Abstract :
Gone are the days when an academic degree alone could guarantee
a good job. In the present times, job readiness has come to be associated
with a blend of soft skills and hard skills in a fresh recruit. It is said that
hard skills can get you an interview but it is your soft skills that will help
you stay and grow in an organization. For someone aspiring for a career in
corporate, an MBA or PGDM degree is considered essential as it grounds a
student in major concepts, practices and functions of Business Management.
While the degree validates that a holder is equipped with the required
hard skills, it provides no guarantee that those hard skills are complemented
with the required soft skills. Consequently, there is a need to examine the
perception of job readiness Business Graduates carry at the end of their
management program and find if it matches with the expectations of the
employer. Most often a huge gap is found between the two and prime
reason is lack of understanding of significance of soft skills among Business
Graduates. The concern over lack of soft skills in Indian Graduates has
often been expressed in various magazines, newspaper articles and surveys
but no serious study has explored the question of responsibility in Indian
context. The present paper helps in understanding what are soft skills and
how are they different from hard skills, addresses the question of
responsibility in Indian context by exploring causes of lack of soft skills in
Business Graduates and finally suggests ways in which management
education can not only enhance the employability factor of its Business
Graduates but also ensure their success upon entry into the work place
Keyword :
Job readiness, Business Graduates, Management Education, Soft Skills, Hard Skills