It’s common sense but not common practice

One important finding of the UE-TQM-P project may at first glance seem obvious, namely that attitudes in respect of quality management are considered the most important thing by business. The second point is that companies ask that graduates have the right skills. The company itself on the contrary can always refine technical knowledge and the role of education can be very restricted in that field. So attitudes which drive actions and skills that enable and support professional and appropriate functioning, are deemed as much more valuable than being able to reproduce theoretical concepts. This is implicitly an strong confirmation of the studies by Argyris and Schön into theories of activity and learning systems of organisations, which indicated for example that in an average organisation, there is a huge gulf between "acknowledged values" and "actual behaviour".

The essential attitudes that were recognised were: a sense for creativity and initiative, a responsible and involved position in the organisation, orientation to continuous and goal-oriented improvement in function of the interested parties, willingness to self-reflect, permanent learning and co-operation in a team.

Concerning the relational and personal capabilities, skills came to the surface such as being able to; conduct effective meetings, present and report, transfer information, plan and follow a schedule, think logically and work methodically.

The listed technical quality-related skills referred rather to enquiring in customer expectations, dealing with quality improvement techniques, carrying out self-evaluations, application of the appropriate measuring techniques, comparison of own performance with the realisations of other organisations and formulation of objectives.

The basic conceptual ideas of the most prominent quality gurus, including the attention for process control and system thinking, were assigned to the level of theoretical knowledge. Here also some other more specialised aspects have to be situated such as mathematical and statistical techniques, safety, health and environmental issues.

The research with higher education trainings in different study fields in Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Great Britain did not allow for general conclusions in relation to the accordance between existing curricula and inventorised needs of enterprises. The divergences between the enquired study programmes (in terms of study field and national situation) were too large to allow for these conclusions. Even though, one can state that the engineering trainings and the trainings in applied economics anticipate relatively well to the needs of the professional world in terms of required basically skills in total quality management, be it not always at the required level of integration.

The response from study fields that lead to the non-profit sector (education and health care) was fairly limited. Clearly, this sector is less acquainted with quality ideas and quality terminology. The curricula of these training’s appear to be less tuned to the results of the enquiry in enterprises.

It should be clear that the higher education sector will have a serious task ahead to integrate the mentioned basic skills in its curricula. In other words, the used teaching methods and didactic workforms could in this discussion become far more important than the, traditionally considered so important, content matter. In order to meet these needs, the traditional, school-type education available is probably insufficient. Not only the study programmes and teaching objectives should be updated, but especially the didactic work forms, the study materials used, and the role of the lecturing staff. It almost appears that the school itself as an "educational system" must undergo a fundamental rethink. "Learning to teach", or in other words following introspective reflection altering one's own teaching behaviour represents the core of future-oriented teaching, but also plays a crucial role in expanding a creative, learning organisation. The ability to switch from "to know" into "to do", for example by solving specific problems in real situations, and vice versa, translating practical experience into new, reusable knowledge, are essential skills for students in higher education in the 21st century, but also for lecturers, staff workers and governors who together are working towards educational innovation and quality improvement.