Leveraging Career Influencers to Solve Employers’ Dilemma

Possible mismatches between graduates’ competencies and employers’ needs have generated spirited debate. Employers depict university graduates as not “work-ready” because academic training focuses on discipline-specific content and fails to strengthen competencies in communication, learning, and responding to uncertainty. Contributing factors may include lack of data management innovation, active learning pedagogy, engagement in workplace activities in discipline-specific courses and inadequate integration of career services with academic programs to stimulate graduates’ perceived employability potential.

The purpose of our mixed method study was to identify STEM competencies, defined as discipline-specific and soft skills, through the lens of employers. The survey was distributed to 8,772 STEM employers in the United States; 61 surveys were completed. Results suggested employers value the following career readiness competencies: Communication, critical thinking, teamwork, equity and inclusion, professionalism, technology, career and self-development, and leadership. Data further suggested graduates fail to demonstrate acceptable aptitude in these areas. Benefits of revising curriculum content to align with workplace expectations can be enhanced by strengthening graduates’ self-directed learning aptitude and expanding the definition and role of career influencers.

We propose STEM college education should prepare students for the workplace by integrating practice opportunities through experiential coursework and targeted instruction in leadership, teamwork, and conflict management. This study contributes to the existing literature by reporting STEM employer recommendations on employer-educator collaboration to promote successful university-to-work transition and catalyze commitment to enhancing workplace readiness of STEM graduates.