Employability and marketing education : insights from the United Kingdom

The importance of developing employability attributes within university graduates is gaining rapid momentum in the UK. One reason for this is that employers in the UK are disappointed by the quality of graduates moving into the workforce; this sentiment has also been echoed by the UK Government. With this in mind, attempts have been made to identify general attributes that lead to employability. However, to-date limited research has been undertaken to identify the key employability attributes for marketing graduates. Consequently, this study explores and identifies the key attributes for marketing graduates from an employer's perspective. Further, in-depth interviews with marketing educators and experts in the field of employability were utilised to identify how these attributes can be successfully embedded into the marketing curriculum. Eight employability attributes emerge from the data; being (1) Communication; (2) Teamwork; (3) Problem Solving; (4) Work Ethic; (5) Desirable persona; (6) Customer focus; (7) Core Skills; (8) Leadership. These are discussed and potential employability enhancing strategies presented.