SECTION IV : LITERATURE REVIEW AND BEST PRACTICES

Recent high school and college graduates launching their careers in the latter half of 2020 found themselves entering the worst job market in generations as COVID-19 decimated entire sectors of the economy. With the businesses shuttered, job fairs canceled, and unemployment reaching a record high, these new workers faced stiffer competition than ever before. As workers set foot into the labor market, they may have asked: “Do I have what it takes to succeed in the American workforce?” In good job markets and bad ones, a person’s qualifications for employment are generally defined by a combination of their education, experiences, and competencies--the skills, knowledge, and abilities that are essential to success on the job. (Golodryga, 2020).

NCTC conducted a preliminary study in the Fall 2019 semester in the form of a robust Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment, in compliance with the federal Carl D. Perkins V Grant guidelines. Six community stakeholder meetings, including local employers, workforce agencies,community-based organizations, P-12 and higher education, and parents of college students, were held in October (237 attendees, including 18 students) and two Career and Technical Education student focus groups (32 attendees) in November. NCTC developed and launched online community surveys (69 responses) and online student surveys (306 responses) in November 2019. Findings from these surveys indicated that more emphasis was needed on instructing and developing soft skills/employability skills with our college students.

Stakeholders attending the meetings and participating in the community survey strongly emphasized that written and verbal communication were not of the quality needed to represent their company or industry. The lack of this skill was often detected during the job interview stage and resulted in some candidates not being hired. The ability to demonstrate and model quality communication, customer service, and professional work ethic is an essential component for success. The soft skill emphasis is not as robust as most NCTC Career and Technical Education students’ technical skills.

The top soft skills/employability skills needed for students according to the survey results from community stakeholders (primarily employers, workforce agencies, and community organization representatives participating in the survey) were communication, critical thinking, coachability, teamwork, and punctuality. Direct responses from

employers at the meetings or via the survey included:

During the literature review phase of the NCTC QEP project, the importance of the NCTC QEP topic was affirmed by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce study, Workplace Basics: The Competencies Employers Want, that showed that workers need more than just their educational credentials to qualify for jobs that pay well, keep those jobs, secure promotions, and boost their earnings on the job (Georgetown University Center, n.d.). The study also revealed the five most in-demand competencies across the labor market. These five include the following employability skills: communication, teamwork, sales and customer service, leadership and problem solving, and complex thinking (Georgetown University Center, n.d.). Each of these competencies is key to workers’ abilities to contribute in the workplace. These competencies are especially critical for workers in competitive job markets. Job posting data have shown that these general competencies are universal and timeless, while other specific competencies continually fall in and out of favor.

Additionally, the QEP Committee also reviewed J. Casner-Lotto and L. Barrington’s 2006 publication, “Are They Really Ready To Work? Employers’ Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century U.S. Workforce,” in which they presented a report card for two-year colleges based on a survey of over 400 employers across the United States that showed the urgent need for improved skills in communication, collaboration, critical thinking, work ethic, and social responsibility. This study remains

relevant because developing these employability skills is still highly valued by employers in 2021.

The QEP Committee also relied on research from Melissa Stange’s 2020 article, “Preparing Students for Digital Era Careers” that reported that, out of 3700 executives nationwide, only 18% believe that technical skills are the most important and that graduates should be more forward-thinking and posses change-oriented mindsets, leadership qualities, and collaborative skills, that are acquired through real-time experiences in unstructured environments that invite students to learn from failure and embrace change. (Stange, 2020).

This literature review informed the committee’s commitment to the comprehensive planning process. The committee selected the following employability skills embedded into the course curriculum and supported by structured support services in the Career Services department. • Professional Communication • Problem Solving • Critical Thinking • Emotional Intelligence • Ethical Decision-Making • Teamwork/Collaboration • Interpersonal Skills/Professionalism • Leadership

The QEP Committee also relied on research about best practices for articulating employability skills, embedding course content, and project assessment.

Professional Communication

Communication is a critical competency because workers need to communicate with clients and colleagues to complete collaborative tasks, fulfill clients’ needs, and adapt to changing demands and priorities. While different jobs involve varying combinations of written and oral communication and different balances between expressing (speaking and writing) and interpretive (listening and reading), communication is in high demand in every occupation. The following articles provide additional evidence for the value of communication in the workplace.

According to S. Majid et al. (2021) in their article, “The Importance Of Soft Skills For Employability And Career Development: Students And Employers’ Perspectives,’’ students rated communication near the bottom of importance while employers ranked it at the top. Data was based on questionnaire results from 188 business management students from four universities across India. This research suggests that students need to understand how career attainment and advancement rely on strong communication skills. N. Fajaryati et al. (2021) argued in “Instrument Development For Evaluating Students’ Employability Skills” that communication, teamwork, problem solving, and technology utilization are the most required soft skills employers seek. Including communication training into the curriculum to apply these communication skills in real-life situations increases students’ understanding of how strong communication improves their career success.

Problem Solving and Critical Thinking

Problem solving and critical thinking are more critical than ever for the success of both workers and employers. As robots and computers handle a more significant percentage of manual tasks, workers spend more time on higher-order tasks requiring interpretation, creativity, and flexibility. Problem solving and critical thinking allow workers to identify challenges, create solutions, and measure results. The QEP Committee reviewed the following articles to gain additional insight into problem solving and critical thinking in the workplace.

N. Wyman (2015) advocated in “The New Employability: Steering Our Students Toward Rewarding Techniques: Connecting Education and Careers” that students have basic employability, communication, problem solving, and time management skills that will lead them to successful careers. A recent survey of 1,400 hiring managers found that the most valued skills in potential hires were problem solving, learning quickly, and handling change. Offering an innovative curriculum with considerable technical and employability skills addresses these needed real-world workplace skills. V. Indrasiene et al. (2020), in “The Critically Thinking Employee: Employers’ Point of View,” conducted a phenomenology of 28 managers in the labor industry and identified three hierarchically interconnected categories related to critical thinking: 1) the importance of deciding to act, 2) making verified and assured decisions, and 3) making innovating decisions for operational improvement. Indrasiene et al.’s study identified the specific critical thinking skills employers want and employees need. This study identified managers’ perceived challenges with locating skilled employees who possess these critical thinking skills. This research offers a vocabulary and rationale for promoting critical thinking in workforce industry education and collecting industry leaders’ reactions and responses.

In “Strategic Skills: Closing the New Talent Gap” (2016), J. Chartrand, C. Fife, and S. Flander identified the increasing “strategic” skills gap that employees, managers, and emerging executives need in the growing labor market. These researchers outline the four characteristics that “balanced leaders” possess in the workforce: • The ability to engage in critical thinking by gathering information and evaluating the evidence and alternatives to make sound, informed decisions. • The ability to collaborate well with others and foster communication that inspires a shared vision and achieves common goals. • The ability to draw upon prior knowledge and research to examine situations and problems and make novel and inspired connections to perform successfully in new situations. • The ability to build and organize a cohesive team that is motivated toward collective performance and cohesiveness.

This research is essential for the project because it offers a rationale and vocabulary for career and technical educators to incorporate when building critical thinking and interpersonal skills into their curricula.

L. M. Murawski (2014) noted the characteristics of a skilled critical thinker in the higher education classroom and how those skills are beneficial in the workplace. Murawski emphasized that this skill must be taught directly in higher education coursework and cannot be viewed as an educational byproduct.

Ethical Decision-Making

Every employee is an investment, and employers benefit when assessing whether a prospective employee will make wise and moral work decisions. Employees benefit from learning the importance of making ethical decisions on the job. Instructing and coaching students to develop forethought in considering possible outcomes and developing a deeper understanding of the importance of analyzing possible consequences at varying degrees equips students to become more ethical and socially responsible. Ethical decision-making and social responsibility represent higher-level thinking and processing of information that improves the likelihood of success.

C. D. Hatch and S. Stephen, in “The Effectiveness of Social Responsibility Courses in Higher Education” (2015), studied the integration of individual and corporate social responsibility (ISR and CSR) instruction into the core curriculum at Butler University through community outreach partnerships. The curriculum strives to promote students’ understanding of personal and social responsibility, foster ethical decision-making, encourage civic-mindedness, develop intercultural and interpersonal skills, and enhance students’ overall learning. The research found that students perceived the curriculum to be beneficial and shaped students’ understanding of ethical business practices and decision-making. Hatch and Stephen’s 2015 study provided justification and modeled how other higher education institutions can integrate social responsibility and inclusive ethical decision-making into career and technical education programs.

M. Jones et al. (2016) interviewed 51 recruiters who stated that 21 two of the most desirable characteristics of new hires were trustworthiness, honesty, ethics, and cooperation, outranking high grades (number 19) and work experience (number 17).

Emotional Intelligence

Choudhary and Sharma (2011) defined Emotional Intelligence as self-awareness, self-confidence, self-control, commitment, and integrity: “Research has shown that over 80% of the competencies that differentiate top performers from others are in the domain of Emotional Intelligence...according to Harvard Business Review (2003), managing emotions is anything but soft…” (Institute for Health and Human Potential, 2021). The Center for Creative Leadership has found that the primary causes of derailment in executives involve deficits in emotional competencies: difficulty in handling change, inability to work well in a team, and poor interpersonal relations, all of which impact overall productivity (Institute for Health and Human Potential 2021). This research also indicated that leaders hold three critical abilities: high emotional intelligence, 1) personal accountability, 2) non-judgmental active listening, and 3) non-avoidance of difficult conversations and holding others accountable.

Teamwork

Teamwork skills, like persuasion, social perceptiveness, and service orientation, allow workers to collaborate with others in the interest of completing shared tasks and meeting mutual goals. The collaborative demands and the overlapping nature of workplace roles have increased teamwork as an essential competency. A. Finley (2021) noted in “How College Contributes to Workforce Success: Employer Views on What Matters Most” that 54% of employers say ethical judgment and reasoning is an essential skill, but only 41% responded that “recent grads are very well prepared” to engage in ethical decision-making, which leaves a preparedness gap of 14%. Additionally, 62% of employers responded that collaborating in teams is very important, but only 48% believe recent graduates are very prepared to do so, leaving a preparedness gap of 14%. This study identifies the gaps between the importance and preparedness of employability skills for graduating students, lending credence to the early and often rule of introduction, instruction, and assessment of these skills throughout their educational work.

Interpersonal Skills/Professionalism

According to the Perkins Resource Collaboration Network, interpersonal skills encompass various additional employability behaviors, including teamwork, customer service, leadership, conflict resolution, and social responsibility. Straw, Hart and Harland (2011) further identified communication as an interpersonal skill. Still, other entities separate professionalism from interpersonal skills. Many categories of “employability skills” overlap and are not always separate or distinct. However, there is consensus that strong interpersonal skills and a high level of professionalism positively correlate with success in the workplace. Research (Klein) further suggested that “...[due to] the complex and dynamic nature of interpersonal [skills]… such training should focus on specific, optimal social skills, and not on increased general sensitivity or insight.” This research further suggested that communication and relationship-building are critical components in building interpersonal skills.

Leadership

Leadership is the culmination of professional behavioral skills employed at a high level. Leaders develop through challenges and by persisting through difficult situations. Leadership skills cannot be acquired outside of adverse or distressing situations. On the other side of a challenging experience, leadership skills are gained by having led others through it. Leadership requires strong communication, integrity, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, the desire to lead, and the assertion to step out into the role of a leader (Watson, 2010).

Definitions and focus of leadership skills vary as widely as career fields and fields of study. However, consistent across research are adaptability, collaboration, vision, and commitment to the mission. “Leadership requires lifelong learning because the implementation of a vision often requires knowledge or skills that the team, including the leader, may not possess” (Watson, 2010). Three different instructional strategies that enhance students’ leadership skills and technical knowledge include 1) academic research training, 2) academic and industry partnerships in research, and 3) learner-centered courses. Other instructional strategies, such as degree or certificate programs in leadership, do exist, but they do not show evidence of strengthening students’ technical knowledge (Watson, 2010).

Consequently, it can be assumed that cross-curriculum leadership training is beneficial to students in developing leadership skills to benefit career success. This research further suggested that apprenticeships provide positive leadership training: “Despite many of these styles put forward to explain what leadership constitutes, some elements can be associated within conceptualizing leadership, such as leadership being a process, leadership influencing others, leadership influencing groups of people, leadership involving common goals, and so on (Rayiramkandath, 2017). Based on this understanding, ‘leadership’ can finally be understood as the “process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (Rayiramkandath, 2017). Various functions of a leader are carried out through the leadership process that influences the individual employees to perform through the influence of the leader” (Rayiramkandath, 2017).

Articulating Employability Skills

Many of the required skills for employment are inherent in higher educational processes. Students often lack an awareness of the transferability of these skills and how to articulate those skills. NCTC's QEP outcomes are directly related to addressing these challenges. Intensified intentional instruction and coaching to specifically identify employability skills and the understanding of faculty and coaches of the need to assist students in connecting classroom experience and career application will improve students’ awareness of their professional development, as well as support their ability to describe and discuss, not only the skill but their level of attainment and practical application of skills. Improvement in awareness and articulation of skills will more fully develop career readiness and improve job applicant performance.

J. G. Tomasson et al. (2019) addressed these challenges in their publication, “Can Students Be Taught To Articulate Employability Skills?” Tomasson et al.'s research explored how to teach students to articulate their employability skills in the workforce. They found that students who completed classes using the embedded Situation, Task, Actions, Results (STAR) format could adequately articulate their skill. In “Encouraging Students To Draw On Work Experience When Articulating Achievements and Capabilities To Enhance Employability” (2019), Denise Jackson and Susan Edgar (2019) similarly stated that training students to articulate their skills to employers enhances students' employability. A professional portfolio is one way to achieve this goal.

Embedded Course Content

The QEP Faculty Task Force will support the instructional implementation by outlining the sequence in employability skills and embedded them into courses through signature assignments. The following research provided some best practices for embedding into the courses.

K. N. Tang (2019) in “Beyond Employability: Embedding Soft Skills In Higher Education” discussed the effectiveness of embedding soft skills into academic coursework to improve students’ employability skills.

A. Hassan, M. Maharoff, N. Z. Abiddin, in “The Readiness of Lecturers in Embedding Soft Skills in the Bachelor’s Degree Program in Malaysian Institutes of Teacher Education,” study embedded soft skills in higher education course work to determine whether lecturers were prepared to embed soft skills into core courses and sought to uncover potential issues with such a practice.

that the most significant gaps existed in communications skills and conceded an integrative approach was needed in higher education institutions to address this gap and affirmed the importance of having lecturers involved in delivering and assessing soft skills and a solid system for measuring learning outcomes in coursework. Meeks proposed and piloted a 24-hour soft skills workshop for faculty and concludes her workshop with a follow-up assignment to solicit feedback on incorporating these skills into the classroom.

Assessment Method

Aspire to be Hired focuses on specific student learning outcomes and student success. It is being implemented in the Career and Technical Education courses’ curriculum and through structured support services. The assessment method needs to consistently measure access to employability skill instruction and training, engagement with professional employability training, career readiness improvement, and areas of increased need. Assessments are provided consistently and continuously to address awareness, articulation, and application of specific employability skills in instruction and structured support.

In “Embedding Key Transferable Employability Skills for Lifelong Success through Blending and Innovative Portfolio to Complement Traditional Assessment,” J. Hooker and J. Whistance outlined the results of Southampton Solent University’s efforts to assess the employability skills acquisition of ESL students through both traditional assessments and an electronic portfolio. Solent focuses on the skills of 1) self-management, 2) teamwork, 3) business and customer awareness, 4) problem solving, 5) communication and literacy, 6) applied numeracy, and 7) applied information technology. This assessment included an “employability self-evaluation” that can be taken multiple times to monitor a student’s progress instead of a simple pre-and post-test. In addition to this, Solent used portfolios, which it sees as a “shift away from comparison and achievement” and allows for a “more individualized approach.” These portfolios were tailored to an existing, real-world job posting and include a student reflection on his/her speaking and reading test results, a CV, and an academic essay. The authors assured that portfolios can be scaled up or down to keep them from being “assessment-heavy,” deepening the student grouping.

In “Metrics for Students’ Soft Skills,” V. Devedzic et al. characterized soft skills as “easy to notice” but “hard to measure” and brand existing assessment methods as “vague.” They summarized these existing methods in four distinct steps and counter with a method they call GRASS (Grading Soft Skills). Their method included both quantitative and qualitative assessment, which must include “a variable being measured (of a certain feature/component of a specific soft skill)” and “a score/ rating scale for the given variable, corresponding to the pre-specified levels of performance.” The authors offered concrete steps on how to identify critical components of each soft skill to measure, as well as how to apply GRASS metrics, including “benchmarking.”