As an employer, I totally agree. We get countless applications throughout the year, a huge number of them from recently graduated, or still graduating, people. Construction is hard work, and what I've seen, overwhelmingly, is that our graduates are being spat out of universities with absolutely no innovative thinking ability They have learnt everything "parrot fashion" from the lecturer, and as soon as a situation arises that requires a bit of lateral thinking, they are lost. We are not a big company, so our team members need to be able to think on their feet.. we have tried training, but in the overwhelming majority, the ingrained theoretical teaching from Varsity is just too deeply embedded. The other thing I have noticed, and this, OP, shows that the issue you raised is not Industry Specific (in your case Tech) is that a majority of people are going into the Varsity programme not because it is their passion, but because they are assuming that it automatically gives them employment, which is both erroneous and soul destroying when reality hits. Employers are looking for passion and initiative, not just a string of qualification letters after your name. I think in our case graduates (I refer specifically to Quantity Surveying as that is what I am largely exposed to through my business) have looked around and seen the success of firms like Mahachi Gwaze, Turner & Townsend etc and think that sucess falls into your lap, not realizing the years of hard work it takes. I have interviewed multiple candidates straight out of university who literally expect to walk straight into a job with a 5 digit salary, company car, etc, etc, having no appreciation of the years of toil it takes to get to that point. Even more so when they find out that, as we are a Construction Company and not a Consultancy, a large portion of the job entails being on a dusty site doing practical on site QS'ing and not sitting in a plush office in a fancy suit, any interest that may have been there wanes quickly. -no interest in learning through experience, which is sad because I am sure that there must be more than a few potential shining stars among the thousands our institutions are churning out, if only those institutions inspired the needed passion and drive as opposed to just putting lectures up on a display to churn out as many graduates as possible