Supporting Career Readiness

The expert testimony, research, scholarship, and lived experience collected by the Commission revealed the following:

• In a recent survey, in which 50,000 employers were invited to participate and 704 responded, over half of employers across a range of industries who hire recent college graduates reported having trouble finding recent graduates qualified to fill positions at their company or organization (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2012). Nearly a third of the surveyed employers deemed colleges to be fair or poor at cultivating successful employees (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2012). Recent bachelor’s-degree holders, employers said, are most lacking in basic workplace proficiencies like adaptability, written and oral communication skills, and the ability to solve complex problems (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2012).
• 73 percent of employers in 2011 preferred to hire candidates with relevant work experience compared to 17.5 percent of employers that preferred to hire candidates with any work experience and 4 percent for whom work experience does not matter (National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2011).
• A separate survey of 37,874 students, found that 51 percent of paid interns in the class of 2012 had at least one job offer when they graduated as compared to 36 percent of those with no internship experience (National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2013).

These findings prompted the Commission to draft a call to action for additional career readiness support for students.

To that end, the Commission issues the call to action below.