Abstract
This chapter presents a comprehensive review of both perceptions and evidence for the importance of business skills to the success of veterinary graduates. The veterinary literature yields ample evidence supporting the importance of business skills: notably, they are acutely perceived as a major deficiency in new graduates, and are positively correlated with successful graduate outcomes including income and employer satisfaction. However, in a paradox which perhaps reveals more about perceptions than reality, business skills are almost universally rated of relatively lower importance in surveys where Likert scale methodology is used.
