Employers' Demands for Personal Transferable Skills in Graduates: a content analysis of 1000 job advertisements and an associated empirical study

Bennett, Roger

doi:10.1080/13636820200200209

Cited by 182 publications

(170 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Analysis of 1,000 job advertisements aimed at recent graduates in four occupational categories (finance, general management, HRM, marketing), found that the most common skills demanded of graduate job entrants were: Communication (420), IT (320), Organisation (280), Team working (270), Interpersonal (240) and Motivation (230) (Bennett, 2002).…”

Section: Graduate Skills In Generalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Employer demands from business graduates

McMurray

Dutton

McQuaid

et al. 2016

Education + Training

144

117

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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.

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Section: Graduate Skills In Generalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Employer demands from business graduates

McMurray

Dutton

McQuaid

et al. 2016

Education + Training

144

117

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As it is pointed out, Universities, governmental organizations and employers' associations need to get together to create a uniform set of short, straightforward and easily memorable definitions of key skills in order to facilitate shared understanding. Consensus in this regard on the parts of universities, government organizations and employers can only be to the benefit of future graduates (Bennett, 2002).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Competence in a Puzzle of Modern Russian Vocational Education

Владиславович¹,

Alexandrovna²,

Pichugina³

2014

IES

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The article shows that foreign language skills influence the professional success in a globalized economy. Training experts who are able to use foreign languages at the level required for professional communications is highly urgent for today's Russia, however there is hardly any experience of training such experts in accordance with international standards in most Russian universities. In this regard the authors propose to change the structure of professional education and criteria of assessing the professional competence of an expert. A competence in using a foreign language as a tool for interaction with partners and solving professional problems should become an integral part of the content of vocational education. A foreign language should be mastered as a tool of solving professional tasks, while language training should be organized on the basis of modeling key professional communicative situations. Besides, unwillingness to communicate professionally with foreign partners must be considered as manifestation of professional incompetence of a specialist. The authors point out that such model of professional training with a foreign language included in its structure is the most important for countries seeking integration into the world economy.

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“…However, skills to gain a job appear to be different from those required once a job is secured (Semeijn, Veldon, Heijke, & Vlueten, 2006;Messum, Wilkes, & Jackson, 2015). Bennett (2002) found that job advertisements aptly represent the skills and qualities that employers are looking for because the skills listed in the advertisements are carefully chosen to suit the position. It is argued that analysis of relevant job advertisements for current industry skill requirements may provide important information to inform curriculum development and may be useful for current or prospective students.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Content analysis of vacancy advertisements for employability skills: Challenges and opportunities for informing curriculum development

Messum¹,

Wilkes²,

Peters³

et al. 2017

JTLGE

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The process of curriculum development can be informed by seeking the views of stakeholders, including employers, academics, students and recent graduates, about the skills, attributes and personal characteristics required by various professions. The views of several stakeholders may also be compared to help ensure reliability of results and identify areas of agreement or variance. However, there are documented limitations regarding the perceptions of academics and students of employability skills, and also problems with employers' and recent graduates' views. Another approach to identifying the skills required in various professions is content analysis of job vacancy advertisements. Content analysis of advertisements is a versatile way of identifying current skills required by various professions, and allows comparison across countries and over time to identify trends. Yet there is little evidence to suggest that this information is used to inform curriculum development. This paper presents a qualitative integrative review of studies looking at employability skills (ES) through the use of content analysis of job vacancy advertisements. Here ES are equated with essential requirements stated in vacancy advertisements. ES is the term adopted in Australia by DEST (2002) to define skills required to both secure employment and progress in an organisation. The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (2014) checklist for qualitative research was used in this integrative review of 40 studies. The range of application, research methods used and findings are discussed in this paper, as are the advantages and challenges associated with analysing job vacancy advertisements as a method of identifying employability skills (ES) required by employers.

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Employers' Demands for Personal Transferable Skills in Graduates: a content analysis of 1000 job advertisements and an associated empirical study

Cited by 182 publications

References 12 publications

Employer demands from business graduates

Employer demands from business graduates

Language Competence in a Puzzle of Modern Russian Vocational Education

Content analysis of vacancy advertisements for employability skills: Challenges and opportunities for informing curriculum development

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