Conference calls for change in emphasis in graduate training

To operate successfully in the workplace future university graduates must recognise that not everyone is white, male, Catholic and Irish.

This was the message from Dr Chris Horn, chairman and chief executive officer of Iona Technologies, at the first national conference of the Association of Graduate Careers Services in Ireland (AGCSI). The recent conference was run in association with The Irish Times.

Cultural appreciation was vital, possibly even more important, than language skills in the university curriculum, he said.

"Students should be taught about French culture and German culture, how to understand and relate to other nationalities, because in the future, most business organisations will operate in global teams," he added.

Around 200 academics, university career advisers and employers from north and south attended the conference entitled "Bridging the Gap - Preparing Graduates for the 21st Century".

According to the AGSCI convenor, Ms Mary Sweeney, the focus of the conference was to examine the changing nature of graduate employment in the 21st century and to explore how graduates can be prepared to meet this challenge.

"To survive, graduates will need to be multi-skilled," she said. The conference would explore the "expectations of employers and the priorities of universities", she added. Dr Horn conjured up the workplace of the future where video conferencing and computers the size of wrist watches would be the norm. Graduates, he said, would need computer skills, an ability to think laterally and creatively, as well as possessing the skills of their chosen profession.

The conference, chaired by Mr Domhnall Mac Domhnaill, of IBEC, and Dr Don Thornhill, of the Higher Education Authority, heard of one company's efforts to foster a mutually beneficial relationship with academic institutions.

Ms Eleanor Curtis, college relations manager at Hewlett Packard, outlined the partnership approach the high-tech multi-national had been adopted in a bid to foster relations with academic institutions.

It was a pro-active approach, she said. "We wanted a sustainable relationship where there was ongoing contact throughout the year," she added.

Ms Curtis's position, was created 18 months ago. Since then the company had initiated student sponsorship schemes and collaborated on curriculum reviews. According to Ms Curtis, Hewlett is currently employing approximately 100 graduates a year.

"But this cannot continue forever and we want to ensure that there are programmes in place for when recruitment slows down," she said. The importance of teamwork in the global marketplace was reiterated by Ms Curtis. The delegates later heard of a pilot course which had encouraged teams in collaborative learning.

Dr Katrina Lawlor, acting head of marketing studies with Dublin Institute of Technology, said the findings of the course were largely positive. "Students found it enjoyable as it was a new way of learning, it was real life work experience which would be practical and useful for the workplace. It encouraged idea generation and problem solving techniques," she said.

Another course aimed at meeting the needs of graduates was outlined by Ms Patricia Fleming, entrepreneurship programme leader at the College of Business at the University of Limerick.

"We wanted to provide students with the opportunity to develop enterprise competencies as an integral part of their academic programme," she told delegates.

Mr Sean Gannon, careers and appointments officer at Trinity College, Dublin, explained why their personal development programme had been initiated.

"Increasingly employers are emphasising the need for transferable skills such as communication, team working, problem solving, managing and organising skills," he said.

According to Prof A.C. Cunningham, director of the Centre for Marketing Studies at University College, Dublin, there is a gap in third level business education. "If one accepts that professional performance is knowledge, skills and attitude, then university business schools have focussed on the first, largely ignored the second and generally assumed the third. "In other words, they have been very good at teaching students about management but not at teaching them to be good managers," he said.

Earlier, Mr Gannon had made a similar point. "We need a university module that teaches people how to learn and not what to learn," he said.

Opening the conference, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews spoke about the role of education in our economic success.