Deloitte begins survey to evaluate how employers and universities respond to students' needs

Deloitte is commencing the second annual "First steps into the labor market” survey, a major research project to find out more than has ever been known before about the abilities, experience, attitudes and expectations of those university students across Central European countries including Romania, who will shortly be seeking to enter the labor market.

The survey will focus on a number of fundamental areas of most concern to today's students, including a deep analysis of their attitudes towards work, and particularly the most important factors that make them choose one employer over other options.  In addition, it will also investigate in detail how they perceive the opportunities open to them in today's labor market and how they feel universities and employers can better meet their needs.

The first survey, which was carried out in early 2011 and published in April of that year, was highly successful in attracting the participation of over 3,500 current students and recent graduates to lend true rigor to its findings.  Romania joined the program this year, looking to research students' opinions and to generate relevant data for the local business and university environment within the regional context. 

According to Silviu Badescu, HR Manager with Deloitte Romania, "By really getting to grips with what interests and motivates today's students, who are so often the high-achieving business leaders of tomorrow, the survey findings will help employers and universities alike understand better than ever how to get the best from this vital audience.  For example, when we launched the very first edition of the survey in 2011, it revealed widespread dissatisfaction among students with the relevance of university teaching to students' first jobs - the report has subsequently been used at Government level in a number of countries to help address such issues. Hence/ therefore it's strongly in students' interests to take part in this survey and let us know their opinions on the various questions we ask. They should simply visit our website www.deloitte.com/1steps and access the following link to complete the questionnaire before November 30.”

The full results of the survey will be published as a report in early 2013, featuring detailed analysis and comments by Deloitte. This document will be available as a free download on Deloitte websites and is expected to be of particular interest to employers looking for insight into how to attract and retain the most talented young people of their generation.

For more information, visit www.deloitte.com/1steps.