Lucas B. Kavlie, EdD, Amy Fulton, and I assembled some research on what employers expect from graduates vs. what they’re getting. Yet, what students want is to succeed at work, so why aren’t they learning it? Here are the results:
Employer -demanded skills and their rating of the gaps in recent graduates
(NACE, 2016; PayScale, 2016)
Rank | Top 5 Skills Wanted | % Employers Wanting |
% Reported Skill-deficit | Alignment of Labels |
1 | Ability to work in a team | 78% | 36% | |
2 | Problem-solving | 77% | 60% | Aligned to problem solving & critical thinking |
3 | Written communication | 75% | 44% | |
4 | Strong-work ethic | 72% | 44% | Aligned to ownership |
5 | Verbal communication | 71% | 39% | Aligned to public speaking |
This is one reason I’m a fan of competency based education. Every competency can be evaluated. These are fundamental and would help students greatly if they were a part of every general education program.
And yes, work ethic is learnable and measurable.
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