Influence of firm size on the competencies required to management engineers in the Jordanian telecommunications sector

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study is to identify the competencies required to achieve success in the transition from higher education to the labour market based on the perceptions of employers. This paper analyses the assessments made by a group of engineering company employers. An item-battery of 20 competencies was grouped into 3 dimensions by using factor analysis. Subsequently, respondents’ scores were also clustered into three groups and characterised through contingency tables. The competencies demanded by employers were grouped into business and finance, problem-solving and strategic planning. Significant differences were found between responses from employers working in medium and small companies, who placed more importance on competencies related to problem-solving and strategic planning, and employers in big companies, who were more concerned about the difficulties of finding well-trained graduates. The findings from this paper have important implications for research in the areas of higher education and organisations that usually employ graduate engineers.

KEYWORDS:

• Competencies
• higher education
• management engineers
• labour market

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank a number of people who made this study a reality. First, many thanks go to the technical and management staff of telecommunication companies in Jordan, Jordan Armed Forces, Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) and the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) for participating in meetings, completing the demand questionnaires and for providing feedback on the needs of local telecommunication market in Jordan. Second, many thanks go to the academic and technical staff at YU, GJU and HU for their efforts in data collection and analysis, specifically Awni Itradat, Mohammed Al-Bataineh, Mohammed Al Oqlah, Bassam Harb, Haythem Bany Salameh, Asem Al Zoubi, Loay Salhieh, Safwan Tarazi and Nathir Rawashdeh.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Andrea Conchado holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering by the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. She works as an assistant professor in this university. She has co-authored 14 research papers in scientific journals, 3 research books and 9 book chapters. Her research interests lie in the areas of research methodology and applied statistics for social sciences.

María del Carmen Bas Cerdá received a Ph.D. in Statistics and Optimisations at the Universitat Politècnica de València. She is currently assistant professor at the department of Statistics and Operative Research at the Universitat Politècnica de València. Her main areas of research are multivariate analysis, the design and analysis of surveys, sample design, the generation of data bases.

Khaled M. Gharaibeh received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2004 from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. He is currently an Associate Professor of Telecommunications Engineering at Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan and the Tempus project coordinator. His research interests are in nonlinear system modelling, wireless sensor networks and engineering education. He is a senior member of IEEE.

Hazem Kaylani received his Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Arizona State University. He joined The German-Jordanian University (GJU) in 2006. Prior to that he worked as a senior simulation analyst at the Boeing Company, Mesa, Arizona. His research interests include optimisation of stochastic models, discrete event simulation tools, and hybrid production control systems.

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) [Tempus program. Project number 511074] of the European Commission for providing funding for conducting this study. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.