employability skills & mindsets - stemconnector · 2020-02-26 · mindsets, not on specific...

EMPLOYABILITY

SKILLS &

MINDSETS

A review of the skills and mindsets that drive success in the modern workforce and resources to help develop them

A product of the Postsecondary

Pathways Innovation Lab

2 Employability Skills & Mindsets

A product of the STEMconnector

Postsecondary Pathways

Innovation Lab

2018

CONTENTS

4 WHY DO EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS & MINDSETS MATTER?

6 WHAT ARE EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS & MINDSETS?

9 WHAT CAN EMPLOYERS AND EDUCATORS DO TO DEVELOP THESE SKILLS AND MINDSETS?

10 RESOURCES EXPLORING THE IMPORTANCE OF THESE SKILLS

11 RESOURCES FOR BUSINESS LEADERS HELPING EMPLOYEES TO DEVELOP THESE SKILLS

12 RESOURCES FOR EDUCATORS HELPING STUDENTS TO DEVELOP THESE SKILLS

13 REFERENCES

Employability Skills & Mindsets 3

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Employability skills and mindsets are personal attributes that

indicate a high level of cognitive and personal development and

are broadly applicable across job titles and industries.

Creating and maintaining an adaptable workforce, where

employees are prepared for changing jobs and jobs we cannot

predict yet, requires young people to learn skills and mindsets

beyond the technical aspects of any particular job or industry.

Establishing a shared language and greater collaboration around

developing these skills and mindsets is critical to reach the goals

of the postsecondary sector (the institutions educating future

hires) and employers (the organizations hiring those students).


WHY DO EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS &

MINDSETS MATTER?

They matter to employers and educators

Employabil ity skil ls and mindsets demonstrate that new hires can communicate,

collaborate, learn from their mistakes, grow and adapt, and solve problems.

We consistently hear that employers value employabil ity skil ls as much, or more,

than the technical qualif ications they seek in prospective employees.

A 2016 CBI/Pearson

Education study found

that 81% of survey

respondents valued

employability skills over

technical qualifications

when hiring.i

A survey by the recruitment

firm CareerBuilder similarly found that 77% of

surveyed employers rate

employability skills as

being of equal importance

to “cognitive” skills (e.g.

reading, mathematics,

science).ii

The Wall Street Journal found that 92%

of nearly 900 surveyed executives

said employability skills were equally

important or more important than

knowledge-specific skills.iv

Yet only 11%

have an easy time

finding employees with those skills

PayScale and Future Workforce found that

only half of managers surveyed believe

that recent graduates are adequately

prepared for the workforce.v


A full 96% of educators rank problem-solving as a “very important

or important” skil l for career success, according to a survey by

Wainhouse, followed by collaboration (96%) and persistence (90%). i i i

Yet these skills are difficult to find in prospective employees.


Employabil ity skil ls and mindsets are

personal attributes that indicate a high level

of cognitive and personal development and

are broadly applicable across job tit les

and industries. Establishing consensus on

the definitions of these skil ls between the

institutions educating future hires and the

organizations hiring those students is crucial

to ensure people are prepared to enter

and succeed in the workforce. These are

often referred to as “soft skil ls,” “social-

emotional skil ls,” “21st-century skil ls”, and

“noncognitive skil ls.” We prefer the phrase

employabil ity skil ls and mindsets because

it encapsulates a broader set of attributes

WHAT ARE EMPLOYABILITY

SKILLS & MINDSETS?

Note: This brief focuses on skil ls and

mindsets, not on specific knowledge.

Knowledge is a set of facts, information,

or understanding about one’s self, others,

and the world. It is highly role-dependent,

whereas employabil ity skil ls and mindsets

cross roles and disciplines. For example,

Algebra II, Physics, Biology, Python, etc.

Building academic knowledge is a key

developmental task as people move through

K-12 education, postsecondary education,

and the workforce.


Top 11 Employability Skills & Mindsets: We conducted a

frequency analysis on the skills noted in surveys and studies from field leaders, and interviewed STEMconnector members and experts to identify those that appear to

be most critical to the modern STEM workforce.

Employability Skills are the learned abilities to carry out a task with

intended results or goals and can be either general or domain-specific.

1. Collaboration (Teamwork): Being able to work with others and function

well in the process

2. Cognitive Flexibility: Being able to switch between thinking about two

different concepts, and to think about multiple concepts simultaneously

3. Communication: Being able to communicate what to say in an

appropriate and effective way

4. Critical Thinking: Being able to perform objective analysis and

evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment

5. Cultural Competence: Managing cultural differences; respecting others

6. Decision Making & Judgment: Being able to make informed decisions

7. Leadership: Being able to lead a group of people or organization

8. Organization & Planning: Being able to organize and plan life, projects,

tasks, and schedules

9. Problem Solving: Being able to solve problems

10. Relationship Management: Being able to form, grow, manage, and

keep relationships

11. Responsibility: Being able to hold yourself and others accountable


Employability Mindsets are beliefs and attitudes about oneself, the world,

and the interaction between the two. They are the lenses we use to process

everyday experiences.

1. Adaptability: Being flexible in your thinking and behavior, depending on what is needed

2. Agility: Being able to change your mood and actions depending on what is needed, where you are, and who you are with

3. Confidence & Self-Efficacy: Having an internal sense of overall positive self-worth

4. Curiosity: Being an eager learner with many questions

5. Empathy: Being understanding and connected to the feelings and experiences of others

6. Fairness: Being sensitive to the difference between right and wrong, and believing everyone deserves a fair chance

7. Growth Orientation: Being able to improve oneself through effort; the belief intelligence can be developed

8. Humility: Being thoughtful and honest about your talents and achievements, shortcomings, and mistakes. Having a healthy perspective and engaging with others even when the focus is not on you

9. Integrity: Being honest and having strong moral principles

10. Open Mindedness (Openness): Being willing to try new things or to hear and consider new ideas

11. Persistence (Grit): Perseverance and passion toward achieving a goal

despite having obstacles to overcome along the way


What can Employers and Educators do to

Develop These Skills & Mindsets?

Many sector-specific efforts exist to develop employability

skills and mindsets. For example, educators can choose

from over 80 different pedagogical frameworks associated

with employability skills.vi This brief does not create an

exhaustive list of such resources, but rather offers an initial

set for those interested in exploring the topic more deeply.

The challenge in developing these skills and mindsets is not

a lack of best practices, but rather a lack of communication

and coordination across sectors.vii While choosing an

approach to building skills and mindsets matters, it is

equally as important to align efforts of educators and

employers to maximize impact.

RESOURCES EXPLORING THE

IMPORTANCE OF THESE SKILLS

Skil ls for a Changing World: Advancing Quality Learning for

Vibrant Societies. Rebecca Winthrop and Eileen McGivney.

Brookings Institution.

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/

global_20160809_skil ls_for_a_changing_world.pdf

Why Employabil ity Skil ls? Support for States Employabil ity

Standards in Career and Technical Education (CTE) and

Adult Education Project. U.S. Department of Education.

https://cte.ed.gov/initiatives/employabil ity-skil ls-framework#

Bridging the Soft Skil ls Gap: How the Business and

Education Sectors Are Partnering to Prepare Students for

the 21st Century Workforce. Center for Education and the

Workforce. U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation

https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/sites/default/fi les/

Bridging%20The%20Soft%20Skil ls%20Gap_White%20

Paper%20FINAL_11.2.17%20.pdf


RESOURCES FOR BUSINESS LEADERS

HELPING EMPLOYEES

TO DEVELOP THESE SKILLS


Work in Progress: How CEOs are helping close America’s

skil ls gaps. Business Roundtable.

http://businessroundtable.org/skil ls

HR’s Hard Challenge: When Employees Lack Soft Skil ls. Mark

Feffer. Society for Human Resource Management.

https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/0416/

pages/hrs-hard-challenge-when-employees-lack-soft-skil ls.

aspx

Three Ways to Improve Employabil ity Skil ls during CTE

Month. Mary V.L. Wright. JFF.

https://www.jff.org/points-of-view/three-ways-improve-

employabil ity-skil ls-during-cte-month/

RESOURCES FOR HELPING STUDENTS

TO DEVELOP THESE SKILLS

Ready By Design the Science (And Art) of Youth Readiness.

Stephanie Malia Krauss, Karen J. Pittman and Caitl in

Johnson. The Readiness Project.

https://sparkaction.org/sites/default/fi les/readybydesign.pdf

Foundations for Young Adult Success: A Developmental

Framework. Jenny Nagaoka, Camille A. Farrington, Stacy

B. Ehrlich, and Ryan D. Heath; with David W. Johnson,

Sarah Dickson, Ashley Cureton Turner, Ashley Mayo, and

Kathleen Hayes. University of Chicago Consortium on School

Research.

https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/foundations-

young-adult-success-developmental-framework

Engagement And Employabil ity: Integrating Career Learning

Through Cocurricular Experiences In Postsecondary

Education. Adam Peck. Student Affairs Administrators in

Higher Education.

https://www.naspa.org/publications/books/engagement-and-

employabil ity


REFERENCES

ihttp://cp.wainhouse.com/content/role-education-building-soft-skil ls

i ihttps://prezi.com/zd7pzecrffgb/soft-skil ls-framing-the-debates/

i i ihttps://www.uschamberfoundation.org/sites/default/fi les/Bridging%20

The%20Soft%20Skil ls%20Gap_White%20Paper%20FINAL_11.2.17%20.

pdf

ivhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/employers-find-soft-skil ls-l ike-critical-

thinking-in-short-supply-1472549400

vhttps://www.payscale.com/data-packages/job-skil ls

vihttps://prezi.com/zd7pzecrffgb/soft-skil ls-framing-the-debates/

viihttps://www.uschamberfoundation.org/sites/default/fi les/Bridging%20

The%20Soft%20Skil ls%20Gap_White%20Paper%20FINAL_11.2.17%20.

pdf


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employability skills & mindsets - stemconnector · 2020-02-26 · mindsets, not on specific...

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