Non-technical competencies in undergraduate business degree programs: Australian and UK perspectives

Abstract

This article addresses the growing need to profile the required competencies of entry-level business graduates and to evaluate the extent to which they are generic across international boundaries and discipline areas. Two hundred and ninety-one Australian and UK business academics examined the relative importance of a broad set of graduate competencies. Results indicated three distinct profiles of preferred business graduate ‘types’ for both Australian and UK academics: the ‘Manager’, ‘People Person’ and ‘Business Analyst’. The composition and membership sizes of each profile were similar for both samples of business academics and broadly align with research on required managerial competencies. The reality of achieving the profiles is discussed. Findings indicated only limited variations in competency requirements by discipline and country of origin, suggesting non-technical competencies are generic across culturally similar countries and that discipline makes little difference in academics’ determination of business graduate competency profiles.

Keywords:

• undergraduate
• graduate
• competency
• profile
• global skills
• employability
• generic
• core skills
• Generation Y
• transferability