Employers are mostly satisfied with the performance of year 2006 graduates from publicly-funded first degree and locally accredited sub-degree programmes, an Education Bureau commissioned survey has found.

The survey was extended to cover sub-degree graduates of self-financing programmes. It also sought to capture information on English and Chinese language proficiency, work attitude, analytical and problem-solving abilities, numerical competency, information technology literacy, and inter-personal, management and technical skills.

Work attitude and inter-personal skills were perceived by employers as the two most important aspects of competence for both first-degree and sub-degree graduates.

1st-degree graduates

Similar to the last study, 95% of surveyed employers rated the first-degree graduates' performance as average or above, including 69% who gave a satisfaction rating. This showed employers are generally positive about local degree graduates' abilities in the workplace.

The overall work performance score of the University Grants Committee-funded institutions' first-degree graduates was 3.59 on a five-point scale, meaning they have met the employers' required standard and sometimes have exceeded it. This is the highest score obtained in the five rounds of surveys conducted so far.

The performance scores of the nine major aspects were all over 3.2, indicating the graduates' performance was better than "generally meeting employers' required standard".

These graduates had performed best in IT literacy among the nine aspects, and performed well in the areas of English and Chinese language proficiency, and work attitude. Compared to previous surveys, there was a significant improvement on graduates' Putonghua expression and comprehension. Employers saw room for improvement in the graduates' management skills, similar to the previous survey.

Sub-degree students

For sub-degree graduates about 91% of the employers regarded their work performance as average or above, including 58% who expressed satisfaction. The overall work performance score was 3.41 on a five-point scale.

The performance scores of the nine major aspects were all over 3.0, showing the graduates' performance was better than "generally meeting employers' required standard". They had performed well in the areas of IT literacy, Chinese language proficiency, work attitude and inter-personal skills.

About 8,000 questionnaires were sent out in this survey, up 50% over the last one. Three thousand valid responses were received, covering about 2,000 local first-degree and over 1,000 sub-degree graduates from 1,100 firms, organisations and government bureaus and departments. The response rates were 55% for first-degree graduates and 54% for sub-degree graduates.

Click here for the survey report's executive summary.