Business graduates and management jobs: an employability match made in heaven?

The rapid growth in undergraduate business education over the last three decades has coincided with the growing dominance of an economic ideology of higher education; that its role is principally one of contributing to national competitiveness through the development of graduate ‘employability’. In particular, undergraduate business education has been promoted as one means by which to address long-held concerns about managerial skills shortages in the UK and employers’ criticism over the work-readiness of graduates. There are concerns, however, about the extent to which higher education is able to adequately prepare graduates for employment. Drawing on data drawn from a questionnaire survey of 1999 graduates, four years after graduation, and a programme of follow-up qualitative interviews this paper reports on the experiences of recent business and management graduates. In particular this paper explores the relationship between skills developed on undergraduate programmes and those subsequently used in employment, particularly in managerial ca