Discussion on:

IT graduates failing to make the business grade, say UK tech chiefs

I started in IT in 1988 as an analyst programmer. When I was hired there were broad complaints then about hiring graduates, as they were deemed to have little or no understanding of the practical application of IT systems, products, methods and strategies in a real world business environment. I believe that many companies these days are employing inefficient recruitment methods to find the people they seek. As a means of assessing potential employees, CVs and interviews are worse than useless, I recall an anecdote going around even back then about a girl who bluffed her way into a job with one of the big IT companies (Honeywell Bull or HP I seem to recall). When the company concerned discovered that she had lied her way through the whole process (or so the story goes), they were so embarrassed/impressed that they paid for her to be trained up to work for them anyway. Of course in those days employers were very happy to train employees in order that they could do their work in accordance with the company culture and methods.

I've been helping graduates fit in the real world for decades.
Making code readable, fall back positions, big picture, communication, just an appreciation that real word is a lot messier than the classroom.