A VITAL SKILL FOR GRADUATES
TO help graduates attune themselves to new job market demands, the government has allocated RM100 million for the Higher Education Ministry to conduct a career advancement programme known as“Pen jan aK PTCAP ”, aimed at res killing and up skilling participating graduates by boosting their abilities and knowledge.
In fact, one of the core skills that employers look for is a graduate’ s ability to synthesise information, about graduates ability to source, collate and an alyse information from qualitative and quantitative sources. Being methodical and detail-orientated are skills that are in demand. So too is the capacity to collect and an alyse data to reach conclusions, make suggestions or issue recommendations to move the business forward.
Graduates will excel if they can demonstrate the ability to identify, evaluate and propose key solutions that solve common business problems, particularly if they achieve cost savings or increase efficiency. Organisations today are swamped with information 24/7. Yet managers are supposed to rally colleagues with insightful analyses of problems and plans on how to succeed.
The Internet is flooded with conflicting information on various subjects. Trying to find the best answer requires that we consider the merit of a variety of sources and choose which idea makes the most sense. We might find ourselves coming up with an entirely different answer than those we read about, and that is synthesising.
Essentially, by examining and evaluating a number of sources, we are identifying consistencies and relationships between and among the data. With these connections, we are better able to create a new idea that can be supported by the knowledge we have picked up along the way.
Not everyone will come up with the same solution. Our solution may not always be right, but by starting with a wealth of data, we improve the odds of missing something important. If a graduate is placed in the context of entrepreneurship, synthesis is acritical skill, from planning his business idea to growing the company.
Most first-time entrepreneurs do not have a complete toolshed of basic business knowledge, much less the details of their product, market and competition. In any type of business, there are hundreds of decisions to make along the way, each of which has the potential to make or break the venture.
For example, a critical portion of
business planning is developing a marketing plan. To create an effective marketing plan, it is essential to study the basic tenets of marketing, routes for getting the message out and the best way to convince the target market that his product or service is the way to go.
The reality is that there is no right answer for every decision, so he must review and analyse a multitude of information, then come up with a plan that incorporates the best of these ideas that will be most effective
for his business. Synthesis is the final step in critical thinking—after we an alyse, evaluate and organise information from different sources, this step requires us to put it all together.
Many people struggle with this step, but all we are trying to do is select the best answer, or combination of answers, from a wide range of data.