Enhancing graduate employability – exploring the influence of experiential simulation learning on life skill development
通过访谈11名毕业生招聘者构建生活技能量表，并基于英国两所高校大一和大四学生的前后测调查，发现团队商业模拟体验式学习对大一学生的生活技能和专业知识有显著正面影响，但对大四学生效果较弱。
Skills and knowledge which increase the likelihood of university graduates finding employment is an increasingly important factor for higher education institutions. Even though subject matter expertise remains a primary objective, supporting students to build life skills that are desired by employers is essential to enhance graduate employability. Firstly, we draw on consultive interviews with 11 graduate recruiters to build a life skill ability scale. Through these interviews, we identify two constructs worth measuring (resilience and adaptability) not yet represented in extant life skill ability scales. Thereby contributing to life skills measures and their link to graduate employability. Secondly, this paper explores the influence of a team-based business simulation on the development of life skills at two higher education institutions in the UK for first- and fourth-year undergraduate students. Through a pre-survey and post-survey, this paper empirically finds that experiential learning by means of a team-based business simulation has an overwhelmingly positive influence on first-year students’ self-assessed life skill development as well as their course-specific subject matter expertise. Yet, the findings show less significant results for fourth-year students. This contributes to our understanding of business simulations as a pedagogical practice and its benefits for students beyond their education.