Students’ Perceptions of the Skills in the Labor Market in the 4th Industrial Revolution

2022-06-20T08:27:55-04:00

The Fourth Industrial Revolution will have a crucial impact on the jobs, the types of skills required to cover them, and the role of Higher Education in obtaining these skills. Among the challenges universities are called upon to face is providing students with the necessary employability skills for their future professional careers. This research aims to investigate the perceptions of students at the University of the Aegean and the University of Patras on the employability skills considered necessary in the future labor market. The research was conducted using a questionnaire answered by 392 students from various faculties of the University of the Aegean and the University of Patras. The results show that participants consider hard skills more important (such as Equipment Selection and troubleshooting) than programming and mathematics. They also consider soft skills (such as active listening and critical thinking) to be more important than negotiation, social perceptiveness, and coordination. In terms of their degree and the skills it offers, the majority consider that they have chosen it for a professional career and that it provides them with the necessary skills for the labor market. However, for the next 10–15 years, they do not consider that their degree will be sufficient regarding the skills requirements for their employability.

Towards User-Centred Framework for Reconfiguring Library Spaces in the Global South: Case of Kenyan Universities

2024-01-08T14:43:21-05:00

In the global sphere, there is a trend that is gaining momentum in university libraries, and that is the shifting nature of the physical library spaces. The transition from print to electronic resources is among the issues influencing the shifting of library spaces. The change in pedagogy, where learning activities now lay emphasis on collaboration and group projects, necessitates new requirements in physical library spaces to rhyme with the new purposes and learning styles that better meet users’ needs. Unfortunately, the available library space reconfiguring frameworks are inclined to the global north, which may not be suitable for the global south countries such as Kenya. It is on this strength that this paper seeks to explore how to attain user-centred university library spaces in the global south that meet the needs and wants of the users. The main objective of this paper is to propose a framework for reconfiguring university library spaces. The paper intended to achieve this by exploring suggestions on additional spaces and facilities to be included in the library, identifying attractive spaces and features of a library, exploring projections of the future outlook of the library, and examining elements of a desirable model space for university libraries in Kenya. The methodology employed a pragmatic research philosophy and multiple case studies. Data was collected from students, academic staff, librarians and university librarians. The qualitative data was thematically analysed, while the quantitative data used descriptive statistics. Based on the findings, the study proposed a user-centred framework for reconfiguring university library spaces in Kenya.

European Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Students’ Perceptions of the Skills in the Labor Market in the 4th Industrial Revolution

Towards User-Centred Framework for Reconfiguring Library Spaces in the Global South: Case of Kenyan Universities