Characteristics of Graduates According to the needs of 21st Century Enterprises

Abstract

21^st  century is the new world of change. Thailand has stepped into an economy driven by innovation focusing on investment in human resources. Educational institutions are the key mechanism for producing graduates to meet the expectations of society and the labor market. For graduate production of higher education, the Institutions should realize the importance of the characteristics of graduates and expect to produce graduates with qualifications and characteristics of entrepreneur to become workers in business and industry that will affect the economy and national development. From the study of the desirable characteristics of the graduates in the 21^st century and the characteristics of the graduates according to the needs of the enterprises, it was found that communication is the most desirable skills, followed by problem solving, teamwork, creative information technology, critical thinking, ethics, leadership, management, decision making, self-learning, entrepreneurship, adaptation and the last one was self-management. The characteristics of these graduates were considered as roles, duties and challenges of higher education institutions in guiding the development of student characteristics as desirable graduates to be able to live, develop themselves, and develop their professional skills on business administration in the midst of fierce competition and effectively change the world in the 21^st  century.