[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-588301-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-588301-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","employer-perspectives-on-the-importance-of-help-seeking-as-a-keyskill-of-higher-education-graduates-research-article","Employer perspectives on the importance of help-seeking as a keyskill of higher education graduates - Research article","","This study investigates the importance of help-seeking skills among higher education graduates as perceived by employers. Using semi-structured interviews with 16 employers across diverse Australian industries, the research identifies help-seeking as a critical employability skill. Employees demonstrate effectiveness when they request the right amount of assistance, drawing on appropriate resources to solve work tasks. Help-seeking rests on communication, self-efficacy, and problem-solving, and the findings inform curriculum strategies for complex work environments.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/employer-perspectives-on-the-importance-of-help-seeking-as-a-keyskill-of-higher-education-graduates-research-article/588301/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/employer-perspectives-on-the-importance-of-help-seeking-as-a-keyskill-of-higher-education-graduates-research-article/588301.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Putri","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-02","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",5,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What help-seeking skills are employers looking for in higher education graduates?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"Employers look for the ability to request the right amount of assistance and to use appropriate resources to solve a work task. 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Through semi-structured interviews with 16 employers across various industries in Australia, the research identifies help-seeking as a critical skill that enhances employability. An employee demonstrates effective help-seeking abilities when they appropriately request assistance to accomplish a task at work. Our research explores the nuance of what employers have in mind when they conceptualise help-seeking in their context. Helpseeking is underpinned by communication, self-efficacy, and problem-solving skills. The study suggests practical strategies for higher education institutions to incorporate help-seeking training into their curricula, as part of preparing students for complex work environments.  \nKeywords  \nhelp-seeking skills, employability, higher education, graduate expectations, communication skills, resilience.  \nIntroduction  \nIn this article, we outline findings generated as an outcome of interviews with the local employers of graduates from Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia regarding the skills junior employees should demonstrate. In particular, the research explored employers’ definitions and contextualising of the capabilities required by employees of their organisations.  \nWe found that traditional skills such as communication, self-efficacy, and problem-solving were sought after (Puustinen & Rouet, 2009) . However, our participants also wanted help-seeking capabilities on top of these skills. An employee exhibits good help-seeking skills when they seek ‘the right amount’of assistance to achieve a work task (Martín-Arbós et al., 2021) . This is typically represented by the employee having drawn on the correct resources, from the perspective of an employer, to solve a problem. Perhaps our finding is not surprising, many researchers have outlined the fraught environment university graduates enter (see Cook, 2022 for an overview) . Seevaratnamet al. (2023, p. 182) describe the demand for an “innovative and collaborative workforce capable of critical thinking and creative problem solving”. A graduate with well-developed help-seeking skills will  \nDwyer, [N. et](N. et) al. (2025) . Employer perspectives on the importance of help-seeking as a key skill of higher education graduates. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 16(1), 1–17. 1  \nbe better placed in an employment context. In this article, we present an exploration of help-seeking from the employer’s standpoint.  \nThe relationship between universities and industry is a contested area and often politicised, some arguing for universities to be strongly aligned with the needs of industry while others argue that universities should be free of commercial constraints (see Winterton & Turner, 2019 for an overview) . The position of the authors of this article is that we serve our students and graduates and want to prepare them so that they are enabled to engage with industry on their terms because they hold welltuned employability skills. Tomlinson (2021) claims that employers have a ‘tacit cultural script’, which is a sometimes-unspoken shared understanding of acceptable ways of doing things. In this ar","cbCaigXHtXsrGv1l","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaigXHtXsrGv1l","pdf",420662,17,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n# Previous research\n# Methodological approach\n# Employer perspectives on employability requirements\n# Implications for universities","[{\"question\":\"What help-seeking skills are employers looking for in higher education graduates?\",\"answer\":\"Employers look for the ability to request the right amount of assistance and to use appropriate resources to solve a work task. Help-seeking is seen as improving problem-solving, self-efficacy, and resilience.\"},{\"question\":\"How was the study conducted?\",\"answer\":\"The study used semi-structured interviews with 16 employers across various industries in Australia. The analysis focused on how employers conceptualise help-seeking in their specific contexts.\"},{\"question\":\"Why is help-seeking considered context-specific?\",\"answer\":\"The expected skills vary by industry or workplace. The paper notes that help-seeking may be more sought after in resource-tight environments, and employers watch for “signals” from potential staff.\"}]","Employer perspectives on the importance of help-seeking as a keyskill of higher education graduates - Research article | PDF",1792064968,43]