40% of business leaders believe graduates aren’t prepared to work. Are they right?
Alcino Donadel
August 9, 2023
Four out of 10 students from your graduating class will be fighting an uphill battle in the employment search as their next interviewer might already be convinced that they’re unfit for the job—and they’re putting the blame on educators, according to a new survey from Intelligent.
The online degree ranking service surveyed more than 1,200 business leaders in July and found that 40% believe recent college graduates are “very” or “somewhat” unprepared for the workforce, and nearly half (46%) say educators are at fault. Thus, of all surveyed, about a fifth believe educators negatively impact graduates’ workforce preparedness.
According to business leaders who believe they’re unprepared, the biggest liabilities among the next cohort of college-educated employees are their lack of work ethic, communication skills, technological skills and sense of entitlement. Additionally, 87% of this group avoids hiring recent college graduates either sometimes, most of the time or always.
