Employability of a Business Graduate – Skills and Experience Required When Entering the Job Market
Niemelä, Karita (2016)
Niemelä, Karita
Haaga-Helia ammattikorkeakoulu
2016
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201605178356
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201605178356
Tiivistelmä
The main goal of this thesis is to find out what kind of skills and experience business graduates need to have when entering the job market and to have a better understanding of the employability of business students. The objectives are to clarify what are the key criteria for candidates when hiring and to determine what qualities companies are searching for in a recently graduated business students. Another goal of this thesis is to help business students to find their place in the job market and to give them an insight on what companies are searching for.
Two main elements in the contextual framework of this thesis are composed of recently graduated business students and the current job market. Nevertheless, the concept of business student is merely briefly discussed in general, since the main focus of the context is set on the current job market and what companies are looking for in an ideal just graduated candidate. The theoretical framework is based on literature on human resources and recruitment. Recruitment, employability and current job market are crucial parts of the theoretical framework.
The research was carried out by using the qualitative research method. The data was gathered by using semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions designed to answer to the research questions. Seven carefully chosen companies and one employee from each of them were interviewed for this thesis. The companies interviewed represented different fields of business; these fields being human resources, recruitment, finance, marketing and sales.
The findings of this thesis show that business studies give graduates good basic knowledge of business and how it works in general. However, specific educational background does not seem to play a notable part according to the interviews with most of the companies. The key criteria for employment, instead of education, seems to be any prior work experience or other experiences related to the field in question. The qualities, motivation and characteristics of a candidate looking for a placement additionally play a key role in getting employed after graduation. The uprising trend in the field of business seems to be focusing on the characteristics and attitude of a candidate more than previously in the recruitment process.
As a conclusion, business students seem to have required educational background from their studies for all the fields of business but more essential factors for employability are experiences, extra-curricular activities, characteristics and most of all the motivation of the graduate. The education of business students does correspond with the needs of companies on certain level; nevertheless some essential improvements should be done.
Two main elements in the contextual framework of this thesis are composed of recently graduated business students and the current job market. Nevertheless, the concept of business student is merely briefly discussed in general, since the main focus of the context is set on the current job market and what companies are looking for in an ideal just graduated candidate. The theoretical framework is based on literature on human resources and recruitment. Recruitment, employability and current job market are crucial parts of the theoretical framework.
The research was carried out by using the qualitative research method. The data was gathered by using semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions designed to answer to the research questions. Seven carefully chosen companies and one employee from each of them were interviewed for this thesis. The companies interviewed represented different fields of business; these fields being human resources, recruitment, finance, marketing and sales.
The findings of this thesis show that business studies give graduates good basic knowledge of business and how it works in general. However, specific educational background does not seem to play a notable part according to the interviews with most of the companies. The key criteria for employment, instead of education, seems to be any prior work experience or other experiences related to the field in question. The qualities, motivation and characteristics of a candidate looking for a placement additionally play a key role in getting employed after graduation. The uprising trend in the field of business seems to be focusing on the characteristics and attitude of a candidate more than previously in the recruitment process.
As a conclusion, business students seem to have required educational background from their studies for all the fields of business but more essential factors for employability are experiences, extra-curricular activities, characteristics and most of all the motivation of the graduate. The education of business students does correspond with the needs of companies on certain level; nevertheless some essential improvements should be done.