Abstract:

Higher education acts as a central platform for delivering essential knowledge and skills specifically to students' professional development. As these students make the transition from an academic to a professional context, their acquired competencies become key drivers of organizational innovation and value creation.

Franco-Ángel et al (2022) analyzed the relevance of both hard and soft skills in the performance of internship students. While hard skills represent knowledge and professional skills, soft skills allow the transfer of this knowledge effectively and help people to manage conflicts, create inclusive relationships, persuade, and influence customers, negotiate with business partners, and communicate with peers and superiors. Soft skills also determine how executives perceive and understand their work environment.

The interplay between technical expertise and interpersonal abilities has emerged as a critical determinant of success within various professional domains, a phenomenon extensively documented by scholarly investigations spanning multiple disciplines (Kenwright, 2022; Bellver et al, 2022; Joshi, 2023).

In marketing, studies highlight the critical role of digital skills for professionals. The abundance of online information presents opportunities for companies, underscoring the importance of navigating the digital sphere. Consequently, the companies demand for experts in analytics, digital, and technology marketing has surged (Kurtzke & Setkute, 2021).

Chuang &Szufang (2022) highlight the importance of investigating human skills to cope with the changing nature of work and make upskilling more feasible and flexible for workers to be robot-proof, in the AI era.

Thus, recent graduates looking to enter the job market are not only required to have specific technical skills, particularly in terms of technology (Kurtzke & Setkute, 2021), but they must also have certain soft skills, such as the ability to communicate and work as part of a team (Kovács, 2021).

Given the rapid changes in the working environment and the integration of new technologies, it is crucial to investigate the skills that employers value in marketing graduates. Employers' perceptions of the essential competencies for marketing roles require urgent and detailed investigation to align educational outcomes with industry needs.

This study investigates the soft and hard skills demanded in marketing/business job advertisements requiring a marketing degree. It also examines the perceptions of final-year Marketing Management students and internship hosting companies regarding the skills sought in the labor market. The research methodology includes a literature review on required skills for marketing/business positions, analysis of skills mentioned in LinkedIn job postings in Portugal that specify a marketing degree, and a quantitative survey to gauge the perspectives of both students and companies on these skills.

Our preliminary analysis reveals some differences between employers and marketing students regarding the hard and soft skills needed/required for a marketing job. It also provides a rich source of information about the hard and soft skills required for different positions in marketing.

Keywords:

Soft Skills, Hard Skills, Higher Education, Marketing Labour Market.