What Percentage of Companies Want to Hire Adults That Have Learned Arts and Humanities

The Association of American Colleges and Universities' newest report, "How Higher Contributes to Workforce Success: Employer Views on What Matters Most," is something of a mixed pocketbook for higher didactics.

Offset the proficient: employers by and large have confidence in higher didactics and value the college degree. They believe that a liberal education -- or preparation for more a specific job -- provides knowledge and skills that are important for career success. And increasingly, employers say, college graduates are more effective at explaining what they bring to the tabular array.

Personal aptitudes and mind-sets also play a function in career success, employers say. Breadth and depth of learning are essential to longterm operation. Completion of active and applied learning experiences in higher gives job applicants a clear advantage in the hiring process, likewise.

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Now the not-so-great findings: employers see room for comeback in how colleges and universities prepare students for work. Views on college educational activity and perceptions of recent graduates also vary significantly past employer historic period and educational attainment. Younger employers -- those nether 40 -- place a higher value on civic-related learning outcomes and experiences than do employers over 50.

The AAC&U is a staunch proponent of liberal arts education and what it can do for individuals equally well every bit gild. But what does this particular set up of findings mean, peculiarly at a fourth dimension when higher education, and gild, are facing all manner of upheavals related to COVID-nineteen?

'The Lesser Line'

Ashely Finley, vice president for research and senior adviser at the AAC&U, and author of the report, said Mon that "the bottom line is that at a fourth dimension when colleges and universities might be tempted to retrench resources, specifically to limit breadth of learning and skill development, they should not."

Employers keep to discover loftier value in students developing a "wide skill base that can be applied across a range of contexts," Finley said. "Our results likewise point to how much fostering listen-sets -- like work ethic and persistence -- matter for workplace success," as far as employers are concerned.

Not necessarily related to the pandemic, Finley also said that the consequent differences of opinion expressed by employers under 40 and those over l propose that liberal arts-related skills and civic and community mindedness are becoming more important to employers, not less.

The AAC&U surveyed near 500 executives and hiring managers from businesses of varying size in October. Technology was the well-nigh represented sector, at 27 pct of respondents, following by banking or fiscal services (12 percent), manufacturing (9 percent), professional person services (9 percentage), health care and medicine (9 percent), construction (9 percent), and more than. Most companies (72 percent) were private. They were roughly split between having local, regional, national and multinational profiles.

The AAC&U did inquire employers about COVID-nineteen and how it'south inverse their thinking and hiring preferences. Just Finley said the answers were so mixed that they were essentially a "wash." Those questions are therefore not reflected heavily in the written report. Yet COVID-19 would certainly accept been top of listen for respondents, given the timing of the survey. Other events, such as the 2020 presidential election, may take been, also.

To that last point, the AAC&U found -- every bit have other recent surveys -- that college education has a "public trust problem." In 2018, for example, the report says, Gallup found that the percentage of American adults who had "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in college education had dropped from 57 to 48 percent in just three years, a bigger drop than whatsoever other U.Southward. institution saw over the same menstruation.

Interestingly, and past contrast, the AAC&U establish that employer conviction in higher instruction remained relatively high in 2020, and had even improved since 2018: some 67 percent of employers had a dandy deal or a lot of conviction in college education, compared to 63 percent ii years earlier.

Every bit for the higher degree itself, which here includes a credential, 87 percentage of employers said it is "definitely" or "probably" worth the investment of time and money. The percentage of those who believe it is "definitely" worth information technology actually rose seven points since 2018.

"At a fourth dimension of great change in American higher teaching and in the global economic system," the report says, data strongly suggest that "a liberal education will pay off for students on the road alee."

The AAC&U has long worked with employers to see which essential learning outcomes they value. Consistently top ranked are critical thinking and assay, trouble solving, teamwork, and advice through writing and speaking. Civic-oriented outcomes usually rank lower, but more than of import than how all these outcomes rank is that they e'er thing to employers, the report says.

For this report, in add-on to outcomes, the AAC&U asked employers about which and how listen-sets and aptitudes matter in hiring and the workplace.

Depth, Breadth and Mind-Sets

"We wanted to sympathise the degree to which employers value college graduates' dispositions toward capacities such as expanding their learning, existence self-motivated, engaging constructively with feedback, and persisting through failure," the report says.

Results suggest that employers value these listen-sets and personal capacities like they value essential learning outcomes. At to the lowest degree one-half of employers view the skills of a liberal education equally "very important" for college graduates. And at least half of employers remember it is "very of import" for college graduates to possess a range of mind-sets and aptitudes to be successful.

On high-impact practices, the AAC&U found that more than iv in five employers would be either "somewhat more likely" or "much more probable" to consider hiring recent college graduates if they had completed an active or applied experience in college. Internships and apprenticeships tiptop the experience list, followed past working in community settings with diverse community partners. Employers value work-study experiences and portfolios, forth with global learning and mentored experiences. Comprehensive inquiry and writing experiences stood out, too.

Employers said they capeesh breadth and depth of learning, too, as reflected in their desire that students acquire to call back for themselves, to be adaptable and versatile, to be technically capable and well-rounded. Ninety-two percent of employers said it's very important or somewhat important that students take been exposed to a wide diversity of academic topics and disciplines.

However prepared for work graduates may be, they need to communicate what they know to employers to go far an organization's door. Almost nine in ten employers said that contempo college graduates are either "somewhat constructive" or "very constructive" in communicating what they learned in college. That'due south a significant increase since 2018, when just 67 percentage of employers said graduates were "at least adequately effective" at this.

While transcripts are still the main written tool for communicating outcomes, the AAC&U has found once again and again that employers do appreciate electronic portfolios in the hiring process. Nine in 10 employers said so in 2020, up from 2018. About half of employers would be "very likely" to click on an applicant's portfolio if a link were provided.

"An ePortfolio is a personal website used to deepen student learning through reflection on, and curation of, piece of work products produced beyond the higher feel," the report says. "These portfolios can be used by graduates to showcase and communicate their educational achievements."

Room for Improvement

While nearly ix in ten employers (87 percent) said that they are at least "somewhat satisfied" with the ability of recent college graduates to employ the skills and noesis learned in higher to complex issues in the workplace, simply 49 pct are "very satisfied."

Six in 10 employers said that higher graduates possess the cognition and skills needed to succeed in entry-level positions, and 55 percent believe graduates have what it takes for advancement and promotion.

The AAC&U establish both findings on perceptions of grooming hit. To better understand where employers were coming from, the association asked respondents to assess college graduates' level of preparedness with regard to each of the learning outcomes deemed essential for success in the workplace. The difference between the two values is what the AAC&U considers to be the "preparedness gap."

Whereas 62 per centum of employers said working in teams is a very important skill, for instance, just 48 percent of employers said recent graduates were very well prepared to do it. The xiv-per centum-betoken divergence is the preparedness gap. The largest such gap was for critical thinking skills, at 21 percent. Analyzing and interpreting data was another big gap, as was applying knowledge and skills to existent-world settings.

The report contains interesting findings almost employers themselves. Employers under xl are more racially and ethnically diverse than those over 50, and they are less likely to place as white (69 pct versus 82 percent, respectively). Younger employers are as well more than likely to exist women (41 percent versus 27 percent).

Across these demographics, younger employers and employers with higher levels of educational attainment have more favorable perceptions of both the value of the higher degree and graduates' preparedness for workforce success, according to the report. Interestingly, younger employers simultaneously have less confidence in college education. Some 17 percent of those nether 40 have "very little confidence," compared to iii percent of those over 50.

What employers value varies by age, also. Drive and worth ethic matter more to older employers than younger ones. Younger employers value employees' ability to piece of work with numbers and data, their creative thinking, civic skills and engagement more. Leadership and empathy also thing more to younger employers than older ones.

Younger employers and employers with higher levels of educational attainment likewise see greater value in "civic skill-edifice, community-based and global experiences, and the civic and liberal arts emphases of a liberal educational activity," the AAC&U found. "With regard to the attributes or characteristics of a college pedagogy that nearly contribute to long-term career success, the largest differences between employers under 40 and those 50 and older were with regard to an 'emphasis on global issues,' 'community engagement,' fostering a sense of 'social justice,' and exposure to 'liberal arts disciplines.'"

The report ends with a series of recommendations for campuses. As employers widely endorse the skills adult via a liberal educational activity, students must be equipped to "name and reflect" upon those skills -- particularly how they connect to workforce needs. Students must too be given a way to "tell employers their story," according to the AAC&U. Transcripts are good here, "simply ePortfolios are amend."

Educators must as well brand mind-sets and aptitudes an explicit part of learning, inside and exterior the classroom. "Dispositions, ways of knowing and habits of listen are not solely innate traits," the report says. "Every bit with other skills and abilities, a college didactics cultivates these capacities through both curricular and cocurricular learning."

Educators should appraise students' skills and mind-sets to ensure their preparation for non but securing a chore but advancing once in that job, the newspaper says, noting the finding that employers doubt many students' preparation for advocacy. This is almost outcomes and assessment, the AAC&U says: "The only fashion for campus leaders and educators to truly know if students are prepared to enter the workforce is to assess where students are on outcomes -- at the starting time, middle, and end of the college journey."

Regarding disinterestedness, the study says that colleges and universities must make sure that high-impact learning experiences can exist accessed past students from all backgrounds, and that all students are "supported to succeed" in these experiences.

"Job candidates with practical learning experiences have an border in the hiring process," AAC&U says. "It is non enough simply to make these learning experiences available on campus. Equity in access to, and success in, these experiences must be a priority for campuses that are committed to enabling students to flourish in college and in their careers."

On full general education, the study says it must reinforce breadth equally well equally depth of learning. "The skills that matter to employers are not developed within a single course or even inside a single major," the report says. "General educational activity provides the entry point and foundational pathway for developing the skills, mindsets, and aptitudes that thing for workplace success. But that pathway must be aligned with majors to promote ongoing skill development, from cornerstone to capstone."

The AAC&U has worked hard to end the perceived split between what prepares someone for a well-paying task versus what prepares them for an enriching career. But job-ready rhetoric typically surges during economic downturns, like the one the global economy has experienced over the terminal year. Xx-20 was boggling in many means, though, including that it delivered not only a recession but a racial reckoning, hard-to-swallow lessons about public health and wellness disparities, disinformation on overdrive, prolonged periods of isolation, and more.

Liberal Arts Skills Will Matter More Post-2020, Non Less

Asked almost 2020 and hiring trends, Finley, at AAC&U, said the pandemic "has only increased the need for adjustability, problem solving, civic consciousness and perseverance. I doubtable we volition run into much more of this in jobs, not less."

Lynn Pasquerella, president of the AAC&U, said COVID-nineteen demonstrated "the ways in which the circuitous challenges we will exist facing in the future, as individuals, as a nation and as members of a global community, will crave the integration of skills and competencies beyond disciplines and the examination of bug from a diversity of perspectives."

As just one example of these kinds of challenges, Pasquerella reflected on the "moral distress" experienced past doctors and other health-care providers over the final twelvemonth: decisions almost who gets a ventilator when those and other resources are deficient, how to care for patients without the proper personal protective equipment, and how to restore trust in the communities unduly affected by the virus.

"Their medical and technical grooming was insufficient when it came to grappling with the fundamental questions of human beingness and how to meet their professional responsibilities in the context of pervasive issues of structural racism and classism," Pasquerella said of these essential workers.

More by and large, with 51 million Americans filing for unemployment within the first three months of the pandemic, Pasquerella said it's "articulate that students demand the critical thinking, communication, creative and interpersonal skills that volition enable them to get innovators in their ain lives. A liberal education "fosters the adjustability and flexibility necessary to apply skills in a variety of contexts and reply to a rapidly changing world."

Citing the Florida Legislature's "troubling," ongoing efforts to limit scholarship funding to majors that lead to "direct" employment, Pasquerella said one'south discipline "isn't every bit important as the skills, outcomes and dispositions arising from integrative, practical learning -- which can be practiced in the context of the workforce."

Things didn't stop at 2020, either, Pasquerella connected. There are ongoing debates near when and how to reopen states, the January attack on the U.Due south. Capitol, and more than. All have "raised a new sense of urgency around educating for commonwealth," for "preparing students for piece of work, citizenship and life."

Matt Sigelman, CEO of Burning Glass Technologies, a labor market and job skills analytics software firm that was not involved in the written report, said  his own information support much of those gathered by the AAC&U, especially in light of COVID-nineteen.

"COVID has led to an increased need for advanced skills generally," Sigelman said, calculation that he's seen an increased employer emphasis on automation. The demand for avant-garde skills has also "stimulated need for bedrock liberal arts skills."

Jobs that are the "nigh data-driven and engineering science-enabled really request more liberal arts skills than the average task," he continued. These jobs are 50 pct more likely to require writing, l pct more likely to request inquiry skills and forty per centum more than likely to ask for problem solving, for instance, he said.

Liberal arts skills "are the ticket upwards, regardless of the profession," Sigelman said. "The further north in ane's career arc, the more than valuable liberal arts skills, such equally advice, prove to be."

Employers are also willing to pay a salary premium for liberals arts skills, he said. Engineering and information technology professionals can await to make an additional $xiv,000 annually for leadership skills, $12,000 for presentation skills and $2,000 for writing skills, based on a median salary of $81,000, according to information from Burning Glass.

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Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/04/06/aacu-survey-finds-employers-want-candidates-liberal-arts-skills-cite-preparedness

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