Graduate Employability and Skills Gap

This assignment delves into the crucial topic of graduate employability, focusing on the discrepancies between what employers seek in potential candidates and the actual skills graduates possess. It examines various techniques employed by universities to bridge this skills gap, including training programs and the development of generic skills. The analysis highlights the importance of aligning educational pathways with industry demands for successful career transitions.

Discuss the topic of graduate
employability in relation to
your post-university career
path or field

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

Discuss the topic of graduate employability in relation to your post-university career path or
field. My major is finance
INTRODUCTION
Employability would be meaning what are those attributes, characteristic and
achievements that a person would be having in order to gain the employment in particular
operational work or field of job. Graduate employability would that which any higher
educational alumni would be having in order to obtain or create particular work. So in this
current essay it is been discussed about what would employer is expecting from a graduate in
financial sector to have in this current scenario.
MAIN BODY
Any employer who would be planning to recruit or hire people who are graduates in
financial sector then they must be looking for certain skills or knowledge which would be based
on particular post. Like if anyone who is finance graduate and planning to opt either as financial
analyst or accountant then they must be having certain knowledge that of investment, saving and
money management (Griffiths, Probert and Cropley, 2018). As financial analyst would be
providing advice to their clients so that they could manage their wealth and savings in most
efficient manner. So employer would be expecting this from their employee or prospect that they
are having specialised knowledge in this particular field. As per their role would be of providing
money related solutions to their clients after doing in depth research of marketplace and then
suggesting them with the best product to invest them into. As they are the advisors so they are
known to be as specialist in this field so they must at first considering the need of clients and
then only advising them. Employers would also be expecting them to complete the parts 1, 2 and
3 of the financial planning certificate as there is very tough competition within this field (Darabi,
and et.al., 2017). As in present way accountant would be having only more basic knowledge
about accounts and mathematics so that he could be getting employment in certain company as
an accountant only.
With the increased in competition within market to hire the best qualified personal in
their company employer would now be having preference to recruit more of graduate in field of
finance. In the current scenario or in coming near future it would be seen certain changes in this
field as there would be having requirement of just more than that of accountant. As in now this

only field of finance is been increasing and competition is also growing day by day so we would
be in need to diversify the post or designation could be widen up so that they are getting the best
one to work upon with. Role like that of fund managers or investment analyst would now be
emerging and growing with more diversified profile. They are to have knowledge of
accountancy, mathematics and economics but now they also tend to have professional
qualification in Investment Management Certificate (IMC) and then in Certificate in Securities
and Financial Derivatives (Grant-Smith and McDonald, 2018). So both these qualifications
would be necessary to be completed which would be followed by Certificate in Business
Accounting by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountant (CIMA). There are also some
major changes which are going on within the Australian banking and financial service sector
which was announced in Federal Budget in 2017. These all would be like that related to open
data, competition inquiries, accountability and remuneration restriction and increased in
standards and penalties.
Other than this there are some major factors which would be effecting the graduate
employability in financial sector within Australia. These factors are to be including like that of
social, environment, cultural or political one and each one of them would be having their own
impact on need for employability in financial sectors. For instance, the oversupply of all
graduates in current labour market would be important one in accepting global opportunity of
workers who are interested as accountant or financial analyst (Financial Adviser, 2018). This
becomes the major factor which would be involving taking up that profile which is not of the
level of qualification or whether it is matching with the graduate skill or not. Other than this the
factor like that of digitalisation would also be effecting what would be important on part of
activities of organisation like software update in financial and accounting operational. If there is
advancement in the learning techniques of graduates then this would be improving knowledge of
students then that would be helpful to those employers into retaining their most qualified and
talented employees at their work.
On the other hand this advancement in technology would also be creating less
dependency on human or employability skills and knowledge as all the work would be done by
computer device only (Bennett, Richardson and MacKinnon, 2015). In this regard it was seen
that greater use and emergence of FinTech which is called to as technology that is been used in
financial and banking sector of world. This is more innovative idea to deal with all employability

skills and knowledge which could be easy after financial analyst is using this computer program
into their day to day working. This growing and emerging the use of FinTech could be rising the
risk to the job and employment of those graduates who are very well qualified into this area of
financial sector. This is impacting their work in both positive or negative way as dependency on
these type of computer applications is increasing now-a-days in many banks and other financial
institutions. FinTech would also be effecting the old and traditional way of investing or saving
by the people of particular country. This is the most important need which every employer is
searching into new and qualified employee who is not only having knowledge of market and
products within which clients would be investing but they should also be having complete
knowledge about this type of computer programs. So they are having opportunities to develop
themselves on the bases of these skills which is regarded to as positive impact or advantage.
This is also growing and increasing the anxiety of whether this technological revolution
in field of education and that in operation would be just vanishing the need of human
interference with that of computer or robots in coming few years. It was also noted that if the
humans are not been able to learn these skills and knowledge about this technological
advancement then they would nearly be loosing up the race in acquiring their job. This could be
regarded as the foremost duty of universities that they are intended to prepare graduates for the
coming digital era. This was seen this the Global Universities Employability Survey Ranking of
2017 within which Technion Israel Institute of Technology was rated the highest (Christie and
et.al., 2017). This survey which was done on the bases of perception of both national and
international companies that too about employability skills of their graduates. On the bases of
countries Australia would be ranking 10th on its ahead in this digital skills revolution while in
terms of Universities ranking Australian National Universities would be ranked 22nd in the list.
The graduate employability is now becoming global issue reason behind this being the
mismatch of acquired graduate skill that from universities and the required skill which is needed
by the employer. So the responsibility of the financial analyst would be that related to their
independence and restricted mode. They need to be independent financial advisor (IFA) which is
mostly being considered into retail investment provider to funds and products to customers.
As a financial analyst it is important to have certain skills which all the employers would
be wanting to have within them. This would be including skills and competence like that of their

communicating power should be excellent as this is the foremost requirement of that graduate
who is opting this field (Viola and et.al, 2017). They must also be self motivated which would
be building up their decision making ability and flexible approach towards work. With the help
of these core competency they are able to apply in any of the field of actual working like that of
banking and insurance company, financial planning firms and investment firms could also be
opted to work into. Apart from this they could also be having qualification from some
professional financial advisory which is regulated by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). They
could also be then given some important training and development sessions by their employers in
furthermore terms.
In the current market were every thing is revolving just around how effectively they are
using the mobile or other technology so the employers of finance graduate would also be paying
greater attention on the use of growing service and technology segments. As at time when any
organisation is recruiting their best employees at that time there are chance of their going to
various job search engines. So during this they would be in need to find many job profiles which
would be having certain qualification certieria as they all want to have graduates who are very
well qualified (Batistic and Tymon, 2017). In future or after they have completed the specified
period within the organisation and gained successful experience and knowledge then they could
be choosing to have other work which would be like that specialising in one particular type of
financial advice like that of insurance. Other than this they could also be getting promotion from
their company in which they are working with others been included or recruited within firm.
In consideration with the social and economic environment, various big corporations are
seeking for recruiting the employees who can operate statistical software and they can make
changes into operations. Thus, to develop the career of finance graduates the universities and
various educational units were making effective development into teaching and education
techniques (Clarke, 2017). Students has been trained to operate the software which will be useful
in making the big calculations such as SPSS, CSR reporting techniques, presenting the financial
disclosure of the entity, preparing comprehensive statements, consolidated balance sheet etc.
moreover, these are the techniques which will be helpful to develop their professionalism and
make them able to obtain challenges from the market (Minocha, Hristov and Reynolds, 2017).
Therefore, in the current scenario the recruiter seeks for the employees who are eligible in
analysing the profitability of the proposed project with the help of determining NPV, IRR and

relevant profitability measures. It helps the organisation in demonstrating the viability of such
proposed plans on which they will make necessary changes. In addition to this, oversupply of
graduates in the current labour market necessitates for students to accept available job
opportunities regardless their interested area of work (Batistic and Tymon, 2017). Due to such
situation, they are forced to accept whatever job they have whether it matches or do not match
graduate’s skills what they had gained through various courses and degrees. Thus, in short, it can
be said that graduate employability cannot be seems as a true indicator of the success in terms of
future job prospectus.
CONCLUSION
Graduate employability will be helpful to students in terms of developing their career as
well as gain the best knowledgeable skills. Moreover, these techniques implied by various
universities in terms of developing the students to have appropriate knowledge and skills which
will be helpful for developing their career path. It was concluded that there is always difference
between what the employer is wanting or accepting from employee or prospect and what they are
actually getting from them. There is also need to have technological advancement within this
field so that employers could be getting more of what they are accepting like more closer touch
of social media channels.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Batistic, S. and Tymon, A., 2017. Networking behaviour, graduate employability: a social
capital perspective. Education+ Training. 59(4). pp.374-388.
Bennett, D., Richardson, S. and MacKinnon, P., 2015. Enacting strategies for graduate
employability: How universities can best support students to develop generic
skills. Sydney: Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching.
Christie, H. and et.al., 2017. ‘University opened up so many doors for me’: the personal and
professional development of graduates from non-traditional backgrounds. Studies in
Higher Education. pp.1-11.
Clarke, M., 2017. Rethinking graduate employability: the role of capital, individual attributes
and context. Studies in Higher Education. pp.1-15.
Darabi, H. and et.al., 2017, June. Life after University for Engineering Graduates. In ASEE
Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings (Vol. 2017).
Grant-Smith, D. and McDonald, P., 2018. Planning to work for free: Building the graduate
employability of planners through unpaid work. Journal of Youth Studies. 21(2). pp.161-
177.
Griffiths, R., Probert, J. and Cropley, B., 2018. The flipped university: exploring student
progression in football coaching and development. Education+ Training.
Minocha, S., Hristov, D. and Reynolds, M., 2017. From graduate employability to employment:
policy and practice in UK higher education. International Journal of Training and
Development. 21(3). pp.235-248.
Viola, J. J. and et.al., 2017. Answers to All Your Questions about Careers in Community
Psychology. Diverse Careers in Community Psychology. p.1.

Online
Financial Adviser. 2018. [Online]. Accessed through: <https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-
profiles/financial-adviser>.