Social Media Discourse Analysis on Work Skills

Abstract

Career readiness among graduates has become an intense focus for higher learning institutions. Employers and industry leaders became more vocal on social media in highlighting the incapability of graduates to confront the skill mismatch and imbalance between the university and fundamental work skills. Along with declining labour markets and devaluation of degree qualifications as among the impacts of the COVID-19 slump and digitalisation, universities are pressured to enhance their graduates’ employability. Virtual communities widely use social media to exchange ideas, making it a rich database. Social media material conversion into information, key concepts, and topics is essential for knowledge and strategy creation. The study aims to explore the debatable work skills on social media content, and the exploration provides a possible framework for work demand-driven education. The methodology used for the Analysis is Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), which comprehensively disseminates qualitative data. The three components: description, interpretation, and explanation, were used to examine the posts of selected users through the angle of future work skills. Results show that a mainstream discourse describes human skills (communication), technical skills, and conceptual skills that help employees thrive in their careers in the brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible (BANI-world) new age of work. Finally, a suggested framework to promote future work skills-related learning is provided for higher staff and learners of higher education.