Annotated Bibliography: Skills and Attributes of Work-Ready Graduates

This annotated bibliography synthesizes five academic articles exploring the concept of "work-ready" graduates. Jackson (2013) highlights the gap between industry expectations and graduate skills, emphasizing the shared responsibility of stakeholders in curriculum development. Wilton (2011) questions the effectiveness of employability skill development in the UK, suggesting that traditional labor market disadvantages persist despite enhanced skills. Culkin and Mallick (2011) discuss the role of entrepreneurial universities in producing work-ready graduates, considering the impact of funding cuts on graduate preparedness. Greenacre et al. (2017) define work-readiness in marketing graduates, emphasizing communication, ethics, and teamwork. Finally, McArthur et al. (2017) analyze employer perspectives on marketing job advertisements in Australia, identifying key attributes like communication, time management, and digital marketing experience. These articles collectively offer insights into the skills, attributes, and educational approaches necessary to prepare graduates for the demands of the contemporary workforce, while also acknowledging the limitations of current research and suggesting avenues for future investigation.

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Employability and Work-Ready Graduates
Name
Institution

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Jackson, Denise. 2013. "Business Graduate Employability – Where Are We Going
Wrong?". Higher Education Research & Development 32 (5): 776-790.
doi:10.1080/07294360.2012.709832.
In this article, the author observes that while the employability skills continue to be
developed in the strategic agenda of higher education, the standards of recent graduates in
various skills do not meet the industry expectations. By using the undergraduate competence
model in employability skills, the author presents a credible argument highlighting the issues
which affect competence on employability skills points out ways through which the stakeholders
can change the pedagogy and curriculum to improve outcomes of graduate skills (Jackson 2013,
778). The author relies on the data which was gotten from an online survey of 1008 business
undergraduates whose competence was rated against essential employability skills in graduates.
Using different regression techniques, the data was analyzed and the findings suggested that
competence in employability skills gets influenced by different factors including sex,
geographical origin, work experience level of degree studies, relationship scope and many other
factors beyond work and education. This article is important as it points out the shared
responsibility of the stakeholders in ensuring that the employability skills in undergraduates
should be developed to match the required standards of the industry. While the article helps in
engaging stakeholders, further research should be conducted to find more ways of developing
work-ready graduates within the education spectrum.
Wilton, Nick. 2011. "Do Employability Skills Really Matter In The UK Graduate
Labour Market? The Case Of Business And Management Graduates".
Work,
Employment And Society 25 (1): 85-100. doi:10.1177/0950017010389244.
Wilton seeks to know if the graduate labor market in the United Kingdom is concerned
with employability skills. In his research paper, Wilton asserts that there are two major rationales
given by UK legislatures for expansion of the education system which includes increasing
employment and educational opportunities as well as servicing requirements of high labor of a
knowledge economy. The author observes that employability discourse directly links the two
rationales (Wilton 2011, 92). The author describes individual employability as a way of
obtaining and maintaining high-quality employment and eradicating inequality. Even so, the
findings gotten from a survey of careers of graduates indicate that the recent management and

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business graduates do not have a straightforward between employment and employability. The
findings suggest that the disadvantage of the traditional labor market continues to persist even as
graduates enhance their employability skills during their studies. In view of this paper,
employability skills are highly sought in the labor market and while this is true for most
countries, most graduates do not reveal their employability. The author strongly argues that the
agenda of developing employability skills in universities have failed to produce graduates that
can meet industry expectations. This paper agrees with the author that there is a need to further
integrate employability skills within the course teachings so that students are in touch with the
industry expectations when they graduate.
Culkin, Nigel, and Sofie Mallick. 2011. "Producing Work-Ready Graduates: The
Role Of The Entrepreneurial University".
International Journal Of Market Research 53
(3): 347-368. doi:10.2501/ijmr-53-3-347-368.
In this article, Culkin and Mallick examine the role of entrepreneurial university in
delivering work-ready graduates. The authors point out the 2010 spending review that would
reduce the budget from 7.1 billion pounds to 4.2 billion pounds by 2014 (Culkin and Mallick
2011, 352). With this article, the authors aim at contributing to the debate on graduate skills.
They demonstrate the fact that producing graduates that are employment ready fails to
acknowledge the demands of the dynamic and altered environment of work. Whereas the
primary focus of the authors is the graduates, they are also aware of the market research industry
which is also dealing with challenges of external pressures of shifting from gathering of data to
intelligent providers. The article then moves to develop of new university type which is aimed at
reducing the dependency on the conventional funding sources. Finally, they present a model of a
research facility that has actively engaged students and which has helped more than seventy
researchers with a business mindset. In view of this paper, the authors present a strong argument
by using the 2010 spending review to argue that by reducing the budget for higher education, it is
not possible to produce graduates who are employment-ready because the environment of work
is altered and dynamic. Even so, it is true that the working environment is dynamic and gets
altered frequently, the employability of graduates can survive the dynamism.

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Greenacre, Luke, Lynne Freeman, Minna-Maarit Jaskari, and Susan Cadwallader.
2017. "Editors’ Corner: The “Work-Ready” Marketing Graduate".
Journal Of Marketing
Education 39 (2): 67-68. doi:10.1177/0273475317712411.
In this article, the authors examine what should be considered as work-ready and how it
can be adequately entrenched in marketing majors. Existing articles in marketing education are
compared with the authors' hypothesis that work-ready graduates should have attained minimum
standards in business-related goals which include interpersonal communication skills, ethics,
teamwork, and flexibility. The other used articles support the authors with most of them stressing
the importance of including communication skills, ethics, and teamwork as the minimum
standards that one should have to qualify as work-ready (Greenacre et al. 2017, 67). The authors
argue that the educational perspective of work-ready graduates should include long term
aspirations and career goals. One limitation of this study is that it fails to clarify how marketing
faculty can provide knowledge and skills that can ensure that graduates acquire tools that can be
used to stand post-graduation challenges and actualize potential. Further studies can look into
this area. The article is useful in providing clarification on the meaning of work-ready graduates
from both educational and institutional perspectives. While research has been conducted on the
work readiness of graduates, many people still do not understand explicitly what work readiness
should constitute.
McArthur, Ellen, Krzysztof Kubacki, Bo Pang, and Celeste Alcaraz. 2017. "The
Employers’ View Of “Work-Ready” Graduates: A Study Of Advertisements For
Marketing Jobs In Australia".
Journal Of Marketing Education 39 (2): 82-93.
doi:10.1177/0273475317712766.
In this article, the authors seek to understand how employers and not researchers identify
the specific attributes and skills required in candidates for marketing employment in Australia.
This article utilizes the results of content analysis of 359 advertisements on marketing jobs
downloaded in 2016 within two periods. The data provide detailed records written by employers.
From the findings, the most demanded attributes by the employers were found to be
communication skills, time management, motivation and experience in digital marketing. The
quantitative results show that extraverted nature enables candidates to develop and demonstrate
most of the employability attributes. According to the authors, the findings raise concerns on the

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purpose of a degree and whether the curricula designed for marketing are fit for purpose
(McArthur et al. 2017, 84). This article is helpful as it contributes to the under-explored research
area which is employability. Together with the information provided in this article, the existing
literature provides intuition for managers, career counselors, and human resource personnel and
enables them to improve and support the employability skills and attributes in graduates. One
limitation of this study is that it fails to point out the relationship between employability
attributes and competencies. Future research on this topic would be helpful
.

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References
Culkin, Nigel, and Sofie Mallick. 2011. "Producing Work-Ready Graduates: The Role Of The
Entrepreneurial University". International Journal Of Market Research 53 (3): 347-368.
doi:10.2501/ijmr-53-3-347-368.
Greenacre, Luke, Lynne Freeman, Minna-Maarit Jaskari, and Susan Cadwallader. 2017.
"Editors’ Corner: The “Work-Ready” Marketing Graduate". Journal Of Marketing
Education 39 (2): 67-68. doi:10.1177/0273475317712411.
Jackson, Denise. 2013. "Business Graduate Employability – Where Are We Going
Wrong?". Higher Education Research & Development 32 (5): 776-790.
doi:10.1080/07294360.2012.709832.
McArthur, Ellen, Krzysztof Kubacki, Bo Pang, and Celeste Alcaraz. 2017. "The Employers’
View Of “Work-Ready” Graduates: A Study Of Advertisements For Marketing Jobs In
Australia". Journal Of Marketing Education 39 (2): 82-93.
doi:10.1177/0273475317712766.
Wilton, Nick. 2011. "Do Employability Skills Really Matter In The UK Graduate Labour
Market? The Case Of Business And Management Graduates". Work, Employment And
Society 25 (1): 85-100. doi:10.1177/0950017010389244.