Student Perception of the Importance and attainment of Generic and Graduate Employability Skills in a Business Course

This paper will present quantitative and qualitative data to analyse and identify the perceptions that commencing Business students have as to the importance and achievement of graduate and generic skills. There are four main stakeholders in all undergraduate University programs; graduates, employers, undergraduate students and academic staff. The debate over the merits and applicability of teaching generic/graduate employability skills in undergraduate degrees has evolved with divergent views emanating between employers and academics. This paper will present the initial findings of the analysis of generic/graduate of transition undergraduate student commencing the first of three “graduate skills” units namely PD1: Critical thinking and problem solving. The paper will present an analysis of the student’s self-perception as to the importance and attainment of a range of generic/graduate skills as well as the results of two generic skills assessment tasks. The results show that the transition Business student feels confident in their mastery of generic skills but does note that critical thinking, problem solving and real-business problem solving are three areas they need to develop. --26th ANZAM conference held: 5 - 7 December, 2012, at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.