Politicians and the cabinet secretary want even more multiple choice questions—this after having ruined many elementary schools’ programs with the No Child Left Behind strategy so the schools now are just teaching to the test, like the NY state HS regents. Apparently the politicians want to compare colleges. (Then they could give many dollars to colleges that do well, presumably, and withhold from the losers—imagine the scenario.) This report indicates that businesses prefer to compare individual job candidates, which makes sense, since they are hiring one at a time, not a groups of grads. I am happy that they found a voice to speak for themselves. They may have to shout louder, and many times, to be hear—because people in DC seem to think they know what everyone wants everywhere.

bystander, at 6:45 am EST on January 23, 2008

What employers want

Graduates who can read, write and do math accurately. That is what employers want.

Not self-serving polls by special interests with a stake in continued taxpayer funding. Polls conducted by pollsters known by their work for one of two major political parties. As in, “lies, damn lies, and statistics.”

The poll pointedly notes that employers have very little faith in college transcripts.

In other words — real-world unhappiness with employer-verified skill levels of “college graduates” and the veracity of college grades. ENRON never had it so good?

As an employer who deals with academics frequently, I’d like to speak to an applicant’s professors.

One, to verify the information. Two, because faculty are often more frank about students, if there is no “paper trail.”

Also — how an applicant can supposedly have good grades, yet do so poorly in real-world applications (e.g., math, writing).

Buzz, at 9:40 am EST on January 23, 2008

The sub-heading in my email annoucing this story begins, “Survey of employers finds they think new degree holders have basic skills.” That’s a darn rosy interpretation of the “writing” score here. The actual report says, “employers are less convinced of their preparedness in terms of global knowledge, self-direction, and writing.” What skill is more important in many workplaces today than writing?

It is interesting, too, that outcomes broadcast so loudly as aims in higher education—critical thinking, global knowledge, and, again, writing—come out at the bottom.

Mark Bauerlein, at 11:30 am EST on January 23, 2008

What employers want

Buzz, did you even look at the survey? Employers did not say they wanted grads who can read, write and do math. What they wanted was those with “global knowledge,” “critical thinking,” etc. Finding Pakistan on the map is not “global knowledge.” What they need to understand integrates many of these “skills” such as, what is there about the differences between Shiites and Sunnis that has fostered such division in many Arab countries, and what does this have to do with the political climate in Pakistan? How do you “test” this on a multiple choice test? You need to encourage faculty to focus on issues not “skills.”

In my field, math, I can show you that randomly testing for drug usage can produce up to 30-50% “false positives,” depending on the reliability of the testing and the actual percentage of the population that uses the drugs. (If anyone wants to know how to do the math, I would gladly explain. Just email me.) On the other hand, the more important question is what is the impact of such an analysis. Somehow people still have faith that this procedure would “get the bad guys.”

As long as we “teach to a skills test” we will never succeed in preparing students for the type of thinking that they need to actually improve the quality of life on this planet. We, of course, cannot do stem cell research unless we know how the system works, and those researchers who investigate will most likely understand, but isn’t the more important question for those of us with very limited knowledge of the process still need to recognize the impact of research on our lives and to help make intelligent decisions regarding the pros and cons of such research?

My wife recently died of breast cancer. I support lots of research into finding a “cure” for this miserable disease, but I believe (call it a hunch) that the cure will come at the celluar level. Some brilliant scientist is going to find the “gene” that caused the disease, and he (or someone else equally brilliant) will find a way of sliping in a new gene from some stem cell that will resolve the problem. Does anything I said make sense? Probably not, but what I don’t want is someone who, for some God forsaken reason blocks this research. What I want in classroom across this country is open/clear headed discussions of whether to support such reseach or not. I could care less if the discussants know the difference between miosis and mitosis—although I am not opposed to including such knowledge in the discussions. In other words, I am much more concerned with “how we teach” than “how we test.”

Fred Flener, Retired, at 12:45 pm EST on January 23, 2008

What Employers Really Want

US employers neither recognize nor hire for writing skills. Neither do they hire for quantitative skills, business skills, global awareness, language skills or technical skills. Almost all US business commentary on American students’ command of these skill sets is simply meant to denigrate US students regardless of actual individual performance.

US employers typically do not recognize grades as valid indicators of performance except as means of excluding candidates. Straight As will not exclude a candidate, but neither will high grades guarantee actual consideration. US employers usually do not recognize more than a small handful of colleges and universities (and disturbingly, only about half of the 20 or so most competitive ones). They typically don’t know what standardized test scores mean, and frankly could care less.

Employers usually hire for meaningful experience or cost-effectiveness. Internships and small-business experience typically do not qualify. Increasingly over the past three decades mid-size to large US employers have shied away from training new employees, preferring instead to poach employees from brand-name competitors or outsourcing firms. Small businesses typically lack the resources to train new employees. In addition, what formerly constituted most “new hire” positions in corporate America are those most likely to be offshore-outsourced.

Students’ best bet at this time is to pursue opportunities related to self-employment. Self-employment currently presents the best opportunities to retain learned skills and to benefit from prior investment in those skills. This being the case, there’s really no need to consider what “the business community” thinks of American students’ skills except as barometers of the fortunes of the pro-globalization, pro-immigration, and anti-labor lobbies.

Scrawed, at 1:00 pm EST on January 23, 2008

As a person who is an organization planner and has written many job descriptions the problem is really quite different. College rewards linear thinking where a good student narrowly concentrates on a single subject to the satisfaction of the professor. Most jobs require multitasking where the employee balances several diverse items at the same time and needs to do a good job on all of them rather than a superb job on one. It’s likely to be impossible to change since the process of becoming a professor requires superb linear thinking and naturally, the professors will be inclined to reward linear thinking. It’s clear to me that the employer will always have to deal with the transition from the linear process to the multitasking one and they need to do it and stop complaining. Colleges will supply smart graduates with the needed skills industry will have to help them adapt to a different environment.

steve, at 2:10 pm EST on January 23, 2008

Attention to Detail

Great Article... Besides the knowledge, problem solving skills and team work that most employers look for, I have come to find that the number one common denominator is attention to detail. Having an employee with little to no mistakes from an entry level receptionist to an entry level engineer is key to succeed! Visit Jobosity — The Job Blog — www.jobosity.com-Coach Phil

Coach Phil, at 11:35 am EST on January 30, 2008