Within an ever-evolving mobile job market, there is currently an ongoing structural change towards service sectors and higher skills, while the polarisation of jobs is bringing about changes in the primary sector and traditional industry, resulting in work activities being replaced by competitive positions. Subsequently, new requirements include employability, business priorities, key competences and, above all, learning to learn. This further upholds the need for making learning visible in tangible and concrete learning outcomes in transparent markets.
The proposition that “learning outcomes are the basic building blocks of the Bologna Process package of educational reforms” has been endorsed by the signatory countries to the Bologna Process, while upholding this approach as the fulcrum of the paradigm shift from teacher to student-centred learning. The Bologna Process is the process of creating the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and is based on cooperation between ministries, higher education institutions, students and staff from 46 countries, with the participation of international organisations. This notion has been further supported by full stakeholder engagement, clarification of the European Qualifications Framework, monitoring of Learning Outcomes, assessment and grading and, above all, the implementation of such Learning Outcomes reflecting a better learning experience without succumbing to the external pressures surrounding both national and international educational institutions. Progression and development of learning outcomes is ongoing, while a core element is necessary, despite the cultural differences and language barrier.
As major stakeholders in the holistic educational process, students should be consulted throughout, as they are co-owners and co-producers of this cycle. The consultation process with other stakeholders such as the industry, the academic corps and other related parties should be key to the successful implementation of Learning Outcomes and the continuous upkeep of our educational programmes, which should be kept in line with the needs and developments of the industry and the market. A team of Bologna experts has recently been appointed by the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Ministry to follow up the implementation process of the goals set up within the Bologna Process in their respective institutions and should bring forward any feedback, proposals or complaints of the institution for which they are responsible. This would consolidate the stakeholders’ consultation process. Sessions with employers and the market/industry should also be enhanced, as their demands would guarantee the employability of students who achieve the given Learning Outcomes of their studies.
The culture of Learning Outcomes within Higher Education institutions should be fostered and entrenched within the students reading for the degree or undertaking the particular programme. Concrete and clear Learning Outcomes provide a point of arrival translated into a set of targets, which are to be achieved by the end of the programme of study. Providing tangible, definitive and easily comparable Learning Outcomes would lead our country into promoting academic excellence, integration and cooperation between member universities, serving as a driving force in the development of the Bologna process and facilitating the integration of other universities with the EHEA.
Despite Learning Outcomes being the keystone at the very core of educational programmes, the present student, or rather professional, can never do without basic competences and abilities, which enable him or her to adapt to the metamorphosis of career paths and professions. Employability is no longer an indefinite episode, a predictable and anchored know-how and knowledge. On the other hand, as KSU’s (Il-Kunsill ta’ l-iStudenti Universitarji) and AIESEC’s Careers’ Convention described the concept during last week’s event, employability is all about “Careers, Corporate and Talent”. Graduate employability is all about “local prospects, international opportunities, making connections and getting out there”. The Careers’ Convention provides the opportunity for companies to meet students as potential employees on the university grounds, with ample time for questions and answers, information and a preview of the very same individuals who will be occupying the top management posts in their companies in a few years time.
Employability was mentioned as a priority ambition in the Bologna Process during the Ministerial Conference held in London in May 2007. Major issues with regard to employability, with special reference to graduate employability, include re-designing the curricula and learning methods, the launching of study programmes that are interesting to the students, socially relevant and at the same time competent for the labour market, and the employability of the qualification from the respective higher education institutions.
The notion of employability has advanced into a concept of individual status and individual growth, bearing individual responsibility as much as institutional responsibility on a national scale. The urge and advantage of being competitive is producing employability as a forum of success, rights and personal empowerment. Fundamentally, establishing society’s capacity towards the right to work complements the right to education in a knowledge-centred society.
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