Recalibrating "College- and Work-Ready": The Value of Noncognitive Skills in Higher Education and Workplace Settings

• In Event: 28.092 - Sheraton Roundtable Two - Osgoode Ballroom
  In Roundtable Session: 28.092-10 - Centering Students' Knowledges in Institutional Assessment

Abstract

The degree to which higher education has embraced its responsibility to prepare graduates for career success has been called into question by employers who report graduates lack critical work-ready skills. However, despite tensions that frame higher education as either emphasizing vocationalism or liberal arts, most colleges and universities claim to focus on those noncognitive skills that are relevant to success in work and in life. This scholarly paper argues that these differing perspectives would be better framed as a lack of alignment regarding which noncognitive skills are important and who is responsible for developing them.

Authors

• Mandy Savitz-Romer, Harvard University

• Heather T. Rowan-Kenyon, Boston College