Graduates are poor communicators, anxious and suffer from a confidence shortage.

That is the view of Talent Q, a people assessment company helping employers recruit and manage talent.

It claims graduates have a "blind spot" about their lack of workplace survival skills, yet still have unrealistically high expectation of their new role and employer.

Research involving more than 5,000 people showed when graduates were compared with the workforce as a while, they fall down hardest in five areas:

1) Resilience, such as handling criticism and set backs

2) Confidence, in group situations and with senior managers

3) Communicating with colleagues, suppliers and senior managers

4) The power to persuade and ability to influence decisions

5) Taking things in their stride and being calm and relaxed

Alan Bourne, Talent Q director, said: “Our research illustrates that universities could be doing a lot more to help graduates prepare for the world of work. They enter the workplace with high expectations of their employer, but bring very few of the most essential soft skills.

"It is absolutely vital that employers understand how far from the finished article their new graduate recruits are, and that they put in place appropriate training to plug the gap as soon as possible after they start in a job.

"As well as assisting employers, this research may help inform universities and their careers services, pinpointing where more development of graduate applicants is required. It’s obvious that the most successful graduates in the workplace will be those that can combine academic intelligence with more rounded personal qualities."