RELEVANCE OF KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS ACQUIRED IN BUSINESS SCHOOLS - PERSPECTIVE OF SERBIAN EMPLOYERS

Abstract

In today’s fast changing world, where knowledge relevant today can became
obsolete tomorrow, higher education institutions are putting great efforts into
empowering students to be able to meet demands of the employers from the start.
Besides the phenomena of the fast-changing needs for new knowledge, which should be
included in curricula, there is the challenge of training students to have adequate skills
necessary for doing business in the 21st century. Those skills, soft and generic should
allow students to be able to cope more efficiently and effectively with the changes and
demands of the contemporary business environment. The research subject of this paper
is the perception of the business environment, i.e. employers, on the importance of
knowledge and skills in the field of business economics that students of business schools
acquire during undergraduate studies. The research goal is to gain a comprehensive
and detailed insight into the opinion of the employers on the knowledge and skills they
consider most important for the employment of undergraduate students of business
schools. In addition, the aim is to articulate the types of activities and forms of
cooperation with companies that, in the opinion of employers, can contribute to greater
harmonization of the content of study programs in the field of business economics with
the needs of practice. The research starts from the specifics of business economics
studies in business schools, since this type of study differs from academic studies
primarily in terms of training students in applied knowledge.