Graduates need to highlight their key skills on their CV if they are to find work in the increasingly competitive jobs market.

A survey has revealed team working, good communication skills and the ability to appreciate others' perspectives come above academic qualifications when graduate recruiters choose their employees.

HR Look reports research showed more than half of organisations stated graduate recruitment was key to building a strong pool of candidates.

However, rather than choosing graduates based on their academic qualifications alone, recruiters want to see key skills in candidates too.

Nearly two thirds rated communication and the ability to work in teams as critical personal attributes, while emotional intelligence such as the ability to appreciate the perspective of others was important to two out of five.

When it comes to intellectual capability, recruiters rated transferable skills such as grasping complex information (68 percent) and seeing problems from different angles (50 percent) above academic ability, which only 27 percent valued as very important for graduates.

The study by GRADdirect also found 72 percent of recruiters wanted to see a candidate’s motivation for personal development match their organisation’s plans for the future.

Nick Griffin, of GRADdirect, said: “The graduate recruitment process is a huge undertaking and investment for any organisation. With an estimated 185,000 people set to leave college and university this summer, recruiters are faced with the challenge to hire the best graduates who will also have the potential to be future business leaders.”