The Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh T.D. today launched the National Employer Survey 2018. 
 
The National Employer Survey is a joint project undertaken by the Higher Education Authority, Quality and Qualifications Ireland and SOLAS which aims to ascertain employers’ views on the overall quality of recent higher education and further education and training (FET) and graduates, any barriers to graduate recruitment and collaboration between business and educational institutions.

Responses to the survey came from 760 organisations, 535 of which had recruited recent graduates from the higher education and further education sectors.
 
The survey shows overall satisfaction with higher education graduates was 86%. For FET graduates overall satisfaction was 84%. Satisfaction levels for higher education graduates are highest for computer and technology literacy at 88%, working effectively with others at 87% and effective verbal communication at 85%.
 
FET graduates scored highest for working effectively with others at 89%, effective verbal communication at 85% and working effectively on their own at 85%. The satisfaction with the computer and technology literacy of FET graduates was 83%.
 
Lower rates of satisfaction were recorded for graduate attributes related to commercial awareness, entrepreneurship and foreign languages.
 
Commenting on the results of the survey, Interim CEO at HEA, Paul O’Toole said, "Irish employers are generally very happy with the quality of our graduates and the universities, institutes and colleges should take credit for that. However, we cannot rest on our laurels. With technological and other changes happening at an increasing pace, we need to enable graduates to be ready to adapt to whatever future challenges the workplace holds."

Source: www.businessworld.ie