WHAT ARE EMPLOYERS LOOKING FOR????

So here's an interesting question that came up at an industry round table discussion recently.
If you could put it in a nutshell...Answer this question; What are employers expecting from equine studies or equine management graduates in the workplace?

What are you thoughts and experiences here?

Is the current equine education system leaving us feeling a bit short changed ?

Do you feel that current graduates possess the required level of horse sense as well as education required to be successful in the equine industry?

What is the most important quality that YOU look for in a prospective employee?

It's a discussion that, so far, has resulted in quite different responses from the various disciplines and sectors of the industry - I am so interested to hear what YOU have to say and why.

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Comment by Savannah Rijk on April 23, 2009 at 2:47pm: Hey there,
I'm going to Holland for my equine studies, since the studies they offer in Canada are not specialized in dressage. It is a studie of 5 years but it is worth it since I will be reitermeister after that and can work for all kind of barns and own my own barn.

I think it is hard here for a good equine studie, because there is either not enough interest for the studie or there are no people who want to teach it.
The problem here is I find that people call themself trainers while they don't have a certificate and don't have enough experience. They should for example first go for a co-op in Europe to see how it all works there. Because most riders want to be like riders in Europe, the nice good quality horses, good training etc.
I don't have a lot of experience here in Canada since I'm from Holland, but what I have seen so far is not always that good. For example, I saw this girl once, she said she was a trainer and was "training" a horse for somebody. She said to me "this horse is so not comfortable in the canter and I can't get it better" and I thought no wonder because the horse is in counter canter and you don't correct him because you don't know the difference. And she didn't even know the basic stuff!! I find that kind of sad. (No offence to anyone, but don't call yourself a trainer then and let people pay you for screwing up their horse.) I have seen some great people here too and they proved themselves and their horses look just great. I now work with somebody, and my horse is so good at the moment! In 2 weeks time my horse looked totally different (in a good way), and that shows that there are good riders here and they should be proud of that.
So I think there should be offered some good courses here because there are people out there that want to learn it and could be great trainers.
When I'll get my own stable, I will look for people that are good riders or have potential enough and what to learn. I also would look for somebody with a certificate though because then you know what you can expect.