There has been a drive towards enhancing the critical thinking (CT) skills development of students in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, both in Australia and internationally. One debate among CT theorists centres on whether CT comprises a set of generalizable skills or is content- and context-dependent. While previous studies have considered CT skills development and its assessment in pharmacy courses, there appears to have been limited scholarly research within the pharmaceutical sciences discipline. In seeking to address this, it is vital to understand how companies conceptualize CT and its use by Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences graduates. This research identifies five major categories used to conceptualize CT in the companies interviewed: being systematic, having strong business sense, considering multiple solutions, considering implications and identifying problems and potential solutions. The study finds that, while these skills are dependent on the business context, they may be generalizable across a range of industries.

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The last decade has seen a shrinking of degree-level employment opportunities for young people (aged under 24 years) in Australia and globally. This research aims to better understand the job advertisements to which our graduates are exposed. This article presents a universal method to collect and process advertisements from an online job board. Two million job advertisements were extracted, cleaned, processed and reviewed to highlight the uses of Bloom’s Taxonomy (‘evaluate’ and ‘create’ levels) and critical thinking (CT) words within them. The study looked at those advertisements of interest to Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science graduates in Australia. Analyses indicate that the use of these words is not dependent on the size of the company, the salary of the advertised position, job permanency or specific industry. However, Bloom’s Taxonomy words were used to a much greater extent than CT words, potentially reflecting the lack of a clear and coherent definition and conceptualisation of CT skills in industry. The authors encourage increased collaboration and discussion between institutions and industry to define and articulate the skills graduates require.