The Graduates Digital Skills Gap

According to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, 96% of university chief academic officers believe their graduates have the requisite skills to enter the workforce. However, only 11% of business leaders agree. Moreover, a report from Bentley University found that 61% of business industry decision-makers give colleges a C grade or lower on preparing students for their first job.

That gap – between the skills college students have and the skills they need – means that graduates, even business school grads, are making their entrée into the job market ill-prepared for today’s quickly changing demands. As we shift to a digital economy, digital skills are becoming more and more important for students to master. Yet these crucial lessons are often neglected in today’s college classrooms.

Most universities do a great job training students for the “hard” skills related to their chosen fields. Yet soft skills like digital etiquette, social media literacy and time management are often not highly emphasised. Faculty must focus on major subject matter, leaving little time to teach students these other skills. Furthermore, though the majority of students are intimately familiar with a wide variety of technologies, many still can’t successfully apply them in a work environment.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at  The great digital skills gap: why graduates are unprepared for today’s workforce | Information Age.