Business
Students unprepared for workplace, but DE says it's improving
Back to basics not enough, Conference Board study finds. Great, you can write a grammatical sentence. Now draft a memo.
High school and college graduates are woefully unprepared for the job market, a national survey of corporate human resources officers found.
The survey found that the average high school or college graduate lacked academic skills and advanced applied skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, creativity and innovation. This is a cause of concern among businesses as many employees are about to retire, and the demand for skilled workers will soon increase.
"What it says is that while the basics are very important, we can't stop there," said Dr. Linda Barrington, research director at the Conference Board, one of the companies that conducted the survey, which was released last month. We need them to be able to write a grammatically correct sentence but then we need them to be able to communicate an effective business memo."But Delaware officials say the state is taking proactive steps to prepare their students, Delaware State News reports.
Vision 2015 is Delaware's answer is to bridge the gap. The program will cultivate workplace skills, state accountability standards and Delaware's higher graduation requirements, which call for 2011 graduates to earn two more credits and undergo a more rigorous senior year.
"There are certain kinds of skills that they may have far and above what previous generations have had," said Regina Greenwald, an education associate with the state Department of Education, who also heads the state's dropout prevention committee.