Lifelong Learning and Soft Skills Development in the Function of Achieving the Competitive Advantage of Service Organizations in Knowledge Economy in Europe
The Research proposal should consist of the following:
• Working title ( topic and research field) of your argument
• Clear formulated research question (s)
• Background information: brief summary of the proposed topic (Current state of literature-based, already existing research in your research field)
• Objective(s), hypotheses… (state and justify objectives)
• Chosen research methods (qualitative/quantitative)
• Expected scientific contribution (if you have an idea about it)
Conclusion / Results
• List of used/existing reference literature (Quote all literature sources used)
Aim and scope ( just an example, it can be, modified, structured…..)
This research aims to show the structure of knowledge needed by organizations in the knowledge-based economy and to show that the only knowledge that represents the unity between professional personal skills (theoretical and practical knowledge, knowledge of information technologies and knowledge of foreign languages) and personal business skills able to increase the competitive advantage of service organizations in the future.This research also aims to show the needs of the labor market, which is of key importance for conceiving proposals for changes related to educational programs that will be adapted to the needs of the labor market and in the creation of employment programs….
Example of Problem statement…. ( it should be, modified, structured etc.)
Today’s graduates seeking employment need a set of skills
that demonstrate readiness to gain and maintain employment. These skills are described as professional skills or employability skills and include soft skills. Soft skills are related to the communication skills, interpersonal relations, and personal or professional attributes that employers require. They are transferable across industries and are not technical in nature (USDOE, 2012). They are the skills that employers declare that successful employees display at work (Kraebber & Greenan, 2012). Yet, research indicates that employers are not satisfied with the soft skills of new graduates (Ellis et al., 2014). Most studies though refer to the preparation of high school and college graduates;
there is not much mention of graduates of certificate programs.Graduate students are not ready to enter the labor market due to a lack of personal business skills. There is a gap between the study of professional skills and personal business skills at universities. At universities, there is no soft skills subject in the curricula that prepare students for work in Service sector. There is not enough awareness among students about the importance of personal business skills. Graduate students find it harder to get hired, retain and advance at work due to the lack of personal business skills. Employers need to invest time and money for employees training.
General Hypothesis ( Example according to the Research topic….it should be changed, modified, structured)
In the research, we start from the following general hypothesis: “In modern conditions (the economy of knowledge and lifelong learning), the view is increasingly being formed that the competence of an employee, which affects the increase in employability, consists of theoretical and practical knowledge, knowledge of information and communication technologies, knowledge of foreign languages, as well as possession of personal and business skills (hard and soft skills). The existing study programs in higher education institutions do not meet this criterion, which leads to the problem of the lack of competitiveness of young graduates in securing employment.
H1. Study programs at universities are not aligned with the needs of the economy.
H2. There is no good cooperation between employers and the educational system at the local and regional level.
H3. Personal business skills have the function of overcoming the gap between the needs of employers and the form and content of specific educational processes.
H4. The introduction of personal business skills and career development subjects into the curricula of the educational system significantly reduce unemployment rate.
H5.Personal business skills enhance better employability, preservation of jobs and ensure competitive advantage of service organizations on the market.
H6. Achieving competitive advantage of service organizations in Europe presupposes the transformation of the education system from classical forms to the acquisition of additional knowledge through soft skills.
Methods, steps, tools……just as an idea. Please, propose the best according to the topic and problems defined…..
In order to find out the answers to these, and not only these, questions, it is necessary to use basic, quantitative and qualitative research methods. ?? Namely, the multi-dimensionality and inter-disciplinarity of the research subject requires the application of:
(a) from analytical basic methods: method of analysis, method of abstraction, method of specialization and method of deduction;
(b) from synthetic basic methods: synthesis, concretization, generalization and induction;
(v) from general scientific methods: hypothetical-deductive, statistical and comparative.
By applying these methods, as the previous results of various scientific researches say, it is possible to validly achieve the scientific and social goal of the research in this paper. The research approach is integrative, synthetic, in the sense that no methodological procedure is given exclusive priority.
In the collection of data, an examination (interview method) and a method of document content analysis (quantitative and qualitative analysis type) will be applied, which will be carried out on two levels: a) on the level of original, or primary material and b) on the level of secondary material – the results of already completed research, scientific, professional and journalistic readings.
The empirical part of the research will be carried out with the application of quantitative methods, more precisely with the survey method using tabular calculations with the help of a software package.MS Office Excel. His set of tools will be used for analysis, comparison, management, sorting, filtering, arranging and extracting reports, in order to draw conclusions necessary for this research, as well as to create derived tables (Pivot tables) that will be presented in the paper.
https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1223
https://www.euca.eu/elene4work
https://www.euca.eu/modes
For this Research proposal you can use up to 30 sources, however it will increase to more than 100 by the end of this research. At the end of these attached pdf files there are many sources to be used as well.
