Why Do I Need to Know This? Skills and Competencies From Institution to Workplace

• In Event: Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: Postsecondary Institutions’ Role in Developing Global Citizens: U.S. and International Student Skill Development

Abstract

Both students and institutions are increasingly concerned with ensuring that their academic investment results in future employability. Many different skills play an important role in students’ appeal to prospective employers as well as their ability to craft a successful career. Utilizing data from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis indicated that there are two distinct sets of skills, both in their development at the institution and importance in the workplace, among arts alumni: transferable skills and business-based skills. The results of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analyses predicting these two factors provide some relationships concerning institutional satisfaction, internship participation, gender, race, graduation cohort, income, graduate degree status, self-employment, professional artist status, and occupational field.

Authors

• Angie L. Miller, Indiana University

• Amber Desiree Dumford, Indiana University