Employer demands from business graduates

Abstract

Abstract:Purpose:This paper reports on research carried out with employers to determine demand for graduate business and management skills in the Scottish workforce. Design/methodology/approach:The research used an employer questionnaire distributed through various methods (either telephone or face-to-face interviews, self-completion and returned by e-mail, or completion of an online survey). 71 employers took part in the study. Findings:The research found that the factors which were most important to employers when recruiting graduates, with a business school first degree, were: personal attitude, employability skills, relevant work experience, and degree result. The most important transferable skills to employers when recruiting graduates were: trustworthiness, reliability, motivation, communication skills and a willingness to learn. Research limitations/implications:The article shows the importance of: graduates developing excellent job searching skills; high quality work experience; and developing business courses that enhance students' employability and better reflect employers' requirements but also reflect important wider educational values.

Graduate skills requirements for effective performance in the banking sector

“…In summary, although there have been many studies (Adebakin et al 2015;Al Shayeb 2013;Andrews and Higson 2008;Bachynsky et al 2013;Coetzer and Sitlington 2014;Cook and Finch 1994;Collet et al 2015;Daud et al 2011;McMurray et al 2016;Hellier et al 2004;Husain et al 2010;Jackling and De Lange 2009;Kavanagh and Drennan 2008;Kirk and Chapman 1992;Klibi and Oussii 2013;Morley and Aynsley 2007;Norwood and Henneberry 2006;Ngoo et al 2015;Rassuli et al 2012;Rivera 2011;Sodhi and Son 2008;Sullivan 2012;Tanyel et al 1999;Thomas and Nicita 2003) on what employers need from new graduates, few focus on skills so much as qualities. A few studies (Adebakin et al 2015;Bachynsky et al 2013;Collet et al 2015;Hellier et al 2004;Husain et al 2010;Jackling and De Lange 2009;Klibi and Oussii 2013;Ngoo et al 2015;Rassuli et al 2012;Sodhi and Son 2008;Sullivan 2012;Tanyel et al 1999) concentrate on the specific skills employers need, but most of these explore the skills needed from graduates of specific degree programs, so they have an education-program focus.…”

“…Employers reported that graduates are not sufficiently skilful in many areas (Adebakin et al 2015;Collet et al 2015;McMurray et al 2016).…”

“…These qualities include skills, and many other issues such as personality characteristics (Daud et al 2011;Norwood and Henneberry 2006), attitudes (Coetzer and Sitlington 2014;McMurray et al 2016;Kavanagh and Drennan 2008;Kirk and Chapman 1992), degrees earned (Norwood and Henneberry 2006), knowledge in various areas (Al Shayeb 2013;Coetzer and Sitlington 2014;Ras-suli et al 2012;Thomas and Nicita 2003), extracurricular activities, grades (McMurray et al 2016;Rivera 2011), previous work experience (Andrews and Higson 2008;Cook and Finch 1994;Kirk and Chapman 1992;Morley and Aynsley 2007), and the prestige of the candidate's alma mater (Morley and Aynsley 2007;Rivera 2011).…”

“…Thus, employers seek generic skills from graduates and the most recent research results have shown that the most important generic skills for employers are communication skills (McMurray et al 2016;Ngoo et al 2015); team-work skills (Adebakin et al 2015;McMurray et al 2016); cognitive, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills (Collet et al 2015); critical thinking and problem solving skills (Ngoo et al 2015); information and communication technology, decision-making, analytic, and problem-solving skills (Adebakin et al 2015); and interpersonal and adaptability skills (McMurray et al 2016). Employers reported that graduates are not sufficiently skilful in many areas (Adebakin et al 2015;Collet et al 2015;McMurray et al 2016).…”

“…The graduate skills that employers rated as poor were team work, risk management, leadership, and decision-making skills. McMurray et al (2016) studied the graduate skill requirements with a sample of seventy-two employers in Scotland and found that the most important skills employers sought in business graduates were communication, adaptability, teamwork and interpersonal skills. The employers reported that the areas that needed most to be addressed in terms of graduates' skills were communications, teamwork, numeracy, and language skills.…”