until the year 16 here in the UK but then they changed it and now it is until the year of 18 so basically it helped to reduce the level of this need rate unemployment also in terms of the uh vocational programs collaboration with
Industry and uh trying to help uh to get the necessary skills for the students to be able to work in the future uh the Department of Education uh introduced a new program called T levels which is like T technical levels and actually they this program is created within the
Industry in involving mod 250 companies uh from different Industries to to co-create uh the programs together uh the skills act also is a quite a Rel recent U Improvement is actually based on the fact that uh again the local Colleges and Schools uh work together with the local companies uh for example
I live in warshire which is the area and there are quite a lot of different companies here so the colleges schools they uh they can approach the companies and then the Ed Department of Education also try to uh uh encourage the companies to co-create different programs together so it’s uh based on
The kind of local areas around the UK uh UPS is quite interesting it’s like Department uh is uh uh it’s it is called unit for future skills which is actually working along alongside the Department of Education and uh working in terms of co-creating different initiatives how to tackle these programs
And alongside the T level programs there are also programs called apprenticeships so also based on the that they need to kind of uh uh encourage more students to have uh industry experience while they are studying which is very uh necessary as we can see so basically
Uh in terms of my findings and Analysis and the solutions to be taken and to be developed uh so U the first thing is actually uh the soft skills Gap so all the surveys all the you know the interviews and the data analysis show that there is a huge uh soft skill Gap
In the curriculum so uh by soft skills we mean critical and creative thinking communication skills teamwork inter ruralism and problem solving so this uh soft skills should be em embedded in the current curriculum and develop more by all the uh programs starting from uh States especially by uh State Colleges
And Schools and thir education colleges because they do not have enough resources to implement this uh because the private education they they have the resources they focus a lot on the uh developing the soft skills but this this is only 7% % of the whole student
Population if we are talking about 16 to 18 uh digital and techn Technology skills Gap also this is a big problem and for example by some studies uh uh like a substantial majority 82% of job descriptions in the UK explicitly specify the necessity of possessing digital or technology related skills
This is the research by Department of digital culture media and Sport so uh digital skills are divided into two main areas this is like basic digital skills and uh Advanced Digital skills so we’re not talking about basic digital skills it it is a must now but also some
Companies even if the role is not related to uh some digital program in O it they also ask students to have this even Advanced Digital skills so here we mean like digital literacy AI tools and programs data analysis coding program skills and uh software uh productivity software tools and uh so I already
Touched Bas the the question about outdated curriculum uh when I interviewed for example Educators from further education colleges State schools Unfortunately they confirmed that they do not have enough resources and they are very uh they are very restricted in though in the terms of what they can
Teach and how they can you know add their own things because they are restricted by the the curriculum that they have to follow by the Department of Education and some of the examples were like uh for example automative the students who study automotive industry uh they still study how to work on the
Petrol and diesel cars and engines rather than on the electric ones and you know the hybrid ones uh even the all the world is moving to ban the gas and diesel cars in the near future The Good the positive thing here is that the skill that the students get in there
They are still can be transferred to the you know to the new uh kind of way of industry in the future but you know with the you know the curriculum need to be updated anyway it is quite a big and huge problem and as we even discussed
During uh the their conference today and uh I was really um interested to hear the feedback from my colleagues from the US universities how they work there and they also confirmed that there is a lack of uh lack of collaboration with industry so this is another very huge
Area that uh uh you know all the stakeholders department of education schools educat students they need to work on and uh I already speed up yes I’m already uh yes finishing with recommendations and guidelines so basically yes the recommendations and guidelines for a sustainable future
World of work is the first thing is re reeval evaluating the academic curriculum so again integration the soft skills development including Project based learning because Project based learning is what companies are doing usually and big corporations and businesses uh digital skills including Advanced Digital skills development should be embedded in the curriculum and
Uh updating the curriculum to address the future needs of the workforce thinking about the new uh uh professions that are going to exist very soon so we’re not talking about really like long future we’re talking about the future that already coming uh industry education collaboration so there are uh
A lot of programs and universities that for example the sandwich courses industrial placement courses they are all optional so I think that universities should implement this courses and they should be uh they should be uh uh like uh they should be a Mas for every student so that every student get an experience
While they are studying they also the final sentence vlir yeah they also need to provide the hands-on experience for students from early age and the resources should be also adequate and up to date uh so again the same with the mandatory internships and work placements and the last one is uh
Business education and entrepreneurial education so developing startup and business Minds set to encourage Innovation thinking creatively learning how to fail and resilience and equipping students with the financial management skills enabling them to navigate personal and professional finances thank you very much okay and thank you very much I any
Questions yes I have a question I okay go ahead yeah yeah General you can ask a question okay uh I I really enjoyed the presentation and thank you so much for the work that you’re doing and the work that you’re beginning to do and I agree with all of your recommendations my
Question to you is if you had to prioritize because typically we don’t have resources to do everything at a at one time how would you prioritize what gets done first what gets done second how yeah that’s a very good question thank you very much you see we we agreed to
Help each other with questions before yeah yes so yeah basically I I think the I think the collaboration is uh is number one because this is something that as you mentioned even in your answer this the students are really uh you know the education is actually is like a bridge
Towards their you know adult life and uh this is something they need uh the skills they need to get during the education uh they need to transfer it to the industry and work they can be you know they can uh it’s not only about working for some companies but it is
Also like for starting their own businesses as I mentioned here like startups but they need to have this experience while they are studying so I would I think the collaboration is the number one and the number two is uh I would I think this is because digital is
Already like a must as I mentioned but soft skills is something that need need to be developed because we also are talking about education and education is I I really like this uh from my University because the the end goal of education is a character so to build
This character you need to build you know to help the students to build their on their soft skills development like to know how to collaborate how to think creatively how to be resilient how to be adaptable and all other things and even the world economic Forum with which
Uh they have the new report recently that nine out of 10 uh 21st century skills is actually all about soft skills the the number 10 which is a hard skill or like a separate skill is the digital or technological advancement so I would say industry collaboration and soft skills are the key priorities Here