I came across a great report the other day entitled, “Are They Ready to Work?” It was prepared earlier this year by four organizations:

The Conference Board

Corporate Voices for Working Families

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

Society for Human Resource Management

The report looks at the readiness of new entrants to the workforce. They determined this readiness by surveying over 400 employers from across the United States during 2006.

The major consensus and opening line of the Executive Summary was the following: “The future U.S. workforce is here- and it is woefully ill-prepared for the demands of today’s (and tomorrow’s) workplace.”

The employers were asked to articulate skills high school, two-year college, technical school, or four-year college graduates need to have in order to succeed in the workplace.

The employers sited the following four skills as most important:

1. Professionalism / Work Ethic

2. Oral and Written Communications

3. Teamwork / Collaboration and

4. Critical Thinking/ Problem solving.

They grouped skills into two groups: Basic Knowledge Skills and Applied Skills (the following are not ranked but merely listed).

BASIC KNOWLEDGE

English Language (spoken)

Reading Comprehension (in English)

Writing in English (grammar, spelling, etc…)

Mathematics

Science

Government / Economics

Humanities / Arts

Foreign Languages

History / Geography

APPLIED SKILLS

Critical Thinking / Problem Solving

Oral Communications

Written Communications

Teamwork / Collaboration

Diversity

Information Technology Application

Leadership

Creativity / Innovation

Lifelong Leering / Self Direction

Professionalism / Work Ethic

Ethics / Social Responsibility

Employers stated that Teamwork / Collaboration and Critical thinking are very important to success at work; more so than any of the basic knowledge skills.

Another finding from the report was that high school graduates do not have the skills necessary to be successful at work. None of the employers ranked the skills for high school graduates as excellent. All 10 of the skills that the employers regarded as very important were on the deficiency list for high school graduates.

Two-year school students didn’t fair much better. Only Information Technology Application made its way onto the excellent list for this group.

Four year college graduates faired a little better. According to the report their excellent list was longer than their Deficient list. Also, Creativity and Innovation was one of the skills that appeared on the four year graduate students list and is considered to be increasingly important in the eyes of the employers over the next five years.

Miscellaneous Information from the Report

- More than ¼ of employer respondents (27.7 percent) project that over the next five years their companies will reduce hiring of new entrants with only a high school diploma.

- Almost 60% project their companies will increase hiring of four year college graduates

- Nearly half of the employers project an increase in hiring of two-year and technical school graduates.

To download the entire report click here.