Enhancing graduate employability: Development of a taxonomy of commercial awareness

Employability is likely to be at the forefront of any degree applicantís mind in England and Wales due to an impending large increase in the cost of tuition (Browne, 2010). Applicants for university courses are more likely to commit to paying up to £9,000 per year to study a course which has promising career prospects. Universities must also pay more attention to employability as it is one of the major selection criteria for studentsí choice of university and courses. Commercial awareness is an important element of employability. A White Paper produced by the DfES (2005) stated that business awareness is one of the top eight employable skills for business and employment. The CBI has echoed DfES (2005)'s comment. Based on extensive research among employers, the CBI published 'Employability and work experience a quick guide for employers and students' (CBI, 2010). In this report, they identified business and commercial awareness as one of the core competencies that make graduates more employable. Some major global companies, such as KPMG and IBM explicitly state the importance of commercial awareness in their recruitment criteria (Bourne, 2008 and Manchester, 2010). It is the same case for built environment employers, the human resource managers of real estate consultancies identify commercial awareness as one of the top three selection criteria for new graduates (Royston and Poon, 2011). However, there is no agreed definition of commercial awareness. This paper intends to develop a taxonomy of commercial awareness and identify its constituent components. It will also identify the types of knowledge, skills and attributes required for the development of commercial awareness.