Perceptions of Business Students towards Skills and Attributes for Industry: How Important is Communication?

As business academics try to ensure that students gain a solid understanding of the theory which is applicable to various business situations, while maintaining “academic standards”, there is criticism that Universities teach theory that is irrelevant to business practice, do not equip future employees with skills that are applicable to jobs in the marketplace, and ignore the various stakeholders. This study analyses the results of a survey of an important stakeholder, undergraduate and postgraduate business students, to determine what skills and attributes they perceive would be important for their future work. It was found that Oral Communication was perceived as the most important skill, while as a factor Communication was ranked third after Collaboration and Problem-solving skills. From these results a number of factors emerged which can assist business academics in understanding the expectations of students.