Analysing the Demand for Supply Chain Jobs through Job Advertisements

摘要

To stay in touch with reality, universities need to adapt their courses to udthe needs of employers. We analyse 510 job advertisements in the area udof supply chain management in order to understand the skills that udemployers are seeking from employees, the type of jobs that these will be udconducting, and the personal characteristics that are preferred by udemployers. The information contained in the advertisements was captured udby means of 132 keywords. The resulting data set was analysed using udmultivariate statistical tools: Ordinal Multidimensional Scaling and Cluster udanalysis. It was found that every advertisement can be described by udmeans of six dimensions: managing versus planning; analysis versus udapplicability; experience required; a focus on the firm’s internal processes udversus a focus on the firm’s external stakeholders; the level of expertise udrequired; and the way in which employers reward employees according to udthe skills, duties and job type. Advertisements fell into two categories, udthose aimed at experienced individuals who were enticed to change jobs, udand those aimed at graduates. Skills required from graduates included udanalytical skills, and ability to solve problems. The consequences for uddesigning university courses in supply chain management are explored.