Next year’s batch of graduates lack the interpersonal skills needed to succeed in the workplace, according to research by talent assessment solutions provider SHL.

The research, based on the personality profiles of more than 650 students who entered the 2010 TARGETjobs Undergraduate of the Year Awards, found that while The top four most valued competencies from a list of eight were found to be: ‘organising & executing’; ‘analysing & interpreting’; ‘interacting & presenting’; and ‘supporting & co-operating’. Students excel at the first two, but rate most poorly on the last two.

Howard Grosvenor, managing consultant at SHL, says: “It’s a really interesting picture – the class of 2011 is either very good at, or very bad at, the things that employers value the most; there’s no middle ground. The key strengths of students in task delivery and problem solving are perhaps not surprising given the increasing need to balance multiple courses, projects and part-time work. It is surprising that many students still lack interpersonal skills needed in business today and in spite of the rhetoric of politicians and industrialists, the picture doesn’t seem to have changed that much in the last four years.”