We examine employers’ perception of the collaboration of higher education (HE) with business and the barriers to employers’ engagement. A sample of 162 employers from Portugal filled an original survey, in 2020, designed to examine the relationship between HE and the world of work. The employers differ in the perception of the collaboration of HE with business, and this is reflected in their engagement. Some employers indicate that HE should focus on general skills, and therefore should be autonomous from business (64.8%). Those employers do not report any barriers. Others blame HE for being an ivory tower that disregards their skill needs and imposes cultural barriers on engagement, namely lack of business knowledge, difficulties to communicate with organisations and respond to immediate skills need, and mismatch between the motivations of HE and organisations (24.1%). Finally, some firms acknowledge the excessive focus of HE on academic courses and complementarily undertake the responsibility to resolve their skill problems by means of own training resources (11.1%). We can infer from our findings that not all employers expect ready-to-work graduates and there is no one-size-fits-all solution for skill problems. Firms have agency and implement appropriate strategies. The discourse against HE should therefore be reassessed. © The Author(s) 2024.
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