Asia- Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education Business Graduate Competencies: Employers ’ Views on Importance and Performance

This paper reports on a study of New Zealand employers ’ views of how well business graduates are prepared for the workplace. The employers were asked to rate the importance of a selection of graduate competencies using a seven-point Likert scale, and were asked to rate new graduates ’ performance for the same graduate competencies. The study also investigated the level of importance that employers place on prior work experience for new business graduates. A ‘competency gap ’ between importance and performance was identified from these findings and the impact these findings have for cooperative education programmes is discussed. (Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 2003, 4(2), 16-