Businesses organising graduate training schemes need to make sure they focus on helping the new recruits develop communication and influencing skills, one industry expert has suggested.
Martyn Sloman, learning and development advisor for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), explained that many graduates leave university without leadership skills.
He said that this meant it was important for people running graduate training schemes to allow the recruits to develop these vital skills.
Mr Sloman added that "softer skills" - such as communication with others, negotiations, and working laterally - were best learnt on the job.
"It is largely thought that such skills are mainly developed on the job, through experience," he explained.
"This can happen through feedback. The phrase I like is 'support and challenge', so staff get feedback and are supported and challenged in the workplace and that's how we come to recognise clusters of skills."
In general, Mr Sloman suggested that businesses running graduate schemes were getting far better at providing "feedback in the workplace".
Recently, one industry expert said that the social care sector needed to do more to attract and retain the best graduate candidates.
