Employers' view on studies abroad - Svenskt Näringsliv

Results 21
Language skills – other languages
Language skills – English
Intercultural competence
Flexibility
Communicative skills
Self-confidence
Tolerance Social skills
Developed
Initiative skill
Knowledge of relevant subject Momentum[/endurance]
Ambition
Creativity
Problem solving capacity
Ability to handle customers Responsibility
Analytical skills
Stress handling capacity
Leadership skills
importance
Students are thus considered to develop the “right” skills, skills that are important to have and are
attractive to employers. Many of the skills in the upper right corner of the chart are skills that also
authorities asses will become more important in the future – i.e. intercultural competence, communicative
skills and social skills.
4.6 Education, work practice and work life experience
Almost half of respondents consider international experience to be an edge in employees being
recruited. To chart this we gave the responding employers a number of alternative hypothetical
situations. In the situation presented below they were asked to choose between a candidate with
international experience and one without. The result shows a significant discrepancy between large
and small companies, where most of the larger companies choose the candidate with international
experience. Among the smaller companies a majority (60 %) state that international experience
does not make a difference when recruiting. In both cases, however, very few state that they would
rather choose the candidate without international experience in a situation like this. Among authorities
about 50 % choose the candidate with international experience, while almost half do not
consider it to make a difference – a very good result, which shows that it is never a liability to have
this kind of experience, but on the other hand often an asset.
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