Am I Fit for Tomorrow’s Labor Market? The Effect of Graduates’ Skills Development during Higher Education for the 21st Century’s Labor Market
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Authors,
In an increasingly volatile world, it is urgent to train and educate higher education students with competence that can determine their action as an individual and in a group and as a leader for sustainability. In view of the above, the contribution of the manuscript is essential in order to increase the debate around the skills of the 21st century. However, the manuscript should compare these skills with the skills for sustainable development, given the importance of the theme and relevance today up-to-date - Education for Sustainable Development - mainly for higher education students, and also because throughout the manuscript, the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development is mentioned. Nowadays, this articulation is more and more relevant and the due reference to these competences for the new generations and the ones to come on future.
According to the proposed title, and in order to improve the manuscript, it would be opportune and relevant to integrate the Competences for SD (Rieckmann, 2012), namely the following:
- Systemic thinking and handling of complexity
- Anticipatory thinking
- Critical thinking
- Acting fairly and ecologically
- Cooperation in (heterogeneous) groups
- Participation
- Empathy and change of perspective
- Interdisciplinary work
- Communication and use of media
- Planning and realising innovative projects
- Evaluation
- Ambiguity and frustration tolerance
The title could be revise in order to make it more clear and concise. For example: Am I Fit for Tomorrow’s Labor Market? The Effect of Graduates’ Skills Development during Higher Education for the 21st Century’s Labor Market
Other references:
Rieckmann, M. (2012). Future-oriented higher education: Which key competencies should be fostered through university teaching and learning? Futures, 44 (2), 127–135
Barth, M., Godemann, J., Rieckmann, M., & Stoltenberg, U. (2007). Developing Key Competencies for Sustainable Development in Higher Education. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 8(4), 416–430.
(8) (PDF) Developing Key Competencies for Sustainable Development in Higher Education. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233518501_Developing_Key_Competencies_for_Sustainable_Development_in_Higher_Education [accessed Sep 09 2020].
The Competences in Education for Sustainable Development (“Learning for the future: Competences in Education for Sustainable Development”; ECE/CEP/ AC.13/2011/6) were adopted at the sixth meeting of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Steering Committee on Education for Sustainable Development on 7 April 2011. https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/env/esd/ESD_Publications/Competences_Publication.pdf
Lambrechts, W., Verhulst, E. and Rymenams, S. (2017), "Professional development of sustainability competences in higher education: The role of empowerment", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 18 No. 5, pp. 697-714. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-02-2016-0028
Author Response
14th of September 2020
Dear Reviewer 1 of Sustainability,
We are pleased to be able to send you a carefully revised manuscript with an itemized, point-by-point response to your comments regarding the article entitled ‘Am I Fit for Tomorrow’s Labor Market? The Effect of Graduates’ Skills Development during Higher Education for the 21st Century’s Labor Market’.
We would like to thank you very much for the thoughtful and constructive comments. We sincerely hope that we have met all of the requirements for change.
We would now like to resubmit our manuscript for possible publication in Sustainability. Please let us know whether you have any further questions or requirements we have to take into account.
We will continue with a point-by-point reaction to the comments:
REVIEWERS’ COMMENTS
Reviewer 1:
Dear Authors,
In an increasingly volatile world, it is urgent to train and educate higher education students with competence that can determine their action as an individual and in a group and as a leader for sustainability. In view of the above, the contribution of the manuscript is essential in order to increase the debate around the skills of the 21st century. However, the manuscript should compare these skills with the skills for sustainable development, given the importance of the theme and relevance today up-to-date - Education for Sustainable Development - mainly for higher education students, and also because throughout the manuscript, the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development is mentioned. Nowadays, this articulation is more and more relevant and the due reference to these competences for the new generations and the ones to come on future.
According to the proposed title, and in order to improve the manuscript, it would be opportune and relevant to integrate the Competences for SD (Rieckmann, 2012), namely the following:
Systemic thinking and handling of complexity
Anticipatory thinking
Critical thinking
Acting fairly and ecologically
Cooperation in (heterogeneous) groups
Participation
Empathy and change of perspective
Interdisciplinary work
Communication and use of media
Planning and realising innovative projects
Evaluation
Ambiguity and frustration tolerance
The title could be revise in order to make it more clear and concise. For example: Am I Fit for Tomorrow’s Labor Market? The Effect of Graduates’ Skills Development during Higher Education for the 21st Century’s Labor Market
Other references:
Rieckmann, M. (2012). Future-oriented higher education: Which key competencies should be fostered through university teaching and learning? Futures, 44 (2), 127–135
Barth, M., Godemann, J., Rieckmann, M., & Stoltenberg, U. (2007). Developing Key Competencies for Sustainable Development in Higher Education. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 8(4), 416–430.
(8) (PDF) Developing Key Competencies for Sustainable Development in Higher Education. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233518501_Developing_Key_Competencies_for_Sustainable_Development_in_Higher_Education [accessed Sep 09 2020].
The Competences in Education for Sustainable Development (“Learning for the future: Competences in Education for Sustainable Development”; ECE/CEP/ AC.13/2011/6) were adopted at the sixth meeting of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Steering Committee on Education for Sustainable Development on 7 April 2011. https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/env/esd/ESD_Publications/Competences_Publication.pdf
Lambrechts, W., Verhulst, E. and Rymenams, S. (2017), "Professional development of sustainability competences in higher education: The role of empowerment", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 18 No. 5, pp. 697-714. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-02-2016-0028
Answer: Dear Reviewer, thank you very much for the feedback and opportunities to improve the manuscript. (1) We have gratefully used your recommended source of Riekmann (2012) and (2) we have made the title more concise in line with your recommendation.
- Additional source
- Theoretical framework and hypotheses
….. Finally, nowadays, one is often exposed to ‘fake news’ and information can easily become blurred, herewith making critical thinking another necessary skill in the workplace. “If we lack critical thinking skills, we can easily be fooled into thinking that an argument is strong when the premises actually provide little or no support for the conclusion” [12] (p. 6). McPeck [38] states that in order to execute critical thinking, reflective skepticism is needed in order to set apart critical thinking from just thinking. With critical thinking also being an important requirement for success, as perceived by employers [39], it should have a fundamental place within higher educational programs. As such, critical thinking is also one of the skills that is essential for sustainable development [40]…
- line 2-5:
Am I Fit for Tomorrow’s Labor Market?
The Effect of Graduates’ Skills Development during Higher Education for the 21st Century’s Labor Market
Thank you, dear Reviewer, for your insightful suggestions and helpful feedback which has aided us in increasing the readability and clarity of our manuscript.
We are pleased that we have met the requirements for change.
Sincerely yours,
The authors,
Omar Habets, Jol Stoffers, Beatrice Van der Heijden, Pascale Peters
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
This work makes a useful additional contribution to this field of work and I would suggest the following improvements to enhance it even further:
- There are several reports now on 21st Century Skills or similar and there are some noted in this paper. To give it a broader international feel, I suggest that the authors take a look at the CMI report on the topic https://www.managers.org.uk/~/media/Files/Reports/insights/research/21st_Century_Leaders_CMI_Feb2018.pdf and see how their list compares as an example.
- Please comment on whether you have noted any differences in the findings by, for example, gender, age groups or subject discipline. See O’Leary, S. in Studies in Higher Education 2019 as a reference source for this point and also as a source for other recent work on the topic generally https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2019.1640669
- Consider whether to add Evidence from the Netherlands at the end of the title of the work.
- Dates in your Reference list are sometimes bold and sometimes not; be consistent.
- Given the timing of the likely publication date, it may be suitable to at least make some reference to the potential implications of the global pandemic Covid-19 on this issue generally.
Author Response
14th of September 2020
Dear Reviewer 2 of Sustainability,
We are pleased to be able to send you a carefully revised manuscript with an itemized, point-by-point response to your comments regarding the article entitled ‘Am I Fit for Tomorrow’s Labor Market? The Effect of Graduates’ Skills Development during Higher Education for the 21st Century’s Labor Market’.
We would like to thank you very much for the thoughtful and constructive comments. We sincerely hope that we have met all of the requirements for change.
We would now like to resubmit our manuscript for possible publication in Sustainability. Please let us know whether you have any further questions or requirements we have to take into account.
We will continue with a point-by-point reaction to the comments:
REVIEWERS’ COMMENTS
Reviewer 2:
This work makes a useful additional contribution to this field of work and I would suggest the following improvements to enhance it even further:
(1) There are several reports now on 21st Century Skills or similar and there are some noted in this paper. To give it a broader international feel, I suggest that the authors take a look at the CMI report on the topic https://www.managers.org.uk/~/media/Files/Reports/insights/research/21st_Century_Leaders_CMI_Feb2018.pdf and see how their list compares as an example.
(2) Please comment on whether you have noted any differences in the findings by, for example, gender, age groups or subject discipline. See O’Leary, S. in Studies in Higher Education 2019 as a reference source for this point and also as a source for other recent work on the topic generally https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2019.1640669
(3) Consider whether to add Evidence from the Netherlands at the end of the title of the work.
(4) Dates in your Reference list are sometimes bold and sometimes not; be consistent.
(5) Given the timing of the likely publication date, it may be suitable to at least make some reference to the potential implications of the global pandemic Covid-19 on this issue generally.
Answer: Dear Reviewer, thank you very much for your insightful feedback and guidance in this review process. We highly appreciate your helpful comments. (1) This is a very interesting report and we see great overlap with the wishes of employers for new entrants on the labor market. Problem solving, critical analysis and collaboration are explicitly mentioned both in our manuscript and the referred report. (2) Thank you very much for this recent source and we adjusted our comment on noted differences in our manuscript, including the proposed reference. In our particular study, we have not found any significant differences according to ‘gender’, ‘age’, ‘highest educational degree obtained before admission to the current study program’ and ‘housing situation’, but we have elaborated more on this, in line with your feedback, in our manuscript. (3) In line with Reviewer 1 we have adapted the title to a shorter form to make it more concise. (4) We have double-checked the bibliography conscientiously and have aligned this to the template for references in Sustainability. The references number 6 has been adjusted. (5) Thank you very much for this remark on the current COVID-19 pandemic and we also note the significance of this. Therefore, we have added a section especially covering the importance of 21st century skills in times of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- 2 Measures
In order to test for possible confounding effects, and based upon earlier empirical research in this field we have in line with e.g. O’Leary [48], investigated whether ‘gender’ [48], ‘age’ [49], ‘highest educational degree before admission to the current program’ [50], and ‘housing situation’ [51] explained variance in our analysis. As our outcomes indicated that these factors did not add to the predictive validity of our research model, we have left them out from all further analyses in order to increase the power of our tests.
- Lines 460-462
Piątkowski, M.J. Expectations and Challenges in the Labor Market in the Context of Industrial Revolution 4.0. The Agglomeration Method-Based Analysis for Poland and Other EU Member States. Sustainability. 2020, 12, 5437
- Practical Implications
Working on the delivery of ‘sustainable employable’ graduates has even increased in importance with the year 2020 being dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, the crisis that this pandemic entails has also left its mark on education [60]. Currently, more than ever, graduates should perceive themselves to fit with the labor market and to be able to deal with a continuously altering environment [1]. Therefore, we posit that students need to be thoroughly trained in 21st century skills.
Thank you, dear Reviewer, for your insightful suggestions and helpful feedback which has aided us in increasing the readability and clarity of our manuscript.
We are pleased that we have met the requirements for change.
Sincerely yours,
The authors,
Omar Habets, Jol Stoffers, Beatrice Van der Heijden, Pascale Peters
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The focus of the manuscript is relevant, especially to higher educators whose goals are to effectively prepare students for the workforce. The manuscript is fairly well written however, there were a few questions/issued raised by this review that the author(s) should consider:
- The manuscript indicates the data set were fourth year students but never indicated from what disciplines/areas of specialization they were drawn. It is common knowledge that some disciplines e.g. engineering, are more keen on providing students with collaborative skills than others. The same can be said for the other 21st century skills. While the author(s) implied this in the limitation section, this could have significant impacts on their overall findings.
- The author(s) indicate they extracted 83 students for observations longitudinally but never discussed how these students were determined or again to what disciplines they belonged.
- In section 3.2 the author(s) provide some of the items from the instrument used to guide the study, for formatting reasons the author(s) might consider using a table to represent these.
- Overall there were several instances of incorrect tense use throughout the manuscript. The author(s) should also consider rewording sentences with phrases such as "how students' self-perceived 21st century skills relate to their self-perceived fit between..." This makes the sentence's meaning hard to parse. Author(s) should also check their punctuation and use of commas.
Author Response
14th of September 2020
Dear Reviewer 3 of Sustainability,
We are pleased to be able to send you a carefully revised manuscript with an itemized, point-by-point response to your comments regarding the article entitled ‘Am I Fit for Tomorrow’s Labor Market? The Effect of Graduates’ Skills Development during Higher Education for the 21st Century’s Labor Market’.
We would like to thank you very much for the thoughtful and constructive comments. We sincerely hope that we have met all of the requirements for change.
We would now like to resubmit our manuscript for possible publication in Sustainability. Please let us know whether you have any further questions or requirements we have to take into account.
We will continue with a point-by-point reaction to the comments:
REVIEWERS’ COMMENTS
Reviewer 3:
The focus of the manuscript is relevant, especially to higher educators whose goals are to effectively prepare students for the workforce. The manuscript is fairly well written however, there were a few questions/issued raised by this review that the author(s) should consider:
- The manuscript indicates the data set were fourth year students but never indicated from what disciplines/areas of specialization they were drawn. It is common knowledge that some disciplines e.g. engineering, are more keen on providing students with collaborative skills than others. The same can be said for the other 21st century skills. While the author(s) implied this in the limitation section, this could have significant impacts on their overall findings.
- The author(s) indicate they extracted 83 students for observations longitudinally but never discussed how these students were determined or again to what disciplines they belonged.
- In section 3.2 the author(s) provide some of the items from the instrument used to guide the study, for formatting reasons the author(s) might consider using a table to represent these.
- Overall there were several instances of incorrect tense use throughout the manuscript. The author(s) should also consider rewording sentences with phrases such as "how students' self-perceived 21st century skills relate to their self-perceived fit between..." This makes the sentence's meaning hard to parse. Author(s) should also check their punctuation and use of commas.
Answer: Dear Reviewer, thank you very much for the feedback.
(1,2) To follow up on your constructive comments, we have done the specific discipline/area of specialization analysis before writing this manuscript. Unfortunately, we found that there would be too few cases per specific discipline/area of specialization in order to write meaningfully about this and in a sound way (this also pertains to the longitudinal analysis). However, the data set did comprise only students in higher education, hence, we took this as the overarching framework. Nonetheless, we pinpointed your insightful reflection in our limitations and suggested the proposed differentiation per discipline/area of specialization for further research as we agree with you that this can provide more specific knowledge in this scholarly field.
(3) For the description of the measures, we highly appreciated the suggestion for a table, however, after considering it, the current lay-out gives the opportunity to include the alpha’s etc. in the texts, which has our preference. Please, do let us know if you still prefer otherwise.
(4) We have checked the manuscript and tried to align and adjust our sentences according to your feedback.
Thank you, dear Reviewer, for your insightful suggestions and helpful feedback which has aided us in increasing the readability and clarity of our manuscript.
We are pleased that we have met the requirements for change.
Sincerely yours,
The authors,
Omar Habets, Jol Stoffers, Beatrice Van der Heijden, Pascale Peters
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
