Desired skills of english for international communication graduates program from requirements of graduate users for the 21st century

Abstract

The purposes of the research were to 1) study the attributes of the graduates according to standards of learning outcome 2) study the 21st century skills of English for International Communication graduates desired by employers 3) compare the attributes of the graduates according to standards of learning outcome categorized by the individual factors and 4) compare the employers’ requirements to skills of English for International Communication graduates categorized by the individual factors. The population were 55 employers participating in the cooperative education project in the academic year 2017. The research tools were questionnaires and interviews which were analyzed by the SPSS program. The statistical data analysis was performed by frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and Fdistribution and the interview data analysis was performed by frequency and content analysis. The results were found as follows. 1. As for the employers' information,33emoloyets were from private and service businesses (60%) and 14 employets were from government sectors (25.50%).As for the working statuses,29 employers were the officers (53.70%), 20 employer were the supervisors (37.00%) and 5 employers weie mangers (9.30%) 2. The overall requirement of hte employers for the attrbutes of the graduates according to standandards of learning outcome was at the high level (=4.48). As for each attribute, morals and ethcs were the most desirable (=4.75), the second highest level was interpersonal skils and accountabiliy (4.57) and the last one was the intellectual skills (=4.25), 3. The overall requirement of the ernptoyers for the 21st century skills of the graduates was at the high level (=4.43). As for each attribute, the highest level was enthusiasm, collaboration, and thinking skills respectivr'ty (=4.63,4.58 and 4.54), The lowest tevel was the inquiry skills (=4.07). 4.The results of the research hypothesis were; 4.1 There was a significant difference between the employers with different employrment sectors (government and service business sectors) and the requirement of the graduates attributes. There was no significant difference between the employers with different working status and the requirement of the graduates' attributes. 4.2 There is no significant difference between the employers with diferent employent sectors and working status and the requirement of the graduates' attributes.