What employers want 2021

The latest American Association of Colleges and Universities research reinforces the importance of outcomes of a liberal education but identifies gaps in preparedness for the workplace. Accentuating the importance of the findings, Ashley Finley, AACU's VP for research and senior adviser, said "the bottom line is that at a time when colleges and universities might be tempted to retrench resources, specifically to limit breadth of learning and skill development, they should not."

Critical experiences that employers would like graduates to have include; workplace experience (ie. internships, work-study), engagement in the community, and global learning. At a time when the public trust in higher education has declined, employers have remained generally supportive of the focus and outcomes of higher education but gaps do exist. Specifically, the highest needs in employers' eyes are; working effectively in teams, critical thinking, analyzing and interpreting data, and application of learning to real world problems. With "working effectively in teams" rated the highest, special attention should be paid to improving students' experiences in groups. How faculty and student affairs educators prepare students for working in groups is key and should focus on the critical factors of understanding; the people (who's in the group), process, and feedback.