What Literacy Skills Do Students Really Need for Work? via Ed Week

What Literacy Skills Do Students Really Need for Work?

There's a gap between what schools teach and what employers demand, but it's a fuzzy one.

Ed Week: 9.25.2018 by Catherine Gewertz

Schools are under growing pressure to make sure that students are ready for work or job training, as well as college, when they graduate from high school. But employers say their young hires haven't learned the reading, writing, and verbal-communication skills that are most important to a successful working life.

That gap between reality and expectations begs a boxful of questions about whether there's a preparation problem and, if so, how to solve it.

Should K-12 schools add workplace-oriented literacy skills to their already-heavy lineup of classics like the five-paragraph essay? Who should teach young people how to write an environmental-impact report or explain quarterly business results to investors: High schools? Colleges? Or are such skills better learned at work or in job-training programs?

Surveys of employers paint a picture of discontent. Executives and hiring managers report that they have trouble finding candidates who communicate well. Good oral-communication skills, in particular, rank especially high on employers' wish lists, alongside critical thinking and working in teams.

Some labor economists argue that the much-ballyhooed "skills gap" is caused not by inadequate career preparation but by companies' refusal to provide the pay and training necessary to get the workers they need.

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