At least once in your lifetime, you must have encountered a long list of requirements for your dream job, including years of experience, an MA degree and an endless list of skills and qualifications you need to meet - and you go blank. You start thinking: “Well, I have graduated, I have no working experience apart from several months of meaningless practice in an organization where I had to make copies or carry out the tasks, where I was not explained to the value of my contribution to the big picture”. You got the certificate of completion, which was submitted to the study department and your 6 ECTS got validated in your transcript of records. However, you still feel frustrated because it is you who knows that you are not qualified for the position due to the lack of field-specific, practical knowledge.
According to Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci, the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness represent essential factors for personal growth, and well-being (known also as self-determination theory). The fulfillment of these three needs depends on your inner motivation and efficiency in learning or work environment. The new job is related to positive excitement as well as your attitude towards your self to perform well. When you do not feel confident in your competence, it might affect your life at work to a great extent.
Analyzing and contrasting what I have learned in my academic path and work experience, compels me to question the knowledge acquired in the classroom and its applicability in real-life situations. Manfred Eckert sums up my thoughts on the dichotomy between theory and practice. He claims:
“There is a danger of communicating “inert” knowledge that can hardly be applied in practice. This way, the school turns into an artificial social world of its own with particular demands, selection mechanisms and status-guaranteeing certificates, a social world that loses its connection with reality and nevertheless is able to secure social reproduction and the distribution of opportunities over generations – and thus maintains its social attractiveness”.
Maybe the new, valuable and thrillingly interesting knowledge becomes inert when the learner does not see its value in practice? Perhaps the student needs more balanced, experiential learning with a meaningful practice? We show up in the classroom to learn how to get stuff done at the workplace - such as carrying out projects, working on policies, etc. Within my program, I had the chance to participate in project called Education For Future. Through this project we met with educators from Estonia, Netherlands, Switzerland and Lichtenstein to discuss the implications of OECD trends in educational policy and created scenarios for future schools. It was a real work experience for future education policy makers.
My program tries its best to get closer to practice. By analyzing innovation practices at schools through interviewing stakeholders and contrasting it with existing theory, we have a helicopter view of how theory and organizational practice go hand in hand. And, through real-life simulations, we put ourselves in the shoes of decision-makers and practitioners.
Some students of certain programs are lucky to have a learning experience like this and some less so. The TLU self-evaluation report states that a large majority of alumni (87%) believe their knowledge to be applicable to work, however, the report also states that according to the graduates the study programs were “somewhat too theoretical, one-sided and did not correspond to the expectations of the graduates”. In response to this challenge, TLU increased the volume of subject-specific courses and practice components. It is interesting to explore whether this challenge is still actual among more recent graduates and employers as well.
When we shift our focus towards the labor market, the students and fresh graduates are in a bit of trouble. The research shows that at the initial stage of recruitment, your formal qualification affects the selection. Even more, when it comes to positions, where higher education is not necessary, HE degree is a winning advantage. And in an environment where education is so widespread, employers tend to raise their educational requirement standards. This leads to so-called educational surplus and devaluation.
Maybe the problem can be solved if all the actors in this story sit together at the round table ti discuss each other’s needs. Universities explore labor market demands and ask the students for feedback for each course. However, communication among these three stakeholders - Students, Academics, Employers - does not happen simultaneously. They are rather separated and isolated. The communication is either between university and employers, university and students, or students and employers. We believe it should be us - the students - to take control of our narrative and establish this trialogue.