Ehsan Alkooheji, Kooheji Systems
It depends on the university, as the traditional role of universities was never to prepare graduates for the workforce, but to create knowledgeable and inquisitive individuals. There is a shift now towards more practical hands-on teaching in universities to produce ready-for-work graduates. However, I prefer the traditional approach of learning a wide range of topics in the university, and then starting work as a trainee to learn job specifics.
Eyad Ebrahim, Web Avenue
Fresh graduates who leave college with the student hat still on are not fit for the market, it doesn’t reflect passion or initiative to the potential employer. Students should work on their skills and portfolio of work before graduation to show their readiness and desire to be a productive team member.
Those who seek internships and part-time opportunities before graduation accumulate enough business language and reference to give them a tangible edge and an advantage by the time they have graduated, and will almost always find full-time jobs with better pay quicker than those who did not.
Wafa AlObaidat, Obai & Hill
University graduates with no experience can be a challenge to manage. Coming from a student experience I find they struggle to make the transition from being a student to a professional employee or team member. Daily struggles faced by employers or managers are respecting time, appointments, meeting times, and meeting deadlines. Placing value on time, working hard vs reaching targets or completing milestones, and practicing work ethic. Most fresh graduates make all their career errors in their first job so as an employer you must know what you are in for when you start hiring.
Yazin Alrhayim, Entrepreneur
Let’s run down how the education system works today: We spend 12 years in school, plus 4 years in college before we’re officially part of the workforce (if we’re lucky). That’s 16 years of learning, where the market has very little to no bearing on “what” we are taught. Fact is, the education system is much slower to change than the market — so we end up learning things that are already obsolete in the real world. That’s the fundamental issue .. students don’t interact enough with the market.
The fix? Get a job while studying, freelance, do internships .. heck, work for free if you have to! Just get that experience, and provide value to the world before walking out that graduation hall.
Zaman A. Zaman, Entrepreneur
Personally, I think it depends on the person. University can only prepare you to a certain extent, the student must be willing to integrate to the workforce and take summer jobs or internships to ease the transition to the environment in any industry they desire and make him or her a good hire for their target company.