What do Employers want?
Not surprisingly, there’s no single answer to this question. It is however possible to identify key themes…
The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) asked “what characteristics define a successful graduate in the 21st century?”
The overwhelming response from employers was “self reliance skills”.
In a nutshell, self reliance skills include:
- An awareness of the changing world of work
- Taking responsibility for personal and professional development
- Managing effective relationships within the workplace
- A committment to continuous development and learning
Employers further defined the ‘complete graduate’ as one who can demonstrate:
- Specialist skills - the academic disciplines
- Generalist skills - the key transferable skills such as literacy, numeracy, financial awareness, IT, languages and problem solving
- Self reliance skills
- 'Softer skills' such as communication, teamwork and management
All these skills can be developed through an effective partnership between academics and careers professionals. Contact your careers service.
