University graduates' quantitative skills and industries' needs

Abstract

This paper is based on a research project which aimed to conduct a comparative study of the manufacturing organizations selected randomly from both the regional and metropolitan areas of Queensland. The data was collected in 2005 as part of a Faculty of Business funded research project at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) in Australia. The sample sizes were equal (29 industries in each case). The main purpose was to determine whether or not there was a significant difference between the industries in Toowoomba (a regional town in inland Queensland) and Ipswich (a metropolitan city close to Brisbane) in terms of their needs for quantitative skills. The main findings have indicated that only about fifty percent of the industries regard the graduates’ quantitative skills as suitable for their tasks; and there was no significant difference between the regional and metropolitan industries in terms of their requirements for quantitative skills. Further work will address effective and practical methods of dealing with the identified gap and recommend possible solutions if needed.