The employability skills of graduates and employers’ options in Portugal

Abstract

Purpose Available literature overlooks the factors that affect employers’ opinions of the skills graduates bring to the labour market. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the perception of graduates’ skills and the employers’ anticipative and remedial strategies. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative multiple case study is used and data were gathered from interviews with human resource managers in ten firms in Portugal. The data set includes information on perceptions of graduates’ skills, solutions for the acquisition of skills, hiring and training policies, and practices associated with university–industry linkages. Findings Almost all the employers sampled are unsatisfied with graduates’ preparation in soft skills and other personal traits. Some report skill shortages and gaps in technical skills that result in training costs. The perception of technical skills varies according to anticipative and remedial strategies. Research limitations/implications This is an explorative study with a very small sample of firms. However, it is a first step towards further research into whether the perception of graduates’ skills is affected by anticipative and remedial strategies implemented by firms within a particular human resource development system. Practical implications It is argued that the responsibility for graduates’ employability should be shared. Practitioners should learn how to interact with higher education, researchers should profit from insights into typologies of employers’ strategies on skill formation, and policy makers should understand that employers are heterogeneous and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Social implications Universities, employers and policy makers should understand that the employability of graduates presupposes shared responsibility. Originality/value The relationship between the strategies employers adopt to access skills and their perception of graduates’ skills is a quite underexplored topic.

Higher Education and Employability Skills: Barriers and Facilitators of Employer Engagement at Local Level

“…Our results show that the sampled employers use HEIs as a recruitment channel and set aside active forms of engagement that would allow them to directly influence the supply of skills. These results are in line with the relatively sparse and fragmented literature on employer engagement with HE in education and training in Portugal, for example, [28,34,48]. However, despite the sampled employers' willingness to develop more active forms of engagement, some barriers remain.…”

“…We note that F19 laments skill shortages and a lack of graduates despite being engaged in active strategies. These examples confirm that there is no one-size-fitsall solution for skill problems [28]. Active engagement, through shared governance, for example, does not seem to be the answer either.…”

“…This raises the question of whether HE should change its goals and language so that it can cooperate closely with the world-of-work? Previous research has shown that the expectations of employers vary, for example, [28] with some employers preferring to hire ready-to-work candidates provided by HEIs, while others deliver training and ensure that newly hired workers are endowed with specific skills. In fact, the training policies of the employers in our sample involved preparing their workforce and using internships as the key to screening and training graduates.…”

“…Finally, some employers participate in one or more of the governing bodies of HEIs. Once again, this helps employers influence the supply of skills as advisers [28], but according to ref. [29] (p. 2007), it should also involve their financial contribution.…”

“…[39] (p. 107) acknowledge that the collaboration between employers and HEIs is at an embryonic stage, and this is a pervasive feature. Some authors report examples of a variety of activities of engagement, including the design and delivery of courses and shared governance [28]. Nevertheless, passive forms of engagement, such as hiring candidates or job advertisements [28] and internships [48], are widespread among employers in Portugal.…”