Employers rate further education graduates as highly as college graduates

Graduates from apprenticeships and Post-Leaving Cert (PLC) courses are rated as highly as graduates from universities and third-level colleges, according to a major new study.The findings are contained in a survey of more than 700 employers carried out last year by education authorities, which is due to be published soon.The Irish Times understands that, overall, satisfaction levels with the quality of higher education graduates, at 86 per cent, and further education and training graduates, at 84 per cent, are virtually neck-and-neck.When these figures are broken down, employers rate further education graduates slightly higher than college graduates in areas such as team-working, commercial awareness and entrepreneurial skills.By contrast, college graduates are rated slightly higher on computer skills and interpreting numerical data.These findings will likely be seized on by the further education and training sector as a vote of confidence in the quality of PLC courses, apprenticeships and traineeships.