• Most employers perceive all (14%) or most (51%) college graduates have the requisite knowledge and skills to succeed in entry-level positions.
• They are less confident that all (6%) or most (34%) college graduates have the requisite knowledge and skills to advance in their companies.
• Across 12 key areas (in ranking order from most to least prepared: teamwork, ethical judgment, intercultural skills, social responsibility, quantitative reasoning, oral communication, self-knowledge, adaptability, critical thinking, writing, self-direction, global knowledge) no employers perceived the majority of college graduates were reasonably well prepared.

A second category of questions examined employers perceptions of how we communicate learning through assessment. 

• Most employers suggest that college transcripts are “…not particularly useful in helping evaluate job applicants’ potential to succeed at their company”.
• The majority of employers felt multiple-choice tests of general knowledge are not very effective in “ensuring student achievement”
• Employers have the most confidence in assessments that demonstrate application of knowledge to real-world challenges and favor demonstrations of problem solving, writing, and analytical reasoning skills.
• Employers favor faculty-assessed internships, community based projects, and senior projects over multiple-choice tests and institutional assessments to assess graduates’ readiness.

So, what are some things we can do at a course level to help prepare our students for 21^st Century employment and advancement?  Following are some ideas to consider in planning your courses.

• Incorporate inquiry experiences into your courses.  Inquiry based learning helps students develop critical thinking and problem solving abilities.  They also promote intellectual adaptability.  Finally, the experiences provide opportunities to practice oral and written communication skills.
• Service learning experiences directly address future employers perception that students need to apply learning through supervised community-based projects.  Service learning can also encourage self directed behaviors and help demonstrate depth of knowledge.
• Senior projects and capstones, carefully constructed, allow students to demonstrate depth of knowledge in a major and also provide an opportunity for students to apply problem-solving, analytic, and reasoning skills.
• Incorporating writing into any of these types of learning experiences helps students develop their writing skills and provides a way to demonstrate to future employers the ability to communicate through writing.  Additionally, writing helps students synthesize learning and communicate depth of understanding.
• Poster sessions presented to public audiences provide a great opportunity to connect with community professionals and to provide students authentic oral communication experiences.

The interview results align well with the emphasis areas of the Program for Instructional Innovation.  Furthermore, the emphasis on the need to develop problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication skills are consistent with inquiry based learning approaches.  These approaches are quite natural for faculty at Research Universities as they are consistent with our mission emphasizing teaching, research, and service and effectively leverage the diverse talents of our faculty.