The relevance of a marketing degree: employers' perceptions of marketing graduates in Australia (2008)

Abstract Australian Universities strive to provide students with a set of skills that are useful to employers. The Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) have established a set of guidelines required by all graduates in Australia, however these are generic skills, required by graduates regardless of the degree undertaken. There are no explicit guidelines of what constitutes required skills for marketing graduates. To address this oversight, 63 organisations were surveyed to identify and rank the skills deemed to be important for marketing graduates. These were then compared against the skill sets for graduates of other disciplines. Overall it was apparent that marketing studies did not prepare students sufficiently for work within organisations. However--employers ranked communication skills as the most important skill for marketing graduates, and also indicated that marketing graduates performed well in demonstrating communication skills. In addition, marketing graduates were found to be relatively equal in comparison to graduates of other disciplines despite their lack of preparation for working in organisations. This exploratory study has identified a number of areas for further research. Key words: Marketing education, Graduates, Perceptions, Skills, Australian employers. Introduction To be competitive in the market place, universities are increasingly seeking links with employers. By offering students a degree that is practical, and provides them with good chances at obtaining a job upon graduation, universities are able to promote this to potential students. While employer satisfaction surveys have been undertaken to establish how relevant university degrees are to employers, specific studies looking at the relevance of marketing degrees to employers have been lacking. To ensure marketing degrees are relevant to employers and that marketing graduates can successfully obtain jobs on graduation, it is important to ascertain the relevance of the marketing degree to employers. To this end, an empirical study was carried out addressing the opinions of employers of marketing graduates within Australia. This paper will discuss some of the skills recommended for university graduates and will analyse the importance of these skills. Literature Overview Literature specifically addressing employer perceptions of graduates of a marketing degree is lacking. The Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) in Australia has established a set of general guidelines required for all graduates. These guidelines were developed after a qualitative study was carried out, analysing the skills required by employers and how graduates rank on these skills. Using these guidelines, and more marketing related skills, it is possible to determine the effectiveness of marketing degrees. Literature indicates that it is imperative that university graduates are able to respond and manage change, demands and challenges (Candy, Crebert & O'Leary, 1994; De La Harpe, Radloff and Wyber, 2000; Stephenson & Yorke, 1998, Sumison & Goodfellow, 2002). There are a number of skills that a marketing graduate needs upon graduation. Marketing skills are those skills that have effectiveness in enablement of the marketing process, while transferable skills are the skills that all graduates, regardless of discipline, should have, such as problem solving and decision making skills (Middleton and Long, 1990). Overall, DEST believes that employers are satisfied with graduates of most disciplines. Due to the oversupply of graduates in the market, recruiters have the ability to select the best, and according to the survey, those missing out on jobs, miss out because of their lack of skills with literacy and / or numeracy (DEST, 1998). This is likely to be changing, however, with the low unemployment rate, giving graduates potentially more power than employers in terms of choice. …