Employment of Management Graduates in Manufacturing Industry: Expected Skills Sets and Preferred Model of Industrial Training

Employability of MBA graduates is pegged at 10-15 percent. Dearth of domain knowledge, employment skills and various other qualities are cited as the main reasons for low employability. Many studies have been conducted to find out the qualities and skills required for the MBA graduates for enhancing their employability. Results of studies have indicated that the required skill sets and qualities in general are by and large the same but there would be variations depending on the nature of recruiting organizations. This study has investigated the expectations of manufacturing industry located in and around a tier –II city if Maharashtra. It was found that communication skills, problem Solving Skills, making students work ready and theoretical knowledge are the most important qualities/skills expected of MBA graduates. The study also gathered the views of employers to find out the most preferred model of industrial training out of 5 alternatives (4 weeks, 8 weeks, 6 weeks, 24 weeks and that project based training). However no agreement was found as the most preferred model of industrial training. Any industrial training model out of these can be adopted based on the requirement and/or in the context of employment being sought.