Abstract:

Purpose – This study aimed to explore undergraduate business students’ perceptions as to the extent to which they view each of the specified employability skills important for job recruitment.

Design/methodology/approach – To obtain data, 123 business students between the ages of 18 and 23 in one Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) university participated in a questionnaire and 20 students gave their voluntary written opinions in a survey on various aspects in how they develop their own employability skills.

Findings – Results indicated that there were no significant differences in importance among the employability skills, all being viewed as high, according to the students’ university year or choice of future job except that sophomore students showed a high positive significant difference in considering leadership as the most important skill over the junior and senior years.  The qualitative survey showed that the main themes were that the communication and leadership skills are developed through education.

Originality/value - The results indicated that although communication and leadership are perceived as the most important employability skills, life-long learning, tolerance and language, considered of high importance in the literature, were viewed not as important.  Thus, there is a need for constant studies of market needs in KSA.

Research/Implications –  Higher Education Institutes need to collaborate with the job market so that they can educate students in the needed employability soft skills and life-long learning skills. Future research on matching stakeholders’ employability skills is recommended.