Many hiring managers around the world complain that they are not getting graduates who understand the world of work. Laureate Education Inc. Chief Executive Officer Malaysia Graham Doxey tells FAEZAH ISMAIL the importance of bringing students closer to the professional world

Huckaby keen on transforming students into “leaders of tomorrow”

HIGHER education’s unofficial buzzword nowadays is the term “career preparation”.

Whether the speaker is an educator from Malaysia, Spain, Switzerland or the United States, the message is the same: graduates must be ready for the job market.

The emphasis on career preparation has never been more urgent as hiring managers make it increasingly clear that they want graduates who can easily assimilate into the world of work.

Such graduates, hiring managers say, are in short supply.
If many tertiary institutions are slow to respond to the realities of the job market, some have embraced change and Laureate-owned institutions count as good examples.

As Laureate Education Inc. Chief Executive Officer Malaysia Graham Doxey puts it: “One of the problems that we have identified, and this seems to be true in every country I have been in — the United States, China, India, Japan and Malaysia, among others — is that the subjects and skills that education is focused on have nothing to do with what the job market is looking for. There is almost no correlation and it is a problem for every industry — in some it is bigger than others.”

It was against this backdrop of educational reform that Laureate recreated Universidad Europea de Madrid (or its acronym UEM) — a Spanish tertiary institution which was founded in 1995 — with the aim of helping “students adjust to the workplace and to their personal development”.

That was in 1999.

Today, as the first university in the Laureate stable, UEM’s academic model which is “based on four fundamental pillars: international projection, career guidance, the most cutting-edge offer of university degrees and openness to the world” is progressively seen as “a benchmark for quality in university education in Spain”.

Laureate is reportedly the world’s largest network of private international universities comprising more than 30 accredited campus-based and online universities offering undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes.

In the area of hospitality education, Glion Institute of Higher Education and Les Roches International School of Hotel Management in Switzerland offer courses at different levels (diplomas, bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees and postgraduate studies) to more than 3,000 students of some 80 nationalities. They also have branch campuses and transfer programmes in the Americas and Asia.

Having established itself in Latin America and Europe, Laureate wants to create a presence in Malaysia, a move that promises to change the educational landscape here.

Laureate, which has more than 300,000 students, has just added the INTI Group to its network with the acquisition of the Malaysian private tertiary institution recently.

INTI’s some 12,000 students will now become part of Laureate’s global student community spread across 70 campuses in 18 countries throughout North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

INTI, one of the pioneers in Malaysia’s private education, is said to be “an excellent fit” for Laureate.

Malaysia is an “exciting place to be”, says Doxey.

“For the last few years, Laureate has been exploring opportunities in Asia. We are focused on Malaysia right now.”

Laureate is attracted to Malaysia because of the tantalising combination of future demand and a supportive government.

The growing number of private tertiary institutions in Malaysia is an eloquent testimony to forward-looking government support.

Doxey notes that the Malaysian government wants to provide education to as many Malaysians as possible and this puts pressure on the public system to cater to the growing demand.

Besides, “Malaysia is one of those countries that seems to value family so future demand for education looks very positive”.

Put simply, Malaysia is a country with wonderful opportunities and Doxey singles out tourism and hospitality as one sector which could benefit from Laureate’s expertise.

Laureate is poised to transfer relevant aspects of its academic model here as it begins the process of rebranding INTI.

High on the list is the hands-on learning (or experiential learning to some) philosophy which concentrates on working with the community and industry to provide the kinds of manpower skills that the economy needs.

“We may not be able to do that right away in Malaysia but that concept is an important one,” says Doxey.

It is a concept the 52-year-old father of four understands well.

When he was president (2002-2007) of Neumont University, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States (which he founded), Doxey was “directly responsible for developing external relationships with Fortune 500 company customers”, among other duties.

In creating the university “we started by establishing partnerships with potential employers”.

The next logical move was to define the skills, competencies, knowledge and analytical abilities that employers wanted.

That led to a curriculum that not only meets academic standards but also develops the kind of workforce that industry wants.

The strategy proved to be “very, very effective”.

“Fortune 500 companies employed our graduates the most because they have a presence everywhere,” says Doxey.

Doxey had used the word “develop” but other educators in the Laureate organisation prefer “transform”.

Michael Huckaby, Laureate Hospitality Education Vice President Global Marketing, for example, likes to talk about “transformative education” — the “magic sauce”, as he describes it, that transforms students into “leaders of tomorrow”.

Glion’s strategy to develop leadership and managerial competencies among its students entail the following: hands-on learning, theory and international internships; all three are components of “transformative education”.

“I think the two (main ingredients) of our magic sauce would be hands-on learning which the industry absolutely loves and international internships. Those are two areas that you will not find in traditional education typically,” says Huckaby.

Theoretical knowledge which is acquired during the educational process only becomes beneficial when it is put into practice. That is why the Laureate academic model directs its curricula towards a clearly practical side.

The result: graduates have an edge in knowledge and the required competencies compared to other new ones, besides successfully coping with changes that come with first jobs.

“As Laureate comes to Malaysia the international education that we provide is not just in theory and nice thought processes but also in terms of valuable competencies,” says Doxey.

For all its shortcomings, traditional education has an essential role to play.

For one, says Doxey, it teaches youngsters, who do not know what they want to do, “to learn a little bit more about how to think independently although they will not be functional anywhere yet”.

The research nature of traditional education is also very valuable.

“One of the best returns for any national economy is to invest in traditional education because it produces research that produces new companies that produce new jobs but private education has the ability to be more focused on competencies (that are required by the job market). There is a role for traditional education although it is not structured to support the economy very well,” says Doxey.

And that brings the discussion to the balance between theory and practical training.

“Historically there has been a line between traditional theoretical education and vocational education and that is not producing what is needed today even though both of those exist — vocational education is too skills specific and tertiary education is too theoretical. So there has to be a balance,” Doxey says.

Medical education provides the best example of balance — medical students generally end their education with a period of practical training similar to internship.

Doxey says: “I would be very uncomfortable if I went to a doctor who took all of the exams, scored 100 per cent on every exam, graduated but did not know what to do. And our society does not allow that. You can take the test but you are not a doctor until you have spent three to five years doing the job and, after you have had that experience, society then says ‘okay, now you are a doctor’.

The educational institution is responsible for creating the balance that Doxey is talking about and it has to be done in partnership with the community.

The shift to a service-based economy — and Malaysia has already taken that leap — compels countries to reassess their education systems.

Vocational training in an industrial environment guaranteed a place on the production line almost immediately.

In a service-based economy the ability to interact with a customer is important — making traits such as communication skills, problem-solving, teamwork, initiative, leaderships abilities, self-esteem and creativity, among others, the “basic necessities” of the current world of work.

For now, “we don’t have people coming out of the education system (in any country) prepared for a service-based economy,” says Doxey.

Ideally, the world of higher education and the world of work must integrate.