The Importance of Work-Readiness Skills for Business Graduates

This article explores the research on work-readiness skills for business graduates and their importance in the job market. It includes articles by experts in the field, such as Denise Jackson, Nick Wilton, Jeannie Daniels, Jennifer Brooker, Sonia Ferns, C. Smith, Leoni Russell, Ian Herbert, and Stephanie Lambert.

Running head: ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE
Accounting and Finance
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors Note
Course ID

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Jackson, Denise. 2014. “Testing a model of undergraduate competence in employability
skills and its implications for stakeholder.” Journal of Education and Work 27 (2): 220-
242.
The ongoing article examines the validations that whether the business students are
work ready. The present article by the authors is based on investigating the skills, behaviours
and knowledge that graduates typically require to develop for their first job as graduate
(Jackson 2016). The aim of the research was to understand whether the business graduates
are having the job-readiness. Jackson, Denise (2014) have felt that business students have
strong communications skills developed from university but also believed that the real
experience of finishing the tasks at the workplace under the profession environment is the
only manner to understand truly and implement them. The research was conducted based on
the quantitative methods with total respondents of 25 students. The research instrument that
was adopted by the researcher was based on the interviews. The weakness of the research that
was identified was the lack of quantitative data from the survey.
The author Associate Professor Denise Jackson is the work-Integrated learning
coordinator at the school of business and law. The author is the National Board Member and
WA state chair for Australian collaborative education network.
Wilton, Nick 2011 Do employability skills really matter in UK graduate labour market?
The case of business and management graduates. Work, Employment & Society 25 (1):
85-100:
In this article according to Wilton, Nick (2011) it is not always considered as constant
with the work-readiness skills. The purpose of the article was to understand whether the
graduates are having the work ready. While the formal educations provide the business
students with the confidence of knowing what they are capable of learning it more specific

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skills and knowledge however it does not directly educate the business students with the
skills. Certainly there are certain particular way of doing things and communicating in the
recruitment that might be applicable in this sector however these otherwise taken for granted
everyday jobs are correspondingly implemented in wide range of organizations. Receiving
the positive feedback is regarded as the opportunity for education for the graduates and
illustrates the manner in which a university imparts educations.
The participants of the research were the academics comprising of the lecturers and
professors. The research conducted by Wilton, Nick (2011) suggest that there are some
business graduates that find hard to speak up if they are struggling with the work. The
research instrument that was adopted by the researcher was based on the observations of
study pattern in Universities.
University learnings might be able to lend support towards work readiness for the
business students through job-based training and experience. This can lead to a positive
prospect for the business students and helps in supporting them during their transition from
work to employment. The article identified that internships can be regarded as the better tool
for creating workforce however adequate, better quality opportunities may not be readily
available and several students would want or required to work in part-time straight across
their degree programme.
Nick Wilton is the Associate Head of the Department for Business and Management
and Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Department at the Bristol Business Schol, University
of West England in Bristol.

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Daniels, Jeannie, and Jennifer Brooker. 2014 "Student identity development in
higher education: implications for graduate attributes and work-
readiness." Educational Research 56, no. 1: 65-76.
Improving the employability of the graduates is regarded as the priority for several
stakeholders in the higher educations and the research is based on the exploration of
graduate’s experience and attitude towards the enclosure of employment related support in
the undergraduate programmes. The findings are triangulated in the workshop with 23
graduate’s careers advisory professionals. The outcomes obtained reflected an important
trend in the experience and attitude along with the variations by the discipline and gender.
Whereas one in 10 graduates prefer the disciplinary focus with the indirect attention in the
direction of employability. While nine out of ten wanted employability to have the greater
focus on the integrated approach.
Jeannie Daniels and Jennifer Brooker is the head professor at the school of education
whereas also worked the lecturer in the University of West of Scotland. Jennifer Brooker
worked as lecturer in the school of Global, Urban and Social Studies.
Ferns, Sonia, C. Smith, and Leoni Russell. 2014 "The impact of work integrated
learning on student work-readiness.".
The primary objective of the research was to ascertain the effect of the work
integrated learning on the employability development and capabilities of the students. With
the increasing importance of simulations as the alternative or complements to placements, the
effect of both the placements and simulations that were examined. There are certain
associations that raises questions associated to the conceptualization and measurement of the
work-readiness and WIL. The contribution of WIL was assessed following the controlling
factors namely the work experience, progress through grade, age simulations activities and
career development enhancement learning activities. The findings from the research

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categorically provides confirmation that WIL placement have the effect on the work-
readiness of the student to contribute towards employability.
The author Sonia Ferns is the learning curricular educator while Ms Leoni Russel is
the senior Educational Advisor while Smith holds the Office of Dean at the Learning and
Teaching, RMIT.
Herbert, Ian P., and Stephanie Lambert. 2016. "The case of the ‘sunset and the
sunrise’economies in the global, digitalised, knowledge-based economy: what future for
careers?.".
In this article Herbert, Ian and Stephanie (2016) explained that employability skills
forms the only aspects of employability. The researcher obtain their sample through the
observation data of the job oriented universities that provides technical and skill related
knowledge to the students. The research participants mainly comprised of lecturers and
professors from Work Integrated Learning which explained that employability studies usually
assumes that adequate entry-level work is available. Nevertheless, the modern day challenge
is to better structure the internships learning opportunities. The research instrument that was
adopted by the researcher was based on the face to face conversation that emphasized on east
to learning scheme. The innovative earn to learn scheme proposed by Herbert, Ian and
Stephanie (2016) aims in providing better resolution to the current problems across the work
readiness by promoting organizations to open up the roles at the entry level for the graduates.
Such schemes would help in improving the business student’s work-readiness and
employability.
Furthermore, these schemes would not help in reducing the level of debt for the
business students but would also help the employers in cost effective and flexible sourcing of
solutions leading to acquisition and development of the emerging scarce talents (Hannon et

5ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE
al. 2017). Such projects would help in bringing together the organizations, consultants,
outsource providers, policy creators, educator and the government to share the alternative
approaches which can promote sustainable policies of labour.
The authors selected in this research are the members of Global Sourcing Research
Interest Group for Global Sourcing and Services at the University of Loughborough.
Stephanie Lambert and Ian Herbert are the researcher in this area of student learning and
curriculum design and has extensively published in this area.

6ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE
References:
Daniels, Jeannie, and Jennifer Brooker. "Student identity development in higher education:
implications for graduate attributes and work-readiness." Educational Research 56, no. 1
(2014): 65-76.
Ferns, Sonia, C. Smith, and Leoni Russell. "The impact of work integrated learning on
student work-readiness." (2014).
Herbert, Ian P., and Stephanie Lambert. 2016. "The case of the ‘sunset and the
sunrise’economies in the global, digitalised, knowledge-based economy: what future for
careers?.".
Jackson, Denise. 2014. “Testing a model of undergraduate competence in employability skills
and its implications for stakeholder.” Journal of Education and Work 27 (2): 220-242.
Wilton, Nick 2011 Do employability skills really matter in UK graduate labour market? The
case of business and management graduates. Work, Employment & Society 25 (1): 85-100: