What employers want is not far from what educators cultivate

The ambivalence among many U.S.A. academics about career preparation lingers in many institutions and intellectual circles. The practicality of what students seek, which is a job at the end of the degree, and what employers value in skills for their employees may be more similar than some think. It's practical and economic on everyone's part - students, institutions, and those who hire graduates.

Research on the AAC&U's essential learning outcomes found that what employers uniformly want are critical thinking skills. Line managers versus executives were aligned on some skills and slightly different on others. Critical thinking, inquiry and analysis, problem solving, teamwork, and written communication were top-ranked by both groups. Creative thinking and oral communication were identified as more important among managers while ethical reasoning and integrative learning were ranked higher for executives. Presidents of liberal arts institutions engaged with technology sector leaders in discussion about the balance between skill-based training and generalizable learning outcomes. The conclusion was that both are valued and that liberal arts leaders will be best served to focus on, and more actively promote, the benefits of the learning outcomes previously characterized as "soft skills," which are increasingly being seen as "people" or "power" skills. A confession of a liberal arts faculty member who found that liberal education does not stand in opposition to career interests reinforces this point.

While self-awareness is not on the AAC&U essential learning outcomes list, it isn't difficult to determine that it is foundational to skills such as problem solving and teamwork. It's very difficult to engage in critical thinking and analysis in a group if you're unaware of who you are and how you impact others. With notable public figures lacking and being unaware of themselves, some would say that technical preparation or skills are much more trainable than temperament.

Equally important to understand are what skills employers ranked lowest from the essential learning outcomes. Lifelong learning, global learning, and intercultural knowledge and competence made this list but that's not because they are unimportant. Employers view these skills as being developed during employment as recent graduates mature in their worklife.

An adjoining and critical question is the degree to which work-readiness is actually occurring. It's one thing to align institutional goals and student desires but, if work preparedness is not achieved, everyone suffers. Inside Higher Education's Student Voice survey identified a significant lack of experiential learning to support work-readiness. "Nearly four in 10 (39 percent) college students and recent graduates surveyed have had neither an internship nor an experiential learning opportunity this past year." 

Educators will benefit from attending to what employers seek in graduates; from this research, alignment is not far off. However, employers believe that critical thinking and written communication skills are the most consistently needed attributes and are sometimes not as well developed as they would prefer.