A survey has found a huge gap between what students think they need to get a job and what employers actually want.
According to the survey conducted by City University last month, employers look for soft skills like language, communication and interpersonal skills when they hire new graduates, whereas students think employers want hard knowledge like general working ability to get a job.
Researchers interviewed 1,340 human-resource-department and -related personnel from different corporations and 820 current Form Six and Seven students from March 8 to April 8.
Results show that the top-three things employers look for from new graduates are: language and communication skills; creativity and analytical skills; presentation skills.
But the three things students think are most important for a job are general work ability, language skills and interpersonal skills.
More than 30 per cent of employers are not happy with newly employed graduates because they lack discipline, and more than 20 per cent say the new graduates do not have a high enough EQ (emotional quotient). They also lack problem-solving skills. Some 90 per cent of corporations said they wanted graduates to have good interpersonal skills, high EQ, discipline and ambition.