Public articulations

Two senior representatives of the Human Resources (HR)

department of a leading employer of IT graduates were

asked a series of questions about communication skills,

work placement practices and desired attributes of

graduates. As far as the industry representatives were

concerned, an ideal student candidate for a responsible

position would have the following attributes:

· Achieve high academic results;

· Demonstrate a positive attitude;

· Involvement in extra-curricular activities;

· A willingness to be flexible and pro-active;

· Show maturity and focussed work style;

· Be social and able to be part of social activities;

· Think for self and have initiative; and

· Consistent ability to work in a team.

One innovative suggestion focused on making greater use

of digital media. By recording the lecture material, one

respondent wrote, the tutorial groups could discuss the

problems at hand and thus pave the way for a ‘problembased

learning’ (PBL) approach to instruction. PBL

tutorials would thus be more student-centred, and the role

of tutors would be to facilitate group work and provide

occasional help.

This student’s comment is telling of the need for effective

communication skills:

I am not a lecturer or tutor, but I feel I can be of use

here, personally I feel that most tutors/lecturers are

poor communicators (hence poor lecturers and

tutors!), the reason I say this is because if they

communicate poorly, you just give up on

understanding and tune out. The best lecturers and

tutors that I have had were excellent communicators,

and in my opinion perhaps helped others learn by their example.

(2nd year CS student)