Graduation day is one of the best days for a campus student. Your relatives and friends gather around you and praise you for working hard and avoiding the peer pressure that comes with being a young adult in a school full of, well, young adults. During this day, you get showered with gifts and promises of a successful career. Unfortunately, a promising career is not guaranteed just because you have a degree or a diploma. While you might have extensive in-class knowledge regarding your field, these in-class skills might not suffice in the real job market. This is why a majority of graduates are either unemployed or working menial jobs despite possessing weighty degrees. In order to stand out and increase your chances of employability, you need to possess these top 5 skills that employers are looking for in new graduates.
5 skills that employers are looking for in new graduates
A survey conducted in 2020 showed that almost half of Kenyan employers are not satisfied with the skills being offered by fresh graduates. This means that besides competing with fellow graduates for positions, you have to consider the fact that a significant portion of employers is skeptical about hiring new graduates.
Let’s look at five skills that will make you more appealing to employers.
1. Communication skills
An article published by Newman University discloses that 95.9 percent of employers consider communication skills to be important in the workplace. According to these employers, however, only a few of their employees (41.6 percent) exhibit this skill effectively.
The thing is, the digital era has reduced the frequency of face-to-face communication. We are used to communicating via social media platforms and more often than not, these avenues do not necessarily demand that we use correct grammar, a professional tone, or sentence structuring. As a result, many young individuals have a difficult time effectively expressing themselves orally and through writing during interviews and work meetings.
In whatever industry you are in, being able to communicate in a clear and impactful manner is vital. Perfecting this skill can be a game changer for you in the job market.
2. Critical thinking/Problem-solving skills
Critical thinking is a skill that is taught in schools. However, in order to turn this concept into a skill, you have to apply it in the real world to solve real problems. At the workplace, you should be able to assess a situation, come up with assumptions, weigh your hypotheses and draw a conclusion that will solve a problem in the workplace.
Employers want to employ an individual who makes their workload easier and increases the company’s overall performance. If they can tell that you have the ability to apply critical thinking when presented with a task or a problem, then you will be one step closer to getting a job, retaining it, and getting a promotion.
3. Collaborative skills
Have you ever had a project partner who is impossible to work with? They do not show up to group discussions or complete an assigned task and if they do attend a group meeting they do not make an effort to contribute. Normally, these students expect to be on the list of project contributors even though they really did not contribute.
Annoying right?
Employers expect hired employees to have impeccable collaborative skills so as to increase a company’s productivity. Every employee brings something unique to the table and working seamlessly with them will reflect positively on the business. It is therefore important to know how to interact and work with individuals with different personalities and backgrounds. This will make it easier for you to effectively complete your own tasks.
4. Professionalism
Imagine walking to the kitchen at work during lunchtime and finding that your lunch has been taken or spending months on a work assignment only for your boss to tell you that it is no longer relevant on the day you deliver it. These scenarios are bound to leave you frustrated. The question is, how do you respond to such situations?
While you might be tempted to berate the employee who ate your lunch and your boss for not appreciating your efforts, work environments require professionalism. You have to learn how to navigate such circumstances so that you do not wind up jeopardising your relationship with your fellow employees or your boss.
Employers want to hire employees who can exhibit professionalism in dire circumstances, whether they are dealing with a manager, a client, an investor, or a colleague.
5. Adaptability skills
Change is the only constant in the world. Your ability to adapt to new technology, management, and situations in general, will set you apart from your competitors in the job market.
You should be able to keep up with the trends in your industry and learn skills that will improve your company’s performance. This way, you will prove to be a valuable asset to your employer. This is major because your skills and knowledge will always prove to be relevant to the company’s needs.
Now that you are aware of what skills you need to stand out to employers, how can you equip yourself with these skills?
Turn to The Bridge!
How can the Bridge arm you with skills needed by 21st-century employers?
The Bridge is a career accelerator program that helps 3rd year, 4th year and recent graduates translate their in-class learning into practical skills required by 21st-century employers.
This four-month online program is rigorous and hands-on. It has been carefully curated to help students and graduates successfully launch their careers, develop a growth mindset and translate theoretical skills into practical skills.
The Bridge is dedicated to helping learners increase their employability. Through this program, you will learn how to become an effective communicator, problem-solver, and critical thinker. You will also learn how to exhibit professionalism, collaboration, and flexibility in the workplace.
The Bridge is currently recruiting students and recent graduates for their third cohort. The program will commence in March and it will run till June. You will be required to attend classes 3 days a week for 1.5 hours. What are you waiting for? Become a Bridgerian today and get the skills needed by employers in the 21st century!
