Research on Improving the Efficiency of School Enterprise Joint Training Mode ()
1. Introduction
Academic-industry partnerships that serve the common job market are possible with collaboration, communication, and cooperation of all organizations involved. It is emerging as a critical component of the daily production (Morisson & Pattinson, 2020) and the innovation process (Ćudić et al., 2022). However, in the current labor market, there is a typical “supply and demand mismatch” problem between the employment of undergraduates and the recruitment of employers. In terms of supply, undergraduates lack practical ability due to lack of work experience after graduation, and cannot adapt to the needs of the work market. In terms of demand, employers are complaining that it is difficult to match suitable applied talents in recruitment. This not only reflects the reality that the training of business management work force in China’s general universities lags behind the economic and social development, but also reflects that the current training mode is facing the problem of how to improve the application and practical ability of undergraduates. Further, in essence, this is also the root cause of the current dislocation of talent supply and demand in China and the structural contradiction of talent. The main reason is that Chinese colleges and universities have not yet completely gotten rid of the traditional teaching mode that places too much emphasis on knowledge transfer, and the efficiency of joint training mode between schools and enterprises is not high. This leads to a serious lag in the cultivation of students’ practical ability, innovation ability, practical ability and ability to adapt to the environment and the needs of social and economic development.
Although many colleges and universities have many years of experience in the construction and exploration of the joint training mode of colleges and enterprises, they have not yet formed a benign joint training mechanism, nor have they achieved the original intention and goal of jointly training mode between schools and enterprises. First, while colleges and universities show enthusiasm for cooperating with enterprises to cultivate employees, the enthusiasm of enterprises to participate in the school-enterprise joint talent training mechanism is not high. Secondly, most school-enterprise cooperation is like empty shells, and it is common to stay at the institutional level without further promoting practice. Furthermore, in the reform and practice, colleges and universities still focus on the inside of the school and ignore the factors outside the school. Therefore, it has strong practical and theoretical significance to study how to establish a long-term school-enterprise joint training mode.
2. Literature Review
With the rapid development of social politics and economy, the society has an increasing demand for compound workforce. Thus, human resources play a vital role in the successful implementation of university-industry projects (Albats et al., 2020). Research shows that a gap does exist between business students’ skills/competences and the needed skills/competence in the job market (Alshare & Sewailem, 2018). Compared with the diversity of the social situation, the previous training mode gradually showed its shortcomings. Therefore, a new model of school-enterprise joint training of work force has emerged (Ye & Shu, 2021). Before the 1990s, scholars mainly focused on the study of the double helix relationship between universities and industries, universities and government, industry and government, especially universities and industries. In 1995, Harry Etzkowitz first proposed the “triple helix” model when analyzing the relationship between universities, enterprises and the government (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 1995). Arguing “the relationship between universities, enterprises and government is interdependent. Only in coordination with each other can these three continue to improve and progress”. This theory has far-reaching influence on the theoretical development of cooperative education. Chinese scholar Zhou Chunyan described the development process from “double helix” to “triple helix” through the analysis of American scholar Henry Etzkowitz’s “Triple Helix”, and commented on Henry Etzkowitz’s proposition (Zhou, 2006). The triple helix theory of “university-enterprise-government” has laid a theoretical foundation for the research on joint education between schools and enterprises in China.
In terms of the mode and mechanism of joint training, Lee believes that the current industry-university-research cooperation education and the main educational cooperation modes of applied undergraduate colleges are the following three: “3 + 1 + 1” model, “three semesters a year model”, “2.5 + 0.5 + 1” segmented culture mode, etc. (Lee, 2012). Wang et al. believe that the internal mechanism of industry-university-research cooperation education is mainly divided into power mechanism, operation mechanism, guarantee mechanism, regulation mechanism and evaluation mechanism (Wang et al., 2012). Schools should start from their own to improve the effectiveness of the operation of the mechanism. Duan et al. started from the “Excellent Engineer Education and Training Program” and combined the practice of the “Excellent Program” of Hehai University to build a school-enterprise joint training mechanism (Duan et al., 2013). They recommend establishing a school-enterprise joint training organization; establishing and improving a joint management system; formulating enterprise training plans jointly; formulating the construction goals of joint training practice bases jointly; building a “double-qualified” team jointly. Last but not least, always summarize the modes, systems and mechanisms that are conducive to promoting the development of industry-university-research cooperation education.
It should be an effective teaching method for local universities to realize the cultivation of applied talents (Lu, 2018). The concept of school-enterprise joint training and collaborative education should solve the problem of enterprises’ demand for professional talents. However, since the development of the school-enterprise joint training mechanism, the development orientation still needs to be further clarified. The input channels need to be further expanded and the assessment and incentive system needs to be further improved. New materials, new processes and new technologies emerge in an effective way and need to be updated frequently. Compared with schools and teachers, front-line enterprises have a more profound and precise grasp of the current situation and development trend of the profession (Shen et al., 2021). However, in the formulation and revision of business talent training programs and the pre-training of talents, companies do not have much participation. The self-hematopoietic ability needs to be strengthened. The following points should be clarified: scientific management, improving the management decision-making system; encouraging and guide, reforming the performance evaluation system and so on.
Although the existing literature has carried out rich discussions on the training of school-enterprise joint training, there is still possibility for further research. First, the research mostly carried out from the perspective of colleges and universities, ignoring the enterprises and students in the school-enterprise joint training mechanism. Second, there are few studies focused on business management fields from the research perspective, and the main training objects of school-enterprise cooperation should focus on talents in business management. Based on this, this research aims to discuss the efficiency improvement of the school-enterprise joint training mechanism for business and management students, focusing on the three main bodies of school-enterprise joint training: schools, enterprises and students.
3. Theoretical Analysis
The main reasons for the dislocation of demand and supply between undergraduate graduates and employers in the labor market come from the following aspects:
3.1. School Level
The lack of assessment and incentives for school-enterprise joint training is a key reason for many universities to be superficial. Because of the lack of effective assessment and incentives, not all relevant stakeholders will pay attention to this process. This is not only reflected at the school level, but also at the enterprise and student level. The teaching logic of many universities is seriously solidified, and due to behavioral inertia, they will habitually use the classroom as the first place as well as the last one. School-enterprise joint training requires schools to lead students to go out together. In addition to imparting knowledge to students in classrooms and classrooms, some schools and teachers take it for granted that classrooms can impart all knowledge and experience to students. This is wrong. The essence of school-enterprise joint talent training is to cultivate practical and compound talents. Then these human resources are being sent to the relevant employers—enterprises—and enterprises need more than theoretical human resource who can answer fluently in test papers and books. What companies need are employees who can create value for their production and markets performance.
In the formulation of the education plan, most school cannot well meet the talent needs of the industry and enterprises. Universities fail to set up teaching topics around corporate projects. Universities need to optimize the structure of disciplines and majors continuously. Many universities, especially in the disciplines of business, economic and management, rarely involve cooperative courses or practical links with enterprises in the design and training programs of disciplines. For example, there is no practical course set for students majoring in finance that can lead students to visit banks or securities companies. It also does not help students understand how a financial institution works in the market. Another example, for a student majoring in business management or marketing, they have never seen how the production, recruitment, sales and other links of an enterprise are connected.
3.2. Enterprise Level
This is mainly due to the lack of management system. Most enterprises do not set up professional departments or positions to complete the joint training of school-enterprise talents, nor do they have full-time personnel responsible for communicating, organizing and coordinating with schools and students. At present, many enterprises only incorporate this part of the work into the recruitment process of the human resource management department, and regard them as a small branch of the enterprise’s human resource source. For the HR of many companies, the daily job is to constantly browse and screen thousands of resumes. HR has no time and energy to communicate with schools and students. For an HR, what he/she cares about is not that a certain project in cooperation with a school can cultivate a number of outstanding potential employee for the enterprise for up to four years. In other words, although the senior leaders of the enterprise may attach great importance to the joint training of schools and enterprises, the employees at the executive level may not value them. Therefore, the efficiency of school-enterprise joint training is very low.
The company failed to follow up on the progress of the project in a timely manner. Many companies use the method of establishing scholarships or grants in joint talent training with universities. For enterprises, it is nothing more than remitting the agreed bonus into the school’s bank account during the specified school year. Businesses don’t know anything about how schools are assessed or how students apply and get the scholarships. Companies don’t even know which students these scholarships are awarded to, or whether these scholarships truly improve students’ learning and practical abilities. In addition, the company cannot guarantee that some students who receive the scholarship will be able to become excellent employees who create value for the company when they graduate and leave the university in the future. Furthermore, an enterprise is a part of the market economy, which conforms to the assumption of “economic man”, that is, every single decision of an enterprise must follow the rules that maximize the enterprise’s own interests. Therefore, for enterprises, instead of spending these work force and financial resources, it is better to go directly to the labor market to search for the talents that enterprises need to recruit, which will greatly save the operating costs of enterprises.
3.3. Student Level
The enthusiasm of students to participate is not high, because many students do not realize the importance of participating in the joint training of schools and enterprises and the practical significance of future career development. The reason is that, on the one hand, students’ career planning is immature, and most students do not even know what kind of job they want to pursue after graduating from university during their college years. Among the students majoring in business and management, many students chose jobs that have nothing to do with their majors after graduation. Besides, some students even frequently change jobs and industries after graduation, which would have negative effect on their career life. On the other hand, the lack of emphasis on school-enterprise joint training activities by schools and enterprises will be shown to students in daily teaching and practical activities. The practice links of many universities are still at the level of formalism. Although the school assigns social practice homework to students, in the end, the only feedback from students is to submit relevant paper materials. These paper materials are like the homework that students hand in the next day, and it does not mean that students do go to the enterprise to learn the production and operation mode of the enterprise.
Students have insufficient motivation and initiative to participate in corporate practice activities, and students’ learning goals are not clear. Due to the long-term dependence of students on teachers and classrooms, this greatly limits the initiative of students to seek opportunities for corporate social practice actively. In addition, teachers in some schools cannot keep pace with the times in teaching methods and teaching content, nor can they connect theory with practice. Some teachers even never involve applying theory to practical application in class. Moreover, the school has always only looked at the results of the mid-term exams in the assessment of students, and the practice link will not affect the students’ grades too much. Therefore, students should think that social practice is not as important as theoretical courses, which leads to the lack of cognition and recognition of practice in students’ knowledge system.
4. Discussion
In view of the current mismatch of demand and supply between undergraduate graduates and employers in the labor market, how to help solve the problem of inefficiency in the joint training mechanism of schools and enterprises, and improve the efficiency of talent training and enterprise talent matching. The following aspects should be discussed:
4.1. School Level
Schools should adjust the training goals of innovative and entrepreneurial talents in a timely manner according to the needs of social development. Reform and innovate the curriculum system, and change the education evaluation model of school-enterprise joint training. A new curriculum system centered on enhancing students’ practical ability and professional knowledge ability needs to build, and practical teaching and theoretical teaching are effectively integrated. Follow the talent training reform strategy of “going out and coming back”, and adopt the steps of school learning, school-enterprise learning, and enterprise practice. Use the progressive training system to implement various educational activities with purpose and plan. Exercise students’ ability to deal with problems and innovation, shape the innovative spirit of college students, and improve the practical ability of college students.
Subvert the traditional solidified thought of classroom standard and focus more on enterprise practice. Encourage students to go out to see how enterprise works. Of course, in the process, school should play a protective role to prevent students from being cheated or other events that may violate the interests of students. Design practical courses with strong feasibility and practicality, and improve the collaborative education system of applied innovation and entrepreneurship. The school gives the authority of specific work to the college. The college can set up a special research team to be responsible for in-depth exploration of a new innovative and entrepreneurial collaborative education mechanism. Connect with industry standards, continuously improve work force training programs, arrange differentiated research tasks, and ensure the innovative research results of the collaborative education model of innovation and entrepreneurship education. Make full use of the advantages of advanced information technology to build a collaborative education platform for innovation and entrepreneurship. Actively carry out all-round and multi-level cooperation with social enterprises, and cooperate in curriculum research and development, construction of training room, subject research and other teaching work. Share school enterprise teaching resources and build a collaborative and comprehensive innovation and entrepreneurship education platform. Cultivate applied talents with strong innovation consciousness and comprehensive ability. In the process of introducing teachers, schools should give priority to selecting some teachers with industry work experience, so that they can add practical factors to the teaching process.
4.2. Enterprise Level
Enterprises should take the initiative to establish contact with schools, set up school enterprise competition and cooperation projects, and establish a good cooperative relationship with universities. Attract students to participate in the enterprise project competition, so that students can fully understand the production status and product design direction of the enterprise, give full play to their innovative consciousness and ability, and provide suggestions for the production innovation of the enterprise. At the same time, organize and carry out diversified activities such as product design competition, innovation and entrepreneurship competition and enterprise management competition. Relying on the school enterprise cooperation practice base, realize the effective integration of classrooms and enterprises, gradually deepen the depth and level of school enterprise collaborative education, and comprehensively enhance students’ innovation and entrepreneurship ability. In the teaching link, enterprises can send professionals to participate in classroom teaching and explain the actual production process and process to students. Let students master the knowledge of product production, sales, market operation and other necessary aspects. While consolidating students’ basic theoretical knowledge, enhance students’ practical ability. Cultivate students’ independent innovation and entrepreneurship ability and make them excellent innovative talents needed by the society.
In management, enterprises set up special organizations and departments responsible for communicating with universities. To ensure the timeliness and accuracy of information transmission, and to ensure that the problems reported by students and schools can be solved in the first time. In addition, close collaboration with other scientific research institutions can be strengthened. Bring together innovative educational resources from regional universities and industry research institutes, strengthen the integration of science and education, and carry out joint enrollment and joint training. Form a good school-local cooperation model and share high-quality resources such as innovation and entrepreneurship course system, tutor team, experimental base and so on. School enterprise joint training model deepen the collaborative education of innovation and entrepreneurship, and seek a win-win situation in the cultivation of innovative workforce. In the continuous exploration, the efficiency of school-enterprise joint training would gradually being improved.
4.3. Student Level
Combine social practice with job selection and employment, and take social practice as an important source to improve one’s own employability. During college, students should think about their future career plans in advance. Combine their majors, personal interests and hobbies, and comprehensively consider various conditions to find their future career interests. Four years of college are fleeting, and only clear goals and unbreakable execution can help college students find jobs that suit them in a fierce labor market. Actively practice the development model of “internship-social practice-employment”. Especially for students majoring in economics and management, the sooner they understand the development of the industry and the knowledge of production practices, the sooner they can make themselves the priority of the company in the recruitment process.
As a college student, they must cultivate their ability to think independently and solve problems. University is a self-managing place, and college students should consider their own growth and development comprehensively. On the one hand, pure theoretical knowledge does not guarantee that students will be able to perform their job duties when they go to work in the future. Therefore, in order to get rid of the misunderstanding of rational knowledge learning, college students must understand that a diploma does not necessarily lead to a good job. On the other hand, students need to get rid of the habit of relying too much on teachers, schools, and parents. Some students always think that schools, parents and teachers will solve problems and difficulties. This is wrong. If students majoring in business and management want to achieve excellent results in their future career development, it is very beneficial to go to a company as an internship and participate in a joint training program between schools and enterprises before formally embarking on a job.
Funding
This research is supported by the Teaching Reform Project of Nanjing University of Finance and Economics (grant number JGY20082).