What Employers Expect from Our Graduates
Our students want an education that satisfies the requirements of potential employers, but what do employers look for in fresh graduates these days? Globally, employers may be shifting their attention from grades and experience to softer qualities, and communication skills appear to be the top requirement. In the U.S., writing skills are a “threshold requirement” as reflected in a 2004 report of The National Commission on Writing: “Writing: A Ticket to Work … Or a Ticket Out” .
A recent survey by the National University of Singapore Careers Centre also ranked communication at the top of the requirements list, based on the responses of 118 companies. This was done as part of the Graduate Global Talent Development Programme (GGTP) – a new initiative by NUS to produce global-minded graduates. The other top criteria identified were passion, analytical thinking, interpersonal skills, and the desire to learn (see Andrew Abraham’s “Top 5 Qualities Employers Seek in Fresh Graduates”). In Australasia, similar results were obtained. Based on a 2010 Graduate Outlook Survey of 350 graduate employers, the list of employer criteria other than communication skills does include academic results and experience. However, these rank fourth and sixth respectively (see “Skills Employers Want” ). Likewise, U.K. companies seek soft skills, which they often find lacking in fresh graduates, according to a study by Industry in Education, a national education trust: employers "are looking as much (or more) at personal skills for immediate deployment, as they will be at the specialist content of the degree" ("Graduate Job Seekers 'Lack Personal and Interactive Skills' Demanded by Industry").
With the increasing massification of higher education, finding the right job is no longer a piece of cake for the average university graduate. In an increasingly competitive global job market, it is useful for students to know the variety of qualities they should cultivate in order to strike the right chords with potential employers. It is also important that educators integrate these soft skills into their teaching, or at least bring them more to light.
Posted by May Mikati on 08 January 2012, 6:57 PM
Our students want an education that satisfies the requirements of potential employers, but what do employers look for in fresh graduates these days? Globally, employers may be shifting their attention from grades and experience to softer qualities, and communication skills appear to be the top requirement. In the U.S., writing skills are a “threshold requirement” as reflected in a 2004 report of The National Commission on Writing: “Writing: A Ticket to Work … Or a Ticket Out” .
A recent survey by the National University of Singapore Careers Centre also ranked communication at the top of the requirements list, based on the responses of 118 companies. This was done as part of the Graduate Global Talent Development Programme (GGTP) – a new initiative by NUS to produce global-minded graduates. The other top criteria identified were passion, analytical thinking, interpersonal skills, and the desire to learn (see Andrew Abraham’s “Top 5 Qualities Employers Seek in Fresh Graduates”). In Australasia, similar results were obtained. Based on a 2010 Graduate Outlook Survey of 350 graduate employers, the list of employer criteria other than communication skills does include academic results and experience. However, these rank fourth and sixth respectively (see “Skills Employers Want” ). Likewise, U.K. companies seek soft skills, which they often find lacking in fresh graduates, according to a study by Industry in Education, a national education trust: employers "are looking as much (or more) at personal skills for immediate deployment, as they will be at the specialist content of the degree" ("Graduate Job Seekers 'Lack Personal and Interactive Skills' Demanded by Industry").
With the increasing massification of higher education, finding the right job is no longer a piece of cake for the average university graduate. In an increasingly competitive global job market, it is useful for students to know the variety of qualities they should cultivate in order to strike the right chords with potential employers. It is also important that educators integrate these soft skills into their teaching, or at least bring them more to light.
Posted by May Mikati on 08 January 2012, 6:57 PM
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