Graduate Employability, UK SMEs Challenges and Solutions Report

This report delves into the realm of graduate employability, emphasizing the essential skills, such as communication and problem-solving, that are highly valued by employers. It also provides an overview of the concept of employability, highlighting the qualities and competencies necessary for securing and maintaining employment. The report further examines the influence of external factors on business decision-making and identifies two significant challenges confronting UK SMEs: marketing and lack of capital. It then proposes potential solutions, including bank loans and investors, to overcome these obstacles. The report concludes with an assessment of the overall impact and relevance of these issues within the current business landscape. The report is a detailed examination of the key aspects of business development and the challenges faced by businesses.

UNDERSTANDING
BUSINESS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Graduate employability prospects...............................................................................................3
Key concept of employability.....................................................................................................3
Explanation of current skills and personal attributes and how they valuable at workplace........4
How the skills can be developed.................................................................................................5
Impact of external world on business decision making..............................................................5
Concept of SMEs........................................................................................................................5
Two major challenges currently facing by UK SMEs and suggest possible solutions in order
to overcome these challenges......................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business organisations requires lot of skills and knowledge and hard work. These
activities involve business operations, production and value of stakeholders. These activities can
be intangible in nature and value the assets which is owned by business (Storey, 2016). There are
various skills which are required by small businesses as it is important to know the various skills
in order to produce products and delegate to others. There are many business skills such as
strategic management, accounting, marketing, operations, people and financial management.
This report is going to focus on the graduate employability and the needs and expectations of
employers with their employees. It also include personal attributes, skills and knowledge which
is required in graduate student in order to perform their professional career and also justify that
why these skills are valuable in the workplace. Moreover, it describes that how external factors
influences the business in decision making and describes the two challenges which are currently
face by UK SMEs and suggestions to overcome these challenges.
MAIN BODY
Graduate employability prospects
Graduate employability means that candidate who have completed their education and
has developed the capacity to do work. As per the trends, employers want those employees who
are techno-friendly and can easily tackle technology related issues. These employees require
various skills which helps in defining the personal attributes which are needed by an employer
because through this it becomes easy for them to recruit well performed professionals in the
organisation (Trugman, 2016). Candidates who have appropriate skills are an asset and big
players for company because they are helpful in achieving suitability and profitability of
environment.
Key concept of employability
It is an attribute which makes a person capable enough to gain and maintain employment.
It is an ability which helps in the initial development and ensures the key competencies which
helps in career counselling and also balance the transitions between the job and responsibility.
Employability is the relation of qualities and competencies which is required to meet the needs
of employers. In terms of technological knowledge, every employer want that candidate who is

capable enough in operating computer because nowadays everything is online, and to survive in
technological world computer skills are must.
Explanation of current skills and personal attributes and how they valuable at workplace
Current skills: These skills are the challenges which might be face by graduate employability in
order to meet the needs, requirements and expectations of employers. Communication skills: Communication is a basic key element in order to understand the
message mind and what are their expectations. Communication involves being listen and
understand the view point and body language of people (Quinton and Wilson, 2016).
These skills are necessary as employers want those employees who can easily understand
their perspective and impact of technology in communication. Technology is helpful in
speeding up the communication among two people as it is more convenient for two or
more people and include email, social media, messengers, charts and many more which is
helpful in online communication. Therefore, before recruiting employees in an
organisation, employers check their technical skills and valuable at workplace because it
is convenient for employees as they can manage their work. Problem solving skills: Technology support problem solving in various ways as it helps
in identifying and analysing the problems so quickly and easily and also solve the
complex problems. Candidates who are techno-friendly encourage them to be innovative
and also can improve the current conditions by encounter the problems (Metallo and et.
al., 2018). This skills is technical in nature as it does not require any theoretical
knowledge in order to solve problems. Employers want those employees in their
organisation who can easily detect the problem and its root in order to solve them. This
skill is valuable at workplace in order to resolve conflicts and related issues as it is
demanded by every employers in recruited candidates.
Personal attributes: These are the basic features and characteristics which an individual should
have in order to analyse their competencies. General awareness: It is the primary element which an individual should have in them as
it is beneficial for them to stay up-to-date with having current affairs and issues. These
affairs covers knowledge about global politics of business sector, ethical issues, current
trends, environmental issues and many more as these are helpful in developing the
personality and knowledge of an individual.

 Time management: It is a process of planning and controlling of time which helps in
increasing the effectiveness, productivity and efficiency. It is an activity with the aim of
increasing the benefits or set of skills by using various techniques which is used to
manage time (Yeoh and Popovič, 2016). Every employee need to have this as develops
their managerial skills which is helpful for every employer as through this, employees are
able to manage their own work within specific time period.
How the skills can be developed
The above discussed skills are necessary in employees as it is helpful for employers
because through this they least require to train their employees. To develop communication
skills, they need to take participate in debate or communicate with more and more people
because it helps in developing the communication. To improve problem solving skills, they need
to solve mock problem solving scenarios which is helpful for them and reduces their stress of
work. In order to develop personal attributes, employees need to develop their knowledge about
the current issues as it improves their knowledge and time management skills in order to manage
their time or work.
Impact of external world on business decision making
External factors include politics, customers, technology, competitors and many more
which impacts the business performance and its decision making (Storey, 2016). The
profitability and stability of company is interdependent on its competence which is to identify
and respond to changes happen in the external environment.
Concept of SMEs
SMEs are those organisations which operate their business at small level or the
independent organisations which recruit fewer employees and its varies across countries. The
number of employees in this sector is 250 employees but in some countries the limit of
employees are between 150-200. These organisation are defined different in the world and they
operates in providing the specific products and services (Olszak, 2016). Its traits include annual
sales, amount of assets, number of employees and many more.

Two major challenges currently facing by UK SMEs and suggest possible solutions in order to
overcome these challenges
Marketing: It is a way by which companies promote or market their products in order to
gain the customer base or occupy the new market place. This factor is easy and suitable for large
organisations as they does not have investment or capital related issues (Hou, 2016). But in the
context of small businesses, they face some difficulties to advertise their products as they
investment their capital in manufacturing and have shortage of money in terms of promoting
their products. For SMEs, in order to stay competitive in market they need to keep cash in their
reserves and surplus as funds are useful in conducting research, manufacturing and promoting
the final product.
Lack of capital: Cash is an important element for operating business in smooth manner.
In order to grow business, it is important to have huge investment of capital. Profitability and
assets depends on the investment of company but large amount of investment is associated with
huge risk which becomes threat for small businesses (Trugman, 2016). Moreover, small
organisations does not have enough informative measures in all the functional areas. Therefore,
shortage of capital is always present in small businesses.
Measures to overcome challenges:
Bank Loan: It is the useful way which helps in succession and growth of business and
fulfil various needs which include operations of capital and growth of business for long period of
time (Metallo and et. al., 2018). In order to take loans, banks demand some collateral security to
secure their loan amount. Many businesses use various sources of finance but bank loan is
suitable for small, medium and large organisations as they provide various amount of loan as per
the size and scope of company.
Investors: They are the group of individuals who invest their money in business whether
it is small, medium and large or may be start-up. They have high net worth who provide financial
support to start ups or small businesses in the exchange of equity ownership of company
(Quinton and Wilson, 2016). Investors can be anyone, like they came form external market, can
be from friends and family etc. Funds which is provided by these investors is just one-time
investment which helps the business to support and carry its organisation in its difficult early
stages.

CONCLUSION
From the above information, it is concluded that business organisations need various
skills and knowledge in order to operate business successfully and describe the graduate
employability which helps the graduates to develop their competence and ability to work in a
proper manner. Various skills and challenges are also describe which must be in an individual in
order to develop their ability. Moreover, impact of external factors on small businesses and
various challenges which are faced by SMEs and corrective measures such as bank loan and
investors which helps in overcome the challenges.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hou, C.K., 2016. Understanding business intelligence system continuance intention: An
empirical study of Taiwan’s electronics industry. Information Development. 32(5).
pp.1359-1371.
Metallo, C., and et. al., 2018. Understanding business model in the Internet of Things industry.
Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 136. pp.298-306.
Olszak, C.M., 2016. Toward better understanding and use of Business Intelligence in
organizations. Information Systems Management. 33(2). pp.105-123.
Quinton, S. and Wilson, D., 2016. Tensions and ties in social media networks: Towards a model
of understanding business relationship development and business performance
enhancement through the use of LinkedIn. Industrial Marketing Management. 54.
pp.15-24.
Storey, D.J., 2016. Understanding the small business sector. Routledge.
Trugman, 2016. Understanding business valuation: A practical guide to valuing small to medium
sized businesses. John Wiley & Sons.
Yeoh, W. and Popovič, A., 2016. Extending the understanding of critical success factors for
implementing business intelligence systems. Journal of the Association for Information
Science and Technology. 67(1). pp.134-147.