New Age, New Learners, New Skills

Jay E. Noel Eivis Qenani

Agribusiness Department, California Polytechnic State University,

San Luis Obispo, California

Introduction

Changes in the nature of work and the are transforming the kinds of knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for successful employment and work performance

So, what set of skills do today’s graduates need to be successful in the tomorrow’s economy?

Goal of the Study: … to examine the emerging paradigm

of skills perceived as essential for the success of graduates in the knowledge economy

Findings from the study: … shed light into the changing needs

of the economy regarding the skill set required from future college graduates

Human Capital, Skills and Education

A vast literature has shown the direct impact of human capital and education on economic output, growth, productivity and progress of the society

Skill Definition Skills are “those generalizable attributes

of individuals that confer advantage in the labor market” Skill is “an ability or proficiency at a task

that is normally acquired through education, training and/or experience”

Skill Grouping

Skills are grouped in two categories: Generic skills that include higher

cognitive skills and interpersonal skills such as problem solving, creativity, communication, etc.

Technical skills refer to specific skills needed in a particular occupation or job

Skills and Education If skills demanded in the workplace are identified, then

education should be able to design curricula to ensure that students acquire the proper building blocks

Boehlje et al. (2011) point out that development and implementation of technology and new innovations are becoming vitally critical to long-term success of the food and agribusiness industry

But, employers repeatedly report that many new graduates they hire are not prepared to work and lack the necessary skills

Question: what is the effectiveness of education system in preparing graduates with the necessary core skills and attributes???

Skills and Graduate Education Various studies (Litzenberg & Schneider, 1987; Barkley, 1991; Barkley, Stock, & Sylvius, 1999; Norwood & Henneberry, 2006) have explored the topic of essential skills of agricultural graduates and their relative value in the workplace

The fast changing nature of the industry indicates a need to revisit this subject to better align educational outcomes with the needs of the job market

Data A Web-based survey was administered to employers

of agribusiness college graduates from December 2011- April 2012

Employers’ database (n=1,050) was created by combining various sources such as lists from Cal Poly Agricultural Employers, Red Book Credit Services (CA, FL, OR, WA) and California League of Food Processors

Two part survey: a) direct questions; b) discrete choice experiment

Questionnaire Employers were asked to imagine the situation of hiring for an entry-level position requiring an undergraduate degree and presented with three hypothetical profiles of job candidates and were asked to select the best candidate The hypothetical profiles differed by combining various levels of the following skills:

Critical Thinking Communication Teamwork Creativity Knowledge of Marketing Knowledge of Finance

Graduates’ Attributes and Attribute-Levels Used in Choice-Based Conjoint Questions

Attributes Levels Definitions

Critical Thinking Skills Basic Elementary or Base Level

Good Average or Satisfactory Level

Advanced Specialist or High Quality Level

Communication Skills Basic Elementary or Base Level


Teamwork Skills Basic Elementary or Base Level


Creativity Yes Creative

No Not Creative

Knowledge of Marketing Basic Elementary or Base Knowledge

Good Average or Satisfactory Knowledge

Advanced Specialist or High Quality Knowledge

Knowledge of Finance Basic Elementary or Base Knowledge

Good Average or Satisfactory Knowledge

Advanced Specialist or High Quality Knowledge

Data A fractional factorial randomized design with main effects only that

optimized the D-efficiency was used to select 16 choice tasks for each respondent

A sample choice task from the survey is presented below:

Attributes Candidate A

Candidate B

Candidate C

Critical Thinking Advanced Basic Good

Communication Basic Good Good

Teamwork Basic Good Basic

Creativity No No Yes

Knowledge of Marketing

Advanced Basic Good

Knowledge of Finance

Basic Advanced Good

Model and Estimation Data were analyzed within a random utility framework Each candidate is described by some vector of choice attribute

values. Assuming that employer 𝑖 faces a choice among 𝐽 alternatives in each of 𝐾 choice situations, he chooses alternative 𝑗 that will provide him with the highest utility

Utility function of employer 𝑖 is given by:

𝑈𝑖𝑖 = 𝛽𝛽𝑖𝑋𝑖𝑖 + 𝜀𝑖𝑖 (1) 𝑋𝑖𝑖 - vector of non-stochastic independent variables (attributes of the alternative 𝑗 ) 𝛽 - vector of parameters measuring individual marginal utilities to be estimated 𝜀 - the random element that includes all the unobservable factors that influence individual choices

The utility of each alternative is the sum of the marginal utilities of its attribute levels

Model and Estimation

A Hierarchical Bayesian logit model was used to estimate individual marginal utilities given only a few choices by each individual

Sawtooth Software – same software used by John Hauser, a marketing professor at MIT, to oversee two online conjoint studies commissioned (to study preferences for smartphones and one for tablets) by APPLE in the $2.5 billion suit against Samsung

Results A total of 159 completed surveys was further reduced

to 137 based on the respondents who answered all choice-based conjoint questions

Each respondent answered 16 customized choice sets providing 2,192 choice tasks available for analysis

Respondents constitute a cross-sectional representation of employers in the food and fiber industry in terms of company type, revenues and number of employees

Description of Survey Respondents (n= 137) Category Number Percentage

Company Type

Input Provider 3 2

Food Processor 11 8

Retailer and Wineries 14 10

Financial Institution 16 12

Wholesaler 4 3

Broker-Shipper-Packer 24 18

Service Provider 13 9

Farm 26 19

Durable Goods Manufacturer 8 6

Other (Non Profit, Government, Biotech, Manufacturing, Consulting)

18 12

Company Revenue Up to $1 million 24 18

$1 million - $50 million 62 45



More than $300 million 25 18

Company Size Up to 10 employees 33 24

11-100 employees 46 34

101-500 employees 40 29

More than 500 employees 17 13

Role of Respondent in the Company CEO 44 33

Manager/Supervisor 56 42

HR Administrator 10 6

Other, responsible of hiring decisions 27 20

Direct Questions AGB

Students Stated

Expectation

My company is satisfied with the quality of AGB graduates 4.35 -

AGB graduates are able to make an immediate positive contribution to the workplace with minimum supervision

4.04 -

AGB graduates have the ability to identify, formulate, and solve agribusiness problems (problem solving/critical thinking)

3.61 4.35

AGB graduates have the ability to analyze and interpret data. (quantitative skills: regression analysis, linear programming, statistical analysis, etc.)

3.75 3.89

AGB graduates have the ability to use techniques, and current agribusiness tools (spreadsheet skills and capabilities)

4.11 3.84

AGB graduates demonstrate effective oral communication skills 4.15 4.29

AGB graduates demonstrate effective written communication skills 3.90 4.15

AGB graduates have the ability to work effectively in a team environment 4.33 4.34

AGB graduates demonstrate hands-on knowledge gained outside the classroom, via internships, international studies abroad programs and other workplace related experiences

4.32 3.46

AGB graduates demonstrate professional integrity and ethical behavior 4.41 4.69

AGB graduates demonstrate understanding for diverse perspectives and backgrounds and work effectively in generating solutions that incorporate them

4.05 3.31

Creativity - 4.08

Please indicate the degree you agree or disagree with the following statements, using a 5-point scale. 1 = Lowest; 2 = Low; 3 = Medium; 4 = High; 5 = Highest

. Direct Questions

AGB Students

Stated Expectation

AGB graduates are prepared well to solve a problem when: a)The problem is well-defined and the steps needed to solve it are clearly specified b) The problem is well-defined but the steps needed to solve it are not clearly specified c) It is clear that there is a problem , but the problem is not well defined and there are no clear steps to solve it

30%

40%

30%

AGB graduates demonstrate depth of knowledge, skill and perspective in the specialized area of: Marketing

4.18

3.31

AGB graduates demonstrate depth of knowledge, skill and perspective in the specialized area of: Finance

3.96

3.07

AGB graduates demonstrate depth of knowledge, skill and perspective in the specialized area of: Accounting

3.80

3.09

AGB graduates demonstrate depth of knowledge, skill and perspective in the specialized area of: Sales

4.09

3.19

How important to you as an employer are the problem-based and learn-by-doing experiences during the college education of the student?

4.33*

As an employer, what kind of education do you believe is more valuable to students: • A Specialized Education that is focused on specialty areas (such as marketing, finance, etc.) • A Balanced Education that combines broad competencies and specialty areas

19%*

81%

Estimation Results

Attributes

Marginal Utilities Using the Hierarchical Bayesian Model

Marginal Utilities Using the Multinomial Logit Model and Standard

Deviations

Critical Thinking Skills Basic -1.38854* -0.58784*(0.04572) Good 0.35698* 0.16026*(0.04074)

Advanced 1.03156* 0.42758*(0.04106) Communication Skills

Basic -1.22445* -0.53996*(0.03086) Good 1.22445* 0.53996*(0.03086)

Teamwork Skills Basic -0.85386* -0.38902*(0.02976) Good 0.85386* -0.38902*(0.02976)

Creative Thinking Yes 1.54899* 0.60826*(0.03126) No -1.54899* -0.60826*(0.03126)

Knowledge of Marketing Basic -0.40748* -0.15656*(0.04239) Good 0.10359* 0.08495*(0.04133)

Advanced 0.30389* 0.07160*(0.04135) Knowledge of Finance

Basic -0.26371* -0.10500*(0.04195) Good 0.15611* 0.09345*(0.04109)

Advanced 0.10760** 0.01155*(0.04121) Log-likelihood for this model = -1580.18

Consistent Akaike Info Criterion = 3237.39 Chi Square Statistic= 1053.91

Note: Standard errors are in parentheses. * and ** denote statistically significant variables at 5% and 1% levels of respectively.

Importance Scores for Attributes Attributes of College

Graduates Attribute

Importance Scores (0 - 100%)

Rank of Importance

Creativity 29% 1

Communication Skills

23% 2

Critical Thinking Skills

22% 3

Teamwork Skills 16% 4

Knowledge of Marketing

7% 5

Knowledge of Finance

4% 6

Findings Creativity is the most important attribute with the

strongest impact on employer’s choices Communication skills and Critical Thinking skills

compete closely as the second and third most valued attributes by employers

Ability to work in Teams skills came across as the next important attribute for employers

Specialized Technical knowledge in marketing and finance were ranked relatively low by employers

Findings

Labor market places a higher value on generic skills, like creativity, interpersonal communication, critical thinking, and ability to work in teams compared to technical skills

As production becomes increasingly globalized, employees

must have skills that allow them to adapt, be willing to engage in innovation and redeployment

More general abilities and worker flexibility are required

and must be nurtured as they are critical given the dynamic nature of the labor market and ongoing technological change

Choice Modeling Attributes Candidate A Candidate B

Candidate C

Critical Thinking Basic Good Basic Communication Good Good Good

Team Work Good Basic Good Creativity No Yes Yes Marketing Good Basic Basic

Finance Good Basic Basic Preference Share

(Hierarchical Bayes)

24%

40%

36%

Preference Share (Aggregate Logit)

21%

42%

36%

Conclusions Results of the study indicate that there has been a shift

in the needs for skills in the labor market New skills are emerging as important to the knowledge

economy Employers value most workers who can think

creatively. The quest for creative ideas and solutions in the today’s economy is becoming more and more pervasive

Although it is a talent-oriented process, yet, creativity can be taught and learned in schools (Livingston, 2010)

Creativity

Teaching Creativity Teaching Creatively

Thank you!!!

Questions?

Creativity … involves thinking that aims at

producing ideas or products that are relatively novel and can add value to society Creativity requires some specific

knowledge, but more importantly it can be developed and promoted!!!