Creating Employability Skills in SMEs

© 2005, © 2005 SAGE Publications. This paper is concerned with the degree to which the graduate skills required by industry are developed in Australian universities. Despite acknowledgement of the need to increase the graduate skills of students, it would seem that the stated intentions of Australian universities in this respect do not yet meet the expectations of industry. The establishment of an enterprise programme at the University of Tasmania provides, by way of example, support for the contention that the development of skills wanted by industry is possible alongside the desirable knowledge outcomes of a university. It is argued that lecturers and students must give and accept more responsibility for learning to enable the development of desirable graduate skills.