Employability Skills Case Study

3. Graduates employability skills
Within the context of continuous changes in technology, work processes and global institutional transformations, firms strive to secure competent and skilled labour. Cotton (2008), observes that employers require generic competencies such as teamwork, communication skills or problem solving skills, in combination with specific competencies acquired through experience or formal education.Governments, businesses and policy-makers connect employability rates with the level of skills and competences that Higher Education graduates have acquired (Frank & Meyer, 2007; EC, 2010; PwC, 2014).Although many of the emprerical works focused on transferable skills, other literatures however suggests two aspects of employability as subject skills and transferable skills. Transferable skills refer to certain personal abilities of an individual, which can be taken from one job role to another, used within any profession and at any

Nevertheless, in today’s challenging business environment the possession of subject skills alone is no longer sufficient for a new graduate in meeting employer requirements; increasingly it is necessary for them to gain transferable skills which

et al, 2007; Adelaida C., 2014; Mitch Cleary et al, 2006; Billing,2003; Schmidt, 1999: Gustin, 2001; Kay &Russette, 2000; Moscardo, 1997; Tas et al., 1996; Robinson,2006) are the generic employability skills most desired by employers in the workplace.Harvey et al.(1997).also showed that employers want graduates with relevant subject specific skills, knowledge and