Role of Ongoing Training Courses in Bonding Alumni-Free-Samples

Question: Discuss about the role of ongoing training courses in bonding alumni with the college and in enhancing their performance after they graduate. Answer: Introduction The job market now-a-days has become much more complex than ever before. This has resulted in the emergence of several training and development programs, which in turn is helping greatly in removing the deficiency of performance within an employee. While in earlier times, the financial resources of a company have been regarded to be an issue of utter importance, in determining the long-term sustenance of a company, perceptions of doing business in such a competitive world has largely changed. There is no denying of the fact that varieties of employment development programs is helping in creating a strong pool of talented workforce, who have the ability to satisfy the consumers of the company in a more effective way, and thus they are directly contributes to the higher share of profitability of the company (Graves, 2017). Moreover, the employment development programs is helping the organizations worldwide in enhancing and brushing up the existent of skills, expertise and knowledge of the employees during their learning period that is helping them in developing their interpersonal communication and innovative managerial skills and embracing the leadership qualities which are helping them in combating with the unforeseen challenges in their work place (Noe et al. 2014). The accomplishment of the organizational goals is dependent on the knowledge and soft skills of the employee to a great extent. Therefore, the employee skills have been considered to be a major factor in achieving the respective organizational goals and objectives. These knowledge and skills are learnt by the employees during their learning period in their universities and institutions. Many of the times, a student after graduating from his universities, returns back to the same for being a part of the online training courses conducted by their universities for developing the skills and efficiency of their students in their respective disciplines Literature review Graduate employability The last 40 years have witnessed great ongoing reforms in the higher education system in China, in which the four processes- decentralization, marketization, privatization and massification have influenced the change very deeply. According to Jacobs (2014), in the term of graduate employability in China, on the one hand, a substantial expansion as long as 1999 has resulted in a sharp increase in the amount of graduates who are flowing into the job market, whereas on the other hand, also a two-way selection procedure was introduced in order to replace the central placement policy of the state government. As a result, both the employers and the employees are free to choose their employees and employers respectively. Hirst, Thompson Bromley (2015), has been stated that graduate unemployment has been haunting China in the recent years and has become more severe than ever before. Darling-Hammond (2015), has further stated that there has been growing number of graduates in China, reportin g that they are facing difficulties in finding jobs in recent years. Liu Dian (2016), in his journal the Parental Involvement and University Graduate Employment in China, stated that in this expanded higher education system, the students belonging from the middle-class family are found to have much better access to the information relating job than their disadvantaged counterparts. He also found out that they also gain better jobs than them. Other researchers have been turned to the theory of social capital in order to explain this occurrence. Wang, Zhang Wu (2016), has stated that such phenomenon happens because of the fact that the students belonging form the middle-class family are generally well equipped with higher status contacts and much wider social network and this makes them more likely to have or gain better job opportunities. Furthermore, it has been found from the recently conducted survey by the jobsDB on the Employment Status of Hong Kongs Tertiary Students 2016, that near about 89 percent of the university graduates batch in Hong Kong are found to get a job within more or less three months of leaving their universities and with the same, the majority of them are well satisfied with their job and position (Mok, 2016). The survey suggested the thinking of about 757 local and undergraduates from different disciplines. It has revealed that the fresh graduates in Hong Kong get an average salary of 14,685 Hong Kong dollars in their very first job. Figure 1: The Undergraduates expected salary in Hong Kong Figure 2: The average employer satisfaction in 1 to 10, with the countrys higher education system (2017) The above graph shows that the US universities are dominating the other countries by being the number one institutions for employability. While in South Korea and Japan, the employers gave their university system an average score of 5.7 and 5.5 respectively. According to the government of Japan, the university graduates have an employment rate of 97.3 percentages (Shin 2016). The issue of unemployment has been reducing from the last few years. However, according to the new figures the recent university graduates are entering into much more favorable job market than before. In fact, according to Thompson, Nitzarim Dahling (2013), less than 20,000 cohort of the last year university remains jobless or unemployed and the government has committed that it will assist them in finding employment. Furthermore, while a stress on the expansion has been noticed in the Sub-Saharan Africans higher education sector from 2.3 million in the year 1999 to a notable growth to 6.6 million in the year 20 13, a standard offerings has been received lesser importance, with more latest concerns on the standards of translating into disappointment with the merit or quality of the graduates hitting the job market. Importance of university bonding with the alumni An alumnus has the potential to the most loyal and the most generous supporters of the institutions. With strong and powerful alumni relations, the prospect pool of the institution would be significantly decreased and with the same, the chances of important fundraising success damages. According to Lucas Mbiti (2014), a proper definition of alumni is the former students or graduates of a particular school, university or institution. However, Scott (2013), further stated that the definition of alumni is different in different institutions. Some institution restricts this term to only graduates and some others widen their definition to constitutes the former students as well as the retired staffs. Hornak Marshall (2015) has stated that in earlier days, the alumni relations tended to be regarded as the stand-alone activity that is divorced from the fundraising and different other related advancement activities. McDearmon (2013) has stated that in todays era, the relation of alumni and institution is very important for the fact that they are fundraising prospects and are the most loyal supporters of the institutions. Constantinides Stagno (2013), further said that alumni engenders crucial word-of-mouth marketing among their professional and social networks. Furthermore, Kwong Thompson (2016), have stated that the Alumni plays the role of great role models for the present students as they are often placed well in order to offer empirical supports to the university students while they start their careers. They are frequent in the position of engaging the skills of the university in their professional lives. Khodabandelou, Karimi Ehsani (2015), states that the alumni are often regarded as the international ambassadors, as they take the knowledge gained from their respective institutions to their countries or hometowns as well as their social and professional networks. Therefore, marinating a good relation with the alumni will help the institutions in spreading po sitive messages regarding the very institution from which the alumnus belongs. They further stated that if the relation between the institution and the alumni stalls while they leave the campus, it is likely that their knowledge about the activities and the achievements of the institution will not evolve. Hence, this in turn will lead to sharing of old and out dated messages with the people and this will inject an image of poor progress of the institution. Alumni not only contribute in making positive online as well as international public profile of their institutions and universities. According to Sarkar et al. (2016), alumni also helps their respective institutions by providing career advice, internships, placement and mentoring to the present universities students. With the same, they also provide expert guidance and advice to university leadership as well as provide guest lectures, case study materials and other similar equipments in order to enhance the teaching. They have sta ted that a good bonding between the alumni and the universities is not alone helpful and beneficial to the universities or the institutions alone, but in fact, the alumni too are benefitted through this. Through helping the universities gain worldwide popularity and by helping it in becoming bigger and more successful, the alumni in turn is also enhancing the value of their degrees and qualifications. Factors affecting the Alumni giving There are several factors that have the potential to affect the desire of the alumni to give to their alma mater. Various researches have been shown that the characteristics of the alumni at the time when they were the students of their universities are not those powerful predictors of future giving. While the other research on the same shows that the alumnus who has business degrees contributes more than the other alumni. Freeland, Spenner McCalmon (2015), have found out in his research that the male graduates tend to donate larger sum of money than the female graduates, but in the context of participation, more number of Alumni support their alma maters. However, Mastroieni (2013), in his study found out that emotional bonding and attachments with the colleges and universities is a very powerful or strong predictor of alumni support. According to him, alumni involvement with their universities after the completion of graduation is a very crucial factor in affecting his alumni supp ort of their alma mater as well as the amount of the donations given by them. One of the several institutional characteristics that play a vital role in the overall alumni support is that whether the university is private or public. According to Stephenson Bell (2014), while comparing the ratios of solicitation effectiveness of the different universities; the public universities have shown lower solicitation effectiveness ratios than the private ones and also that the public liberal arts institutions report the lowest number of all the groups. They have discussed that communication and the alumni cultivation activities also have the potential to change or affect the alumni giving. They explains that in the competitive climate of eastern society, the universities for higher education requires supports and allies and they depend on their respective alumni in order to play the role of these supporters. Hence, there is a continuous effort in order to maintain as well as to strengthen t hat sense of community among the colleges and universities and their graduates or alumni in Japan, China and Korea. Peoples (2013), has found that the regular contact with the graduates results in greater sum of donations as compared to the one-time campaigns. Matters (2013), further stated that among such institutional characteristics, alumni perceptions towards the value of education that they have received from the institution too constitutes a major part that has the potential to influence their giving. A study in the magazine of Fund Raising Management has found that the satisfaction level at the time of being the students at their institutions is a string predictor of future Alumni giving of theirs. The more the alumni are satisfied today, the more are their chances of being generous donor tomorrow. Greeley (2013), in his study has found that the students who perceived the standard of their education to be higher are more likely to become generous donor as an alumnus. Hence, the institution can influence their perceptions through good communication and relation highlighting their faculty successes and other different teaching regarded accolades and though well efficient training programs that can influence the career of the students. In adequate preparation and knowledge Several studies have shown that while the situations of the alumni or the graduates is uneven in the eastern part of the world, a recent study by the Fleming (2017), for China estimated that more than half of all the alumni in these parts are inadequately prepared for doing job or employment. The study suggests that the graduates struggle very hard to find work. However, several studies have shown that the statistics of students death while seeking job or employment is much lower than the other countries in the world. Like, for example, in Africa in some of the extreme cases, looking for job has resulted in deaths. In the year 2014, a desperate search for alumni jobs has ended up in tragedy in some parts of Nigeria, as the graduate candidates for Immigration Service rushing outside of the recruitment centers over the country scattered, leading to deaths of about more than fifteen people. This is not the same in Eastern regions. According to recent survey of 2017, though the number of fresh graduates, looking for job in China has increased to a great number, still many of them do not seem to be careful enough whether they find one job or not (David, 2017). Postiglione (2013), has considered them as the devotees of slow employment, who are not so fast enough in finding out job right after their graduation. Furthermore, employers in most of the sectors in Korea have expressed their concerns that the graduates from the Korean institutions are seemed to know a lot of different theories but most of them are unaware of the techniques of how to apply them in the practical life. They have found that the soft skills such as that of leadership, communication, teamwork and of ownership are missing among the new crop of graduates. Sekaran (2016), has therefore stated that the fresh graduates need strong problem solving and communication skills if they want to succeed in their workplace. Case et al. (2013), explains that it is very important for the alumni to have skills and knowledge in their disciplines while seeking employment. In this era of globalization, maintaining competitiveness in the job market and improving employability of the alumni have imposed great challenges in the Eastern region as well as many other countries in other parts of the world. Kuehn Corrigan (2013), have stated that securing employment in such a challenging economic era is not an easy feat in comparison to the earlier days. The work structures and technologies have greatly changed and have advanced by leaps and bounds and this has interfaced the human knowledge with latest technologies and hence, the employment condition is getting much more flexible and complex than ever before. According to the recent survey, the trend of unemployment is seems to be less prevalent among the young graduates or the alumni in the Eastern regions than the other parts of the world such as UK and Malaysia. 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