Cossetted by the confines of continued schooling many graduates find themselves at odds with the real world when it comes to breaking their ties with university to look for their first employment.

This problem has recently been highlighted by entrepreneur James Caan, who believes that universities should do more to help the students to connect with businesses to gain much needed work experience.

While the Association of Graduate Recruiters have recently reported an 8.9% rise in the number of graduate jobs available, there is still nearly one in three unemployed graduates and 45 students competing for every one graduate job available.

The Dragons Den judge James Caan said:

“The job market has never been tougher. It is imperative that students are able to utilise and demonstrate all their skills as soon as possible to make them employable.

I have found over the years that graduates can fill three pages with details of their dissertations yet tell prospective employers nothing about their practical experience.

Universities should do as much as they can to help students connect with businesses for work experience , especially SME’s. Some universities do more than others to help this process which inevitably means there are students who miss out on work placements because they don’t know how to find them.”

Some Universities are already considering methods of incorporating work and business skills in their degree programs. University College London (UCL) is believed to be looking at ways of translating job skills into degree credits and Durham University may also award additional marks for work experience. Paul Jackson, director of student support and development at the University of Leicester, said the university was ‘looking closely at how to embed corporate skills into the curriculum at the undergraduate stage’.

The office Christmas party is often seen as a reward for the efforts that the staff have made during the year and depending on the size of the business can take various forms.

The most obvious venue for a small business with a handful of staff is a local restaurant or pub, where food and drink flow smoothly and possibly some form of entertainment is provided by the establishment.

For larger companies with hundreds of employees the needs would obviously be quite different and Christmas parties are often arranged to take place in venues offering larger capacity such as conference rooms in hotels or sports arenas.

The cost of the annual company get together is obviously relative to the size of business in terms of outlay and planning and for larger companies who are likely to stage other events such as large scale sales meetings throughout the year the advantage of employing a corporate events management team are obvious.

Corporate events come in various forms including corporate entertainment, such as the Christmas party, client hospitality where business relationships can be built in unique and stylish surroundings designed to impress your clients or planned events as a reward for hard working staff.

There has been much growth in recent years in the area of corporate team building, many forward thinking businesses now see this activity as an essential part of company culture and as such include it in their long term plans rather than as a one off quick fix solution.

Corporate team building activities are designed to stimulate the workforce, strengthen the team and boost morale, it is a great way of forging a bond amongst a workforce that after all spends much of its time working together in the same environment for the best part of their lives.

It sometimes appears strange how we spend so much time in a work environment with the same people without really knowing too much about them and team building activities away from work allow us all to learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of those around us.

It is a fact that a happy and contented workforce make for a great business, if the staff feel valued they will give so much more back to the company.

Getting a “high score” is something that you want to strive for, no matter what you’re doing. On a test or in an educational setting it’s pretty obvious what your overall score is. However, if you have to deal with your performance in a business setting you might not be as clear on how you’re doing. With business coaching, you can change that. It works along the same principles as test prep, in a way, by showing you what you need to know so that you can be successful.

Everyone has weak areas in their lives. No one is good at absolutely everything. If you go through some business coaching, the weak areas in your business can be identified and you’ll be better able to adjust them so that they improve. Don’t assume that you can completely eliminate weak areas and bring them up to the level of the things that you’re strongest at. That might not be realistic — but you can certainly improve. As you get better in areas where you struggled, you’ll see it and your customers will see it. That can mean more satisfaction with your work and a much better bottom line.

Take your business seriously. Sure, it’s nice to be your own boss in a lot of ways. It also requires a huge amount of dedication, long hours, toleration of people you might not even like, skills with math and with people, and a lot of other things — some of which can only be learned by doing. One of the best ways to prepare yourself for business is to get an advanced degree in it. To do that, you’ll need to take the GMAT. As the standardized test of choice for business schools that offer advanced degrees, the GMAT isn’t easy. It can really tell you if you have what it takes to succeed in school and in the business world.

GMAT preparation is something that you shouldn’t take lightly. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses that they work with (or around) throughout their life. Learning to use your strengths in such a way that you can improve your weaknesses is a great lesson for life and for business. It’s also something you can do through preparation for the GMAT. Not only will you have a better chance at a high score, but you’ll gain valuable information and confidence.

The selection criteria for admittance to business school includes GMAT scores, college performance, extra curricular accomplishments and work experience. Business school students are self-selected. They chose to follow the path to higher earning jobs and hope that a MBA will lead to greater wages.

Business schools select their student from applicants that have spent hours on GMAT prep time, and most candidates at top schools boast a combination of high GMAT scores and sparkling grade point averages. Good managers are usually smart, and the GMAT does measure intelligence so the test provides some measure of screening. But the test is better served for discovering exceptional students rather than great managers.

Management involves working with people and understanding how to handle their strengths and weaknesses. MBA holders might be stars in some areas, but dealing with people might not be one of them. It is like a great basketball player that cannot understand why lesser players don’t excel once he becomes a coach.

People skills can be taught, but the coaching does not matter if an individual does not have the aptitude to understand and deal with people. There has not been a test developed to determine this type of ability, and in terms of business there will likely not be for years.

Schools have attempted to turn business into a something that is purely scientific. While studying figures and market trends assists in making business decisions, managing people is about more than just numbers.