According to research from Abintegro, the online career development portal, the way universities develop the employability skills of students has transformed thanks to huge advances in technology. Interview simulation technology, for example, helps university students to build confidence, communicate clearly and understand what employers are really looking for when attending a job interview, and allows the universities to measure the level of student capability and effort when it comes to their career development.
With increasing tuition fees, prospective students have become discerning customers and a key factor in their decision about where to study is the employment destinations of graduates. As such, universities have invested in their employability and careers service offerings in order to positively impact the career prospects of their students. The key difference is the technology available. Abintegro now works with Careers Teams at 60+ universities to deliver careers and employability skills development to every single student, using technology and eLearning to make this scalable and cost effective.
In the past 12 months, over 175,000 employability skills eLearning courses were completed on Abintegro’s platform, 150,000 career assessments taken and 125,000 interview simulations completed. A survey of students at a leading business school shows that 90% of their students are better prepared and confident attending a job interview. Additionally, when asked what makes the biggest impact on their employability, 53% of students stated simulation tools, 26% stated video-based advice and 22% rated online learning modules as the most effective.
‘The Interview simulator is one way in which universities scale their careers service to support their huge and dispersed student populations’ commented Abintegro Commercial Director David Heard. ‘In addition, the analytics available enable careers teams to tailor the support they provide to individuals and groups of students, and to quantify the effort and standard of preparation for the workplace made by each student.’
An increasing number of universities are putting employability skill development at the core of their offering to students, and are mandating activities that traditionally would have been completed by only a few students in a face to face appointment with a careers advisor. As the appetite for technology inside universities grows, the employability of students can be transformed and finally the proverbial ‘skill gap’ between the academic world and workplace can be bridged.
