Perceptions of Employability Skills of Undergraduate Business Students in a Developing Country: An Exploratory Study

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the relative importance of different employability skills for business graduates seeking initial employment. Method: Semi-structured survey questionnaires were administered to human resources representatives from industry, business lecturers, and graduating business students to determine gaps in perceptions between the three stakeholder groups. Results: There was some alignment and moderate discrepancies in perceptions of the relative importance of different employability skills between the three stakeholder groups. There were statistically significant differences in perceived importance of communication, teamwork, and interpersonal skills between graduating students and employers. There is evidence that employers were satisfied with the level of academic skills possessed by business students at the time of graduation. However, there was significant difference in perception between employers and graduating students on the extent to which perseverance and initiative and risk-taking were fully developed among business graduates. Conclusions: By increasing their self-awareness and critical reflection on their learning experiences, graduating students can take proactive steps to enhance their positional advantage in the labour market. The various stakeholders, including academics, can lead a social dialogue towards a deliberate approach to developing graduate employability. Implications: Acquiring in-demand soft skills is one side of the employability coin; the other is developing dynamic psychological-social capital, such as self-awareness, self-directness, proactivity, adaptability, and resilience, that is underpinned by lifelong learning. Both are needed to navigate multiple job transitions and career challenges througho ut one’s career span.


Introduction
Globalization, increased competition, accelerated technological change, massification of higher education, and evolution of the knowledge/digitised economy has increased the need for ever-rising workforce capabilities in a rapidly changing world. Rapid technological change and equally rapid knowledge obsolescence has led to fast changes in job structures and skill-demands. Increasingly, organizations are looking for a more capable workforce that can handle increased complexity in the workplace, which inevitably has raised questions about the nature of graduates leaving the tertiary education system. Some governments and employers have increasingly questioned whether business graduates possess employability skills needed for entry-level positions and that will aid progression in their chosen careers (Azevedo et al., 2012;McMurray et al., 2016;Rosenberg et al., 2012). Due to growing graduate unemployment and underemployment, employability skills of new university graduates have become a concern to university administrators, employers, government ministries, graduating students, and other stakeholders (Clarke, 2018;David et al., 2011;Flanagan, 2018;Romgens, 2020;Sin & Amaral, 2017;Small et al., 2018;Succi & Canovi, 2020;Suleman, 2018). Despite this growing interest, however, most published studies on employability skills have mainly been in developed and advanced developing countries.
Consequently, universities around the world have come under pressure to produce employable graduates. Many universities have answered the call, but progress has been uneven and has encountered challenges. For example, a study in South Africa found that academics were struggling to integrate employability skills in the curriculum (Mtawa et al., 2021). A review of institutions trying to embed employability in the curriculum in Malaysia found that there was "ambiguity regarding the assessment of generic skills in the context of higher education" (Fahimirad et al., 2019, p. 26). A study in Taiwan found that "how to increase teachers' capacity to design pedagogy by adding employment-related material into the teaching system remains unclear" (Li et al., 2020, p. 8). A study of students from low social-economic status who were attending employability classes in the UK found that they were struggling to understand and mobilise the human and other capitals being promoted by the training (Parutis & Howson, 2020). As a result, such students could not mobilize and articulate the relevant capitals to employers. Jackson and Edgar (2019) observed that despite "investment in developing 'rounded' graduates, students experience difficulties in articulating their achievements and capabilities during graduate recruitment" (p. 39).
In addition, some universities are struggling with aligning traditional learning attainment objectives with attainment of employability skills rooted in real-world conditions (Griffiths et al., 2018). What is clear is that institutional investment in improving graduate employability is a journey rather than a destination. It requires and involves significant institutional learning, capacity development, and resources. As the concept of graduate employability has evolved and more understanding has developed, there is a growing realization that graduate employability is a complex and dynamic construct. Enhancing graduate employability requires a multi-faceted approach. The question of whether current approaches used by universities to develop graduate employability are effective remains an "unanswered and complex question" (Minocha et al., 2017, p. 239).
There has been very little research done on graduate employability in South Pacific countries (excluding Australia and New Zealand). This exploratory study was undertaken to fill this gap. Developing graduate employability starts with understanding the skill needs of employers. Hence, our study examines the perceptions of employers, graduating students, and lecturers. These three groups have the most at stake in higher education.

Context and Significance of the study
There are several reasons why the current study on employability skills of students is important. First, the Papua New Guinea (PNG) economy has undergone several changes over the last decade through the development of several liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects and associated supporting industries. These industries require new and different skill sets. Second, the notion of linear career paths is not a realistic prospect for graduate employment patterns in the 21st century (Ball, 2003;Clarke, 2017;Small et al., 2018). Today's graduate career trajectories involve more frequent switching between jobs, employers, and sectors. The ability for lifelong learning in a dynamic setting and the acquisition of new skills at different stages of one's career becomes more important than skills possessed at any point in one's career path (Bridgstock, 2009). Third, there are relatively few studies where perceptions of employability skills by employers, business lecturers, and business students have been triangulated (Ball, 2003;Rosenberg et al., 2012;Wickramasinghe & Perera, 2010).
Our study attempts to capture the perceptions of the three stakeholder groups while acknowledging the complex reality that they are not the only stakeholders in business education. There is now established evidence that acquisition of (only) discipline-specific knowledge during university study is insufficient to guarantee long-term success in today's dynamic and volatile labour market (McArthur et al., 2017;Okolie et al., 2020;Scott et al., 2019;Tomlinson, 2008). For example, it may be unlikely for more discerning employers to recruit a new graduate who has a high grade point average in their area of specialization (i.e., mechanical engineering, biology, etc.) but has poor communication, teamwork, interpersonal, and analytical skills. Employers are looking for well-rounded graduates with a wide range of additional competencies and soft skills that are needed to prosper on a job (Okolie et al., 2020;Succi & Canovi, 2020;Suleman, 2018).
The objective of the present study was to explore the employability skills of graduating fourth-year business students to determine whether they are aligned with employer expectations. We also examined the perceptions of the three stakeholder groups regarding the extent to which different employability skills were fully developed in business graduates. In addition, we explored the various learning methods used by lecturers to impact knowledge and skills to business students. Our study does not explicitly focus on discipline-specific knowledge and skills.

Employability Skills
One definition of graduate employability is the "ability to find, create, and sustain meaningful work across the career span" (Bennett et al., 2020, p. 340). Whether students acquire all of the abilities they need for career success while at universities has been disputed by many employers. A lack of employability skills is often cited as a problem (Finch et al., 2013;Succi & Canovi, 2020;Webb & Chaffer, 2016). Employability skills are often referred to using different terms, such as generic skills, soft skills, core skills, key skills, key competencies, transferable skills, transverse skills, 21st-century skills, cross-disciplinary skills, life skills, and work-ready skills (Holmes, 2013;Kenayathula et al., 2019;Suarta et al., 2017;Weligamage, 2009). A United States survey of nearly 900 executives found that 92% thought soft skills were equally or more important than technical skills (Davidson, 2016). Moreover, 89% of those executives had difficulties recruiting employees with the required soft skills.
A study by the Association of American Colleges and Universities also found that 91% of employers thought soft skills were more important than the applicant's degree specialization (Griffiths et al., 2018;Hart Research Associates, 2015). Researchers who compared curricula of U.S. business schools and corporate needs found a disparity between what business schools focused on in their curriculum and practitioner needs; this difference was continuing and increasingly problematic (David et al., 2011). Hodges and Burchell (2003) examined employers in New Zealand on their views of whether business students were job ready at graduation. The researchers found that most employers emphasized soft skills when recruiting for entry-level positions and complained of a general lack of interpersonal skills among business graduates. A survey of employers across four European countries found that they were not confident that business graduates had developed acceptable levels of soft skills during their time at university (Azevedo et al., 2012). Abbasi et al. (2018) found that employability skills of business graduates were less than the expectations of managers in the banking industry in Pakistan. Results from a study of Scottish employers showed that when recruiting new business and management graduates, employers valued trustworthiness, reliability, communication skills, and willingness to learn (McMurray et al., 2016). A survey of executives in the UK found that 54% of employers were satisfied with graduates' technical knowledge (i.e., discipline-specific knowledge) but perceived that they were lacking in soft skills, which resulted in vacancies not being filled (Smith, 2015, as cited in Succi & Canovi, 2020).
In general, a survey of past research conducted across different countries suggests an existence of some gaps between employer expectations and the skills business students have at graduation (Abbasi et al., 2018;Kenayathulla et al., 2019;Lim et al., 2016;Succi & Canovi, 2020;Wickramasinghe & Perera, 2010). Employers still claim that new graduates do not have the necessary soft skills for them to be work-ready (Clarke, 2018;Moore & Morton, 2017). These findings point to the need for continuous re-alignment of higher education curricula with the ever-changing dynamic skill needs of industry and business. Harvey (2005) argued that graduate employability has less to do with getting a job and more about ability in the workplace. Therefore, employability skills enhance the possibility of landing a new graduate their first job and setting them on an enhanced career path of lifelong adaptive learning.
In contrast to discipline-specific knowledge and skills, employability skills are applicable across a wide range of jobs, careers, and sectors (Chamorro-Premuzic et al., 2010). Employability skills include not just higherorder cognitive skills (i.e., problem-solving skills, critical thinking, creativity, analytical skills, etc.), but also behaviours, attitudes, and educational and non-educational experiences (Finch et al., 2013;Jackson, 2012). Saunders and Zuzel (2010) evaluated United Kingdom student perceptions of employability skills and employer expectations. They found that employers generally ranked personal attributes and core skills more highly than technical/subject-specific knowledge.

Domains of Employability Skills
We borrowed from the conceptual framework used by the Conference Board of Canada and other researchers (Abas & Imam, 2016;Abas-Mastura et al., 2013;Castillo, 2014;Conference Board of Canada, 2013;Idkhan et al., 2021;Suarta & Suwintana, 2021). While there are other conceptual frameworks used by different researchers, we selected this one for its simplicity (i.e., easy for non-specialists to understand), and other researchers have used it recently. This framework classifies employability skills into three sub-groups: academic, personal management, and teamwork (Idkhan et al., 2021;Suarta & Suwintana, 2021). Academic skills (sometimes referred to as fundamental skills) are seen as the foundation to getting, keeping, and progressing on a job and to achieving optimal effectiveness. These include communication, critical and analytical thinking, and learning. Personal management skills comprise a combination of skills, behaviours, and attitudes. These may include positive attitudes and behaviours, personal responsibility, and continuous adaptability. Teamwork skills are required to be effective when operating in work teams and participating in projects (Kornelakis & Petrakaki, 2020;Osmani et al., 2015).

Teaching and Learning Methods
Apart from the importance of identifying employers' skill requirements, higher educational institutions (HEIs) need to use effective teaching and learning methods and pedagogical approaches to develop employability skills in students. The discussion often compares traditional teaching methods with action learning methods and innovative integrative pedagogies. Other terms have been used to describe traditional teaching methods, such as teacher-centric methods and lecture-centric teaching methods. Traditional or lecture-centric teaching methods largely involve a teacher leading the class during a lecture with students quietly taking notes. Characteristics include largely one-way communication, memorization, and regurgitation of theoretical knowledge during tests and exams (Teng et al., 2019;Uddin, 2021). Lecture-centric teaching methods tend to promote passive learning (Guardia et al., 2021;Pasilabban, 2006;Teng et al., 2019;Tran, 2012). It is called passive learning because the student quietly receives information and occasionally responds to questions when prompted by the teacher. Traditional lecturing methods have been associated with passive learning in studies on Mauritius (Hardin-Ramanan et al., 2020), Nigeria , Hong Kong (Ma, 2016), Taiwan (Li et al., 2020), Vietnam (Tran, 2012), Malaysia (Fernandez-Chung & Ching, 2018), Bangladesh (Uddin, 2021), China (Teng et al., 2019), East Africa (Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya; Guardia et al., 2021), and in China, Qatar, and Lebanon . Several studies in developing countries have found that most teaching in HEIs is still heavily focused on theoretical and academic knowledge at the expense of practical or workplace skills (Guardia et al., 2021;Hardin-Ramanan et al., 2020;Igwe et al., 2020;Lim et al., 2016;Su & Zhang, 2015;Teng et al., 2019).
On the positive side, traditional lecture-centric methods have been found to be effective in disseminating to students theoretical and abstract knowledge (i.e., discipline/subject-specific knowledge; Okunuga & Ajeyalemi, 2018;Virtanen & Tynjala, 2019). These teaching methods are also better at transmitting information to large classes. Despite these strengths, however, lecture-centric methods are ineffective in developing employability skills such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, interpersonal skills, creativity, and innovation (Teng et al., 2019;Tran, 2012;Virtanen & Tynjala, 2019). They also tend to encourage students to excessively focus on passing exams and getting higher grades, rather than on acquiring new knowledge and skills (Guardia et al., 2021;Hardin-Ramanan et al., 2020;Teng et al., 2019;). In addition, such methods may promote a view among students that acquisition of discipline-specific knowledge and getting a certificate is sufficient to evidence employability competencies . Developing employability or soft skills requires moving away from ineffective teaching and learning methods to studentcentred learning approaches and integrative pedagogies. Effective learning of soft skills requires that the university curriculum use pedagogical approaches that are constructivist, inquiry-based, reflective, collaborative, and integrative (Bennett et al., 2020;Relleve, 2019;Virtanen & Tynjala, 2019).
Finally, some argue that graduate employability development should consider contextual factors associated with the unique characteristics of the local labour markets (Hossain et al., 2020;Uddin, 2021). Graduate employability in developing countries is affected by several factors that may not be key determinants in developed economies. Chronic government underfunding, inadequate infrastructure, ineffective teaching and learning methods, outdated curriculum, focus on theory, corruption, nepotism, and the role of social networks (i.e., family status and political connections) are some of the issues unique to labour markets in developing countries (Hardin-Ramanan et al., 2020;Hossain et al., 2020;Igwe et al., 2020;Okolie et al., 2020;Tran, 2012;Uddin, 2021).

Research Questions
The study addressed the following research questions: 1. Which employability skills do employers, graduating business students, and lecturers perceive as most important when new business graduates are being recruited for entry-level positions?
2. Are there perceptual differences between employers, graduating business students, and lecturers regarding full development of three specific employability skills-academic, personal management, and teamwork-in new business graduates?
3. Which learning methods did graduating students and lecturers find most helpful in facilitating the acquisition of employability skills among business students?

Sample and Sampling
We adopted a largely exploratory descriptive research methodology. The triangular design approach was adopted from Rosenberg et al. (2012) and Wickramasinghe and Perera (2010). Most comparative studies on graduate employability examine two stakeholder groups at most. We administered questionnaires to representatives of employers, business lecturers, and graduating business students as a proxy for graduates. Other researchers have also used final year student perceptions as a proxy for graduates (Atfield & Purcell, 2010;Calvo & Garcia, 2020;Kenayathula et al., 2019). At the time of the survey, graduating business students were two months from completing their studies. Issues of first employment would certainly pre-occupy their thoughts at this stage of their degree program.
The university vice chancellor at the time approved the study through his support for academic research. We collected data from one department of the university. At the time of the study, the business department had four sections, with many of the sections running only a single degree program. The researchers distributed the questionnaire to graduating students in management, accounting, economics, and information technology (IT) programs. Convenient sampling was used. One researcher distributed the questionnaire to academic staff. Two researchers were involved in administering the questionnaires to companies/employers that had come for the career fair hosted by the university.

Instrumentation
A questionnaire was developed that included six sections. These were demographics, employability skills, academic skills, personal management skills, teamwork skills, and teaching/learning methods. Demographic factors included the section in which the graduating student was doing his/her study, number of years the lecturer had worked in the business department, the lecturer's nationality, the sector in which the employer was operating, and the ownership type of the employer.
The employability skills section included skills such as communication, problem-solving, positive attitudes and behaviours, teamwork skills, learning skills, interpersonal skills, etc. The section on academic skills included questions related to fundamental skills such as academic performance, business communication, critical thinking, decision-making, IT literacy, etc. The section on personal management skills included personal skills, attitudes, and behaviours, such as honesty, integrity, and personal ethics; perseverance; selfconfidence; creativity and innovative thinking, positive attitudes; etc. The section on teamwork skills included skills needed to work in teams and on projects, such as team-building skills, ability to take responsibility of assigned tasks by the group; respecting the thoughts and opinions of others in the group; resolving and managing conflicts, etc. The last section covered various teaching and learning methods used by graduating students to acquire employability skills, such as lectures, tutorials, case studies, assignments, tests, exams, industrial tours, internships, etc.
The items under each section were derived from the various literature reviews, especially from Finch et al.  (2009). Some items were modified by the researchers. Each of the three researchers went through the draft questionnaires to ensure that question items included reflected the major skills and attributes relevant to the study. The length of the questionnaire was kept at three pages to maximize the response rate. Questionnaires distributed to the three stakeholder groups were largely similar, with the addition of one or two questions to tailor it to a particular group. A sample of the questionnaire administered to employers is shown in the Appendix.
We developed a ranking system and Likert scale to capture information needed to answer the three research questions. A ranking system was used to capture information relevant for research question 1 and research question 3. For example, to capture information relevant to answering research question 1, a question asked graduating students, employers, and lecturers the following: "When new Business studies graduates are being recruited for initial employment, which skills do you rank as most important? (Please rank in importance, i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., with 1 = most important)." To answer research question 2 and capture the extent to which academic, personal management, and teamwork skills were fully developed in graduating students, a 5-point Likert scale was developed, ranging from 1 to 5 (5 = strongly agree, 4 = agree, 3 = neutral, 2 = disagree, 1 = strongly disagree). To answer research question 3, we developed the following question for graduating students to answer: "Which of the following learning methods did you find most helpful in facilitating/enabling you to acquire employability skills? (Please rank in terms of most helpful, i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., with 1 = most helpful)".

Data Analysis
SPSS (V22) was used for data analysis. The analytic approach to each research question is described below.

Research Question 1
The research question was exploratory in nature and asked the three stakeholder groups to rank the relative importance of the various employability skills. The mean scores and ranking captured which skills employers prioritized when recruiting new business graduates for entry-level positions. Other research has used mean scores to rank the relative importance of skills (i.e., Abbasi et al., 2018;Konig & Ribaric, 2019;Lim et al., 2016;Rosenberg et al., 2012;Strong et al., 2020;Succi & Canovi, 2020;Wickramasinghe & Perera, 2010). The ANOVA test was done to compare mean scores across the three stakeholder groups to see if there were significant differences in perceptions on the relative importance of each skill type. Following the methodology of Hodge and Lear (2011) and Jones, M. et al. (2016), we analysed the four most important employability skills employers used when recruiting new business graduates for entry-level jobs. Konig and Ribaric (2019) also focused on the four most important skills in parts of their analysis.

Research Question 2
The research question was also exploratory and sought to determine any differences among the three stakeholder groups' perceptions about the extent to which different academic, personal management, and teamwork skills were fully developed in business graduates at the time of recruitment. The ANOVA test was done to compare mean scores across the three stakeholder groups to see if there were significant differences in perceptions on each skill type. When we found a statistically significant difference, we conducted a post hoc test to determine where differences existed.

Research Question 3
This research question investigated which teaching and learning methods were perceived by graduating students and lecturers as most helpful in the acquisition of employability skills among business students. Mean scores were used to rank and determine the relative effectiveness of different teaching/learning methods in developing employability skills as perceived by graduating students and lecturers. The questions given to graduating students and lecturers were slightly different, but broadly collecting similar information.

Results
Sample characteristics are given in Table 1. Fifty questionnaires were handed out to companies that attended the career fair at the university; of these, 22 were returned and, of those, 2 were not usable due to missing data, resulting in an effective response rate of 40%. Twenty-one questionnaires were handed out to business studies lecturers; 10 were returned, representing a response rate of 48%. Sixty-five questionnaires were handed out to graduating business students; of these, 33 were returned, and three were not usable due to missing data, thus yielding an effective response rate of 46%. Students who replied were enrolled in management, accounting, and economics sections. No students from the IT section responded.
Regarding employers, five firms were locally owned, seven were government owned, four were international, and four were multinational corporations (MNCs). International firms where those whose ownership was outside Papua New Guinea (PNG) but were not MNCs. The companies represented different sectors. Regarding lecturers who returned the questionnaire, four were from management, two from accounting, one from economics, and three from IT. Seven lecturers were PNG citizens and three were expatriates.  We performed reliability tests for the Employability, Academic, Personal Management, and Teamwork skills scales. Results are shown in Table 2. Since the Cronbach's alpha coefficients are above 0.7, all measures used in the study present acceptable internal consistency reliability (Field, 2000;Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994).  Table 3 summarizes the employability skills perceived by employers, graduating students, and lecturers as being most important when employers are recruiting new graduates for entry-level positions. Communication, problem-solving, positive attitudes and behaviours, and teamwork skills were ranked by employers as the top four most important employability skills they seek. Adaptability skills were considered moderately important (ranked 8th), while personal development skills were ranked lower (ranked 10th). Pre-graduation work experience was ranked the least important skill (ranked 12th) by employers when recruiting new graduates for entry-level positions. Graduating business students perceived positive attitudes and behaviours, problem-solving skills, communication, and time management skills as the most important employability skills sought after by employers for initial entry-level graduate employment. Student rankings were like employers on three of the four most important employability skills. Students ranked adaptability skills as moderately important, which was like rankings by employers and lecturers. Understanding the workplace, working with diversity, and pregraduation work experience were perceived by graduating students as the three least important skills emphasized by employers when recruiting for entry-level positions.

Higher Learning Research Communications 38
Lecturers perceived teamwork and interpersonal skills as the two most important employability skills employers seek when recruiting entry-level business graduates (both skills were ranked first). Of the five most important skills ranked by lecturers, four were similarly identified by employers as very important (teamwork skills, positive attitudes and behaviours, problem solving skills, and communication skills).
Results of ANOVA are also shown in Table 3. There were significant differences in mean importance for Communication (F = 4.192, p = 0.020), Teamwork (F = 3.917, p = 0.025), and Interpersonal Skills (F = 3.491, p = 0.037). Results of post hoc test showed that the significant difference in perceptions was between employers and students (see Table 4). As shown in Table 4, employers ranked both communication skills and teamwork skills higher in importance than students. For interpersonal skills, employers ranked the importance of these skills higher than students, even though the difference was significant only at 10% significance level. The mean scores for the other 10 employability skills were not significantly different, which suggest similar perception on the relative importance of these skills across the three stakeholder groups. The three groups of respondents were asked to rate the extent to which different employability skills were perceived to be fully developed in new business studies graduates. Results are shown in Tables 5, 6, and 8. Results presented in Table 5 show that employers, graduating students, and lecturers agreed that almost all academic skills were fully developed in graduates at the time of graduation. Except for two skills (i.e., IT literacy rating by students [3.40] and acting logically to evaluate different situations rating by lecturers [3.40]), all mean scores given by the three stakeholders were greater than 3.5 (4 = Agree).
In terms of the least developed skills, the ability to act logically to evaluate different situations was ranked by employers and lecturers as the least developed academic skill in graduating students. Students ranked IT literacy as the least developed academic skill among graduating students. To determine if the mean scores for the three stakeholders were significantly different for each skill type, we again used one-way ANOVA. The results show that there were no significant differences in the way the three groups of stakeholders rated each of the various academic skills.  Table 6 contains results for the personal management skills and attributes. In general, employers rated all the skills developed in business graduates to be higher than the scores given by graduating students or academics. Employers agreed that honesty, integrity and personal ethics, perseverance, self-confidence, creativity and innovative thinking, and being responsible (accountability for own actions) were fully developed in business graduates. Employers rated self-awareness as the least developed personal management skill among graduating students. Students agreed that ability to work independently with minimum supervision, selfconfidence, being responsible, positive attitude, and ability to set goals and priorities at work were fully developed in graduating students. Students rated initiative and risk-taking and perseverance as the two least developed skills among graduating students. Lecturers agreed that positive attitude, self-confidence, ability to plan and manage time, and creativity and innovative thinking were fully developed among graduating students. They viewed initiative and risk-taking and recognition and respect for people's diversity and individual differences to be the least developed personal management skills in graduating students. Only positive attitude and self-confidence were selected by all the three stakeholders to be among the four most fully developed personal management skills.

Higher Learning Research Communications 40
Results of the ANOVA test indicated significant differences in the mean scores given by the three stakeholder groups on perseverance (F = 4.658, p = 0.013) and initiative and risk-taking (F = 3.727, p = 0.030). Results of the post hoc test was conducted to identify where the significant difference in perceptions existed. The results showed the significant differences were between the perceptions of employers and students (see Table 7). Employers perceived perseverance and "initiative & risk-taking" to be more developed in business graduates than the perceptions of graduating students on development of such skills. It is worth noting that graduating students rated these two attributes as the least developed personal management skills.   Table 8 contains results describing the extent to which teamwork skills were perceived to be fully developed in graduating students. All groups agreed that the various teamwork skills were fully developed in graduating students (i.e., all mean scores were between 3.5 -4.4). According to employers, the ability to take responsibility of assigned tasks by the group, respect for the thoughts and opinions of others in the group, exercise give and take to achieve group results, resolving and managing conflicts, and leadership skills were the most developed teamwork skills among graduating students. Employers rated the ability to mobilize the group for high performance as the least developed teamwork skill among graduating students. Students agreed that the ability to contribute to group problem-solving, leadership skills, respect for the thoughts and opinions of others in the group, and planning and making decisions with others and supporting the outcomes were fully developed teamwork skills among graduating students. They rated team building skills as the least developed teamwork skill among graduating students. Lecturers agreed that the ability to take responsibility of assigned tasks by the group, ability to contribute to group problem-solving, planning and making decisions with others and supporting the outcome, and leadership skills were the four fully developed teamwork skills among graduating students. Lecturers rated respect for the thoughts and opinions of others in the group as the least developed teamwork skill. Results of the one-way ANOVA showed no significant differences in the way the three stakeholder groups rated the extent to which each of the different teamwork skills were developed among graduating students; this suggest that employers, graduating students, and lecturers had similar perceptions about the extent to which each teamwork skill was fully developed in new business graduates. Research Question 3: Which learning methods did graduating students and lecturers find most helpful in facilitating the acquisition of employability skills among business students?

Higher Learning Research Communications 44
Graduating students were asked to identify which learning methods they found most helpful in enhancing the acquisition of employability skills in their degree programs. The results are shown in Table 9. Students ranked participation in class during tutorials as the most helpful means of acquiring employability skills. However, of the six most highly ranked learning methods, five are associated with traditional teaching and learning methods in which the lecturer takes a leading role in designing, administering, or structuring the learning process. In comparison, reflective learning portfolios, industrial tours, group assignments with presentations, internships and industry placements were ranked relatively low in importance. Working on and submitting a group assignment 0.1000 20.88614 Note: This is in response to the question, Which learning methods were most helpful in facilitating/enabling you to acquire employability skills? (Please rank 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., with 1 = most helpful).
Lecturers were asked to identify which techniques/teaching methods they thought were frequently used to impact knowledge and skills to business students. Results are shown in Table 10. Academics viewed lecturing as the most frequently used method to impart skills and knowledge to business students. The teaching techniques used to facilitate application and discovery were used less frequently when compared to lecturing. There seems to be broad agreement between graduating students and lecturers about the pre-eminence of lecture-centric teaching approaches.

Discussion
The study investigated the extent to which employers, graduating business students, and lecturers perceived the relative importance of different employability skills when new graduates were being considered for entrylevel positions. The study also aimed to capture the perceptions of the three stakeholder groups regarding the extent to which different academic, personal management, and teamwork skills were fully developed in new business graduates at the time of recruitment. Additionally, the study examined the most effective teaching and learning methods used to transfer knowledge and employability skills to graduating students.

Most Important Employability Skills
Communication, problem-solving, positive attitudes and behaviours, and teamwork skills were ranked as the top four most important employability skills that employers seek when recruiting new business graduates for entrylevel positions. The findings are broadly in line with past research (Abbasi et al., 2018;Hossain et al., 2020;Karzunina et al., 2018;Osmani et al., 2019;Strong et al., 2020). All stakeholder groups ranked communications, problem-solving, and positive attitudes and behaviours as among the top four most important employability skills that employers seek when evaluating new business graduates for entry-level positions.
Differences in perceptions of importance were found for communication, teamwork, and interpersonal skills. Discrepancies in perceptions between stakeholders are likely to lead to a mismatch between those skills required by employers and those possessed by business graduates (Azevedo et al., 2012). These three skills have often been identified as among the most important skills sought by employers in several studies (Finch et al., 2013;Kenayathula et al., 2019;Lim et al., 2016;Osmani et al., 2019). Alignment in perceptions of importance between the three stakeholder groups of the other 10 skills is consistent with some past research (Castillo, 2014;Konig & Ribaric, 2019;Strong et al., 2020). Ideally, such alignment in perceptions among stakeholders should be a base on which to build and strengthen existing collaborative relationships/partnerships between HEIs and industry, and to enhance the development of current marketrelevant skills among business students.
Surprisingly, pre-graduation work experience was ranked least important by employers and students. This is despite some study findings in the United Kingdom and elsewhere that found that employers place a higher value on work experience, seeing it as a good indicator of work-readiness (Andrews & Higson, 2008). Other studies have also shown that pre-graduation work experience is important for building graduate employability (Finch et al., 2013;Jones, S. et al., 2016;Lowden et al., 2011;Mason et al., 2009;McMurray et al., 2016;Pitan, 2016). In general, pre-graduation work experience provides students with a more realistic and contextualized expectation of the workplace, increases confidence, produces more rounded graduates who are exposed to real-work challenges, enhances connection to the labour market, and facilitates transfer of knowledge acquired at university into the workplace (Andrews & Higson, 2008;Clarke, 2018;Finch et al., 2013;McMurray et al., 2016). Pre-graduation work should be encouraged even in courses where it is optional. Studies have shown that internships/placements often open doors to full employment after graduation (Clarke, 2018;Mason et al., 2009;Tomlinson, 2017). Internships and placements increase the number of opportunities for reflective and authentic experiential learning that merge theory with practice (Boahin, 2018;Bennett et al., 2020;Relleve, 2019;Virtanen & Tynjala, 2019).

Perceptual Differences Between Stakeholder Groups on the Extent to Which Skills Are Fully Developed in Business Graduates
There is indication that employers were, in general, satisfied with the level of academic skills possessed by new business graduates at the time of recruitment. These results may suggest that employers were happy with the level of academic skills that may have a more direct connection with technical (discipline-specific) knowledge acquired by graduating business students. The result is consistent with some past findings that suggest that employers may sometimes be satisfied with graduates' discipline-specific knowledge, but they still observe that the level of soft skills are below what the labour market expects (Abbasi et al., 2018;Hardin-Ramanan, 2020;Mello et al., 2021;Monteiro et al., 2020). However, a degree with good grades in mainly discipline-specific knowledge is no longer sufficient for career success in today's labour markets (Hossain et al., 2020;Okolie et al., 2020;Succi & Canovi, 2020;Tomlinson, 2008).
There were two personal management skills, perseverance and "initiative and risk taking," for which there was a significant difference in perceptions between the employers and graduating students. People who are high on initiative can take risks, think independently, act to solve problems without waiting to be told, have a drive to achieve, and continue to learn and grow in their professional careers (Rawlings, 2016). From employers' point of view, the difference in perception is unlikely to affect initial recruitment since employers viewed new business graduates as having a higher possession of the two skills than graduating business students themselves reported. It may, however, be a problem if graduating students failed to evidence and articulate possession of these skills in job interviews.
Graduating students' lower rating of themselves was partly validated by similar lower scores given by lecturers on the level of perseverance and initiative and risk-taking possessed by graduating students. Studies that show higher employer than student ratings of possession of those skills are rare, but not non-existent. A study in Kosovo found that "most of the students believed that their actual soft skills were at a less than the desired level" (Lokaj et al., 2021, p. 283). A similar result was found in a Romanian study, where employers rated skills possessed by students to be higher than students' self-rating on the possession of the same skills. This was attributed to employers being exposed to top-performing graduates, as their selection processes led to recruiting only top graduates (Nicolescu & Paun, 2009). One PNG study confirmed that selection processes were preventing weaker graduates from entering the labour market, because "recruitment procedures in the formal sector are robust and improving" (Salonda et al., 2017, p. 31). It is possible that companies involved in campus career fairs are more proactive in trying to recruit the best students from a targeted cohort of new graduates.
However, the low self-rating by graduating students relative to ratings given by employers on possession of specific skills can have a negative effect on their perceived employability. Studies have shown that students can and do act on their perceptions. Perception of having low competences in particular skills can affect students' ability to confidently and convincingly articulate ability to potential employers (Qenani et al., 2014;Soares & Mosquera, 2020;Vanhercke et al., 2014).

Most Helpful Learning and Teaching Methods
Students rated participation in class during tutorials as the most helpful method in facilitating the acquisition of relevant knowledge and employability skills. It is worth noting that participation in tutorials (rated first) is more effective in acquisition of knowledge and skills than the "lecturer showing how to solve a particular problem during tutorials" (rated third). These results do mirror finding by Garcia-Aracil et al. (2018) who found that students perceived participation in lectures and developing collective work to have a positive influence on work readiness, while regular attendance at lectures was perceived to be negatively associated with being work-ready. Thus, learning methods that promote active engagement and collaborative learning are critical to acquisition of soft skills.
There is evidence that lecturers were facilitating the acquisition of some soft skills using an interactive student-centred technique (i.e., participation in tutorials), thereby encouraging students to get engaged in their own learning. However, most of the other learning methods perceived by students to be helpful in the acquisition of knowledge and skills are linked to lecture-centric teaching methods. Lecturing is a timehonoured teaching method in the history of higher education. The observed preeminence of lecture-centric teaching methods is not unique to Papua New Guinea but is common in several HEIs in developing countries (Guardia et al., 2021;Li et al., 2020;Okolie et al., 2020;Tran, 2012;Uddin, 2021). Learning methods that are associated with interactive learning, engagement, exploration, critical reflection, and knowledge application were ranked relatively low by students (i.e., case studies, reflective learning portfolios, group assignments with presentation, industrial tours, internships, and placements).
In summary, the takeaway for HEIs from the above results and discussion are: (a) identify the most important in-demand soft skills by the labour market; (b) identify gaps between skills possessed by graduating students and those demanded by employers; (c) to identify skill gaps, HEIs may need to know which skills are fully developed (or not) in students at the time of graduation; (d) use action learning and multiple integrative pedagogies to close the skill gaps, and (e) raise students' self-awareness of personal responsibility to critically reflect on their own learning, develop ability to evidence acquired skills, and convincingly articulate such to employers during job interviews and in the workplace.

Limitations
The study was based on a relatively small sample. Hence, future research should expand sample sizes. The study was based on one business department in one university in Papua New Guinea. Some of our preliminary findings may not be generalizable to other departments in the university. For example, it is possible to assume that integrative pedagogies are used more frequently in degrees related to social work than in degrees in sciences and engineering. In addition, it is possible that university-industry networks (associated with industry visits, internships, and placements) are more developed in degree programs that are related to the mining sector and LNG projects. Future research could replicate this study in other departments. In addition, comparative studies between business schools in other local universities could be done. The impact of other factors that affect graduate employability were not covered in this study. For example, the role of disciplinespecific knowledge; social, cultural, and psychological capital; institutional reputation; university career services; extra-curricular activities; company recruitment processes; individual circumstances; ethnicity; family and political networks; and the state of the local economy on graduate employability were not explored in this study. These factors represent opportunities for future research.

Implications for Theory and Practice
The following implications flow from the study findings: 1. Depending on where universities, faculties or schools are on their "employability journey," they may consider developing explicit strategies on how to support the development of certain employability skills where there are identified gaps between students' possessed skills and in-demand soft skills. Since institutional resources are often limited, business schools or departments could prioritize the embedding of soft skills in the curriculum where the identified gaps between possessed and in-demand skills are the greatest. It is important to increase students' awareness of which skills are demanded by employers and explicitly encourage them to take personal responsibility for proactively enhancing their employability profiles. While graduate employability is not the same as employability skills, being able to identify skills that are prioritized by employers during the recruitment selection process is seen as a good starting point. Studies have shown that students often do not always have a clear view of what skills are valued and expected by employers (Abbasi et al., 2018;Lim et al., 2016;Succi & Canovi, 2020).
2. Identification of in-demand soft skills is critical to designing and regular updating of curricula that are more aligned with the evolving needs of the labour market (Abbasi et al., 2018;Strong et al., 2020). risk-taking" were fully developed among graduating students. Some of these traits, attributes, dispositions, and behaviours represent the growing importance of psychological-related factors to 21st-century careers (Caballero et al., 2020). Today's workplace represents several challenges, including increased work intensity, stress, long working hours, cultural diversity, work redesign, multi-tasking, rapid changing technologies, large scale restructuring, and increased competitive pressures. Today's new graduates need psychological-related resources to cope with the complexities and dynamic changes taking place in the modern workplace.
4. Using student-centred learning approaches and integrative pedagogies that focus on experiential, reflective and collaborative learning rooted in real-world conditions is key to the development of employability/soft skills that employers seek in new graduates. However, experiences from several countries-including the United States, Canada, Western Europe, and Australia-suggest that applying innovative and integrative pedagogical approaches requires significant staff training to be effective (Hora et al., 2015).
5. Our understanding of graduate employability keeps evolving. From the conceptual point of view, the study's results partially support some aspects of the "possession," "position," and "process" accounting of graduate employability (Byrne, 2020;Clarke, 2018;Holmes, 2013;Okay-Somerville & Scholarios, 2017). The three employability skills that have been identified as needing enhancement in graduating business students-communication, teamwork, and interpersonal skills-support the "possession" approach to graduate employability. The possession of a variety of in-demand skills is important to getting a job, sustaining it, and growing in one's chosen career. The two personal management skills that require further development-perseverance and "initiative & risk-taking"support the "process" approach. With the decline of lifetime employment in a single organization, new graduates need to take charge of their career development and proactively enhance their chances in the labour market. Long-term employability is not just about acquisition of demanded skills, it also includes the dynamic process of exerting career building efforts, adaptability, exercising entrepreneurial initiatives, lifelong learning, and resilience needed to remain relevant in uncertain and ever-changing labour markets. Both "possession" and "process" approaches to employability are relevant and complementary.

Conclusion
The current study points out the importance of identifying soft skills that are prioritized by the labour market; the need to examine discrepancies in perceptions of the three stakeholder groups on the level of development of academic, personal management, and teamwork skills possessed by new business graduates; and the centrality of student-centred learning approaches and innovative integrative pedagogies in developing relevant employability skills among graduating students. The debates on "graduate employability" have moved beyond short-term acquisition and development of in-demand soft skills that mainly focuses on smoothing approaching university-to-work transition to its conceptualization as a complex, dynamic, and multifaceted construct. Developing graduate employability is a daunting task, requiring myriad approaches and shared responsibility between employers, HEIs, and students as primary stakeholders. A more general recommendation for university systems in both the developed and developing world is for a more structured, systematic, deliberate, and evidence-based process that recognise graduate employability as the fourth pillar of the university mission alongside teaching, research, and community service. The aims of university education should be to develop graduates who are critical reflective thinkers, adaptable and flexible, entrepreneurial and agile, digitally literate, proactive, resilient, globally competitive, and open to learning new skills and work approaches throughout their working lives. They should have enhanced self-awareness, self-directedness, a growth mindset, enhanced commitment and passion for lifelong learning, self-driven career building skills, an understanding of the labour market, and the ability to tap into various support systems. Developing a wide range of relevant employability skills while at university (and beyond) enables graduating students to embark on proactive, self-directed careers that flexibly adapt to rapidly changing labour markets and help them navigate challenging multiple job transitions over their career span. Reskilling, upskilling, and continuously building a variety of constantly changing in-demand skills, knowledge, and attributes throughout one's graduate career is the new normal in the 21st century labour market. Such self-driven adaptive capacities-which include the psychological-social related factors covered in this study (i.e., perseverance/resilience/grit, personal initiative and risk-taking)-go beyond students' immediate concern to achieve good grades in their field of specialization.

Disclosure
There is no conflict of interest. The researchers did not receive any grant to conduct the study.
An earlier preliminary draft paper was presented at 2015 National Education Conference, University of Goroka/Unicef/Department of Education-PNG, Goroka, Papua New Guinea, 23-25 September 2015.
The views in this paper are those of the authors and do not represent the views of any institutions they have been or are associated with.

Q5.
Which of the following skills do you perceive as fully developed in Business studies students at the time of recruitment? (please say whether you agree or disagree with statements given below, using the following scale: 5 = strongly agree, 4=agree, 3=neutral, 2=disagree, 1=strongly disagree). Please tick the appropriate box selected. Which of the following skills do you perceive as fully developed in Business studies students at the time of recruitment? (please say whether you agree or disagree with statements given below, using the following scale: 5 = strongly agree, 4=agree, 3=neutral, 2=disagree, 1=strongly disagree). Please tick the appropriate box selected. Which of the following skills do you perceive as fully developed in Business studies students at the time of recruitment? (please say whether you agree or disagree with statements given below, using the following scale: 5 = strongly agree, 4=agree, 3=neutral, 2=disagree, 1=strongly disagree). Please tick the appropriate box selected. It is an open access journal with an international focus published by Walden University, USA. Its aim is to disseminate both high quality research and teaching best practices in tertiary education across cultures and disciplines. HLRC connects the ways research and best practice contribute to the public good and impact the communities that educators serve. HLRC articles include peer-reviewed research reports, research briefs, comprehensive literature reviews, and books reviews.