Enhancing the Employability of Graduate Students with Transversal Skills

Abstract

Unemployment has been a persistent issue in Europe for a long time despite several initiatives from policymakers. Unlike previous research, this research sees the problem from a different perspective. Instead of waiting for external changes, this research will show graduate students useful recommendations for actively enhancing their employability with transversal skills.

The theoretical framework of this thesis covers two units of knowledge which are transversal skills and generation Y (also known as Millennials). The purpose of the literature review part is to help readers understand better the necessity of research topic as well as the research question. During the process of reviewing related literature, the author found useful pieces of information for the empirical research and data analysis process.

This thesis predominantly employs a deductive approach using a mixed-research method. The empirical research will use both qualitative and quantitative data in order to harvest the necessary data for answering the research question. In particular, qualitative data is generated from a focus group interview with company representatives while quantitative data is harvested from an Internet questionnaire sent to alumni of Lahti University of Applied Sciences.

Findings from the empirical research lead to the conclusion that graduate students do lack critical transversal skills that can enhance their employability and become useful for their working life. The empirical research also points out that some poor-guesses of graduate students concerning the demand from employers. Based on the findings, recommendations for graduate students are outlined and the thesis finishes with suggestions for future research.