Employer doubts about online learning are on the increase

Employers’ doubts about online learning in universities have hardened because it discourages development of students’ collaboration skills.

Employers’ doubts about online learning in universities have hardened because it discourages development of collaboration skills.

Employers’ doubts about online learning in universities have hardened, with more saying they are not satisfied with the performance of graduates who have studies online rather than face to face.

The 2023 employer satisfaction survey, which received responses from nearly 3000 immediate supervisors, found an 88.3 per cent satisfaction rate on collaborative skills for graduates who studied face to face or in hybrid mode, compared to 81.9 per cent for those who studied online.

The overall satisfaction rate – which included employers’ assessment of graduates’ foundation, adaptive, technical and employability skills – was 85.5 per cent for those who studied face to face or in hybrid mode, and 80.3 per cent for those who studied online.

The survey, part of the federal government-funded Quality Indicators of Learning and Teaching program, which reports on the skills and employment outcomes of recent graduates each year, found that, overall, 83.7 per cent of employers were satisfied with the quality of graduates in 2023.

This was down from 84.1 per cent in 2022 and a high of 85.3 per cent in 2021.

Graduates employed in professional occupations were rated more highly at 86.2 per cent in 2023.

Lisa Bolton, QILT research and strategy director, said the results showed higher education graduates “continue to demonstrate high skill levels in the workplace and are well prepared for work, soon after they graduate”.

“However, it should be noted that graduates who had completed their courses online scored less highly in relation to the development of their collaborative skills, which may need to be monitored with the increase in online and hybrid study modes post-Covid.” The collaborative skills of all graduates achieved a high of 89.3 per cent satisfaction in 2021 but declined to 86 per cent in 2023.

The survey found that the graduates of vocationally oriented courses such as agriculture and environment (90.8 per cent), education (87.4 per cent), health (85.8 per cent) and engineering (88.8 per cent) are rated significantly higher by their employers than those who tackled more generalist degrees such as creative arts (75.4 per cent), management and commerce (78.7 per cent), and society and culture (82.4 per cent).

The survey also found that employers place more importance on graduates’ qualifications than the graduates themselves. It found 62.8 per cent of graduate supervisors considered the qualification to be important or very important, compared with 53.6 per cent of graduates.

More than half of the graduates had been with their employer less than a year after completing their qualification.

“Their relative lack of work experience may explain why they did not fully comprehend the extent to which their qualification is important for their job,” the survey said in its commentary.

Qualifications were considered important or very important by 80 per cent of employers of health graduates and 78.2 per cent of education graduates.

Asked how qualifications could have better prepared graduates, 38.4 per cent of employers said “domain-specific skills and knowledge” and 36.3 per cent said “employability and enterprise skills”.