An analysis of employer requirements of university graduates

Abstract

It is of equally outstanding importance for university graduates and universities alike to learn what requirements workplaces have of graduates and what knowledge and skills they are expected to have. Previous research in Hungary conducted by GVI MKIK and DPR examined employer and higher education graduate views based on the importance of expected competencies. In our research we focused on understanding employer requirements related to the recruitment of graduates. Therefore, we examined the opinions of companies that assumingly had a conscious strategy for employing graduates, and we carried out comprehensive analyses of the findings of comprehensive research. Our research findings reveal that the large companies surveyed assigned primary importance to competencies ensuring present performance; at the same time, the aspect of competencies enabling future performance also emerged as relevant. It was also analysed in our study to what extent the companies surveyed had different requirements of economic and technical graduates. The research furthermore explored with the help of factor analysis in what ways the respective competency requirements were interrelated in the employers’ approach. Although our research was conducted among Hungarian companies exclusively, we believe that the findings related to the role of corporate size and field of specialisation may generate conclusions of interest for research carried out in other countries as well.