Professional Habits: The Most Neglected Component of Employability
When hiring managers are asked what is essential in candidates, their responses are informative for candidates and educators. In recent Harris Poll research conducted with Express Employment, hiring managers identified work ethic (60 percent), dependability (59 percent), and willingness to learn (57 percent) as absolutely essential. Many institutions name attributes among their educational goals. Fewer […]
General Education Is Not the Problem. The Employability Architecture Is.
General education is not the problem. The problem is that many institutions have not designed a coherent employability architecture. Students develop the skills, attributes, and professional habits that constitute employability across general education, the major, co-curricular learning, work-related experiences, assessment, career services, and employer engagement. But these components are often managed separately, assessed separately, and […]
Five Questions Every Chief Academic Officer Should Ask About General Education and Employability
Nearly 20 years of AAC&U employer surveys confirm that employers value the development that general education promotes. Critical thinking, problem solving, communication, teamwork, and adaptability are some of the skills identified by employers as important, and these are often listed as the goals of general education programs. Despite this focus and apparent connection between general […]
Applying Employability Futures: Three Questions for Educators and Employers
In the first two parts of this series (blog 1 and blog 2), I proposed that the future of employability, exploring the skills, attributes, and professional habits that enable people to gain, sustain, and transition between employment as work evolves, deserves the same attention we give to the future of work. The future of employability […]
Defining the Future of Employability: Scope and Methodology
Future of Employability shown with future of work
The Future of Employability: Why the Distinction Matters
From LinkedIn feeds to strategic plans, discussions about the future of work are everywhere, but the future of employability is barely discussed. This gap has consequences as unemployment and underemployment remain elevated, and graduates struggle to translate education into first jobs and sustainable careers. This is not just semantics. Terms shape priorities, and the terms […]