The evidence
All parties agree, the #1 priority for talent development in 2018 is training for soft skills.
%
of executives say that soft skills are equally important or more important than technical skills
The 10 most common graduate skills gaps:
- Managing up
- Dealing with conflict
- Negotiating/Influence
- Commercial awareness
- Resilience
- Business-appropriate communication
- Self-awareness
- Time management
- Problem solving
- Interpersonal skills
The Institute of Student Employers (ISE) Annual Development Survey March 2018
%
of researchers agree that they have a moral responsibility to engage with the public
Most researchers have done at least one form of public engagement in the past 12 months, though activity is often infrequent. Only 28% of researchers have received formal training in public engagement. Only 11% of STEM and 18% AHSS researchers feel very well equipped to to do public engagement.
The most highly rated skill in terms of importance for work was communication skills, which were rated as either very important (56%) or fairly important (34%) by the majority of respondents.
Workers of the future will spend more time on activities that machines are less capable of, such as managing people, applying expertise, and communicating with others. The skills and capabilities required will also shift, requiring more social and emotional skills and more advanced cognitive capabilities, such as logical reasoning and creativity.
At the interview stage, the businesses surveyed are overwhelmingly likely to decide between two equally qualifies candidates based on:
70% performance in interview
50% quality of the job application
24% skills gained in extra-curricular activities
Engaging with the public is of increasing strategic importance for higher education, to strengthen relevance, responsiveness and accountability and to build trust.
Researchers don’t exists in a bubble outside society, and ultimately society owns that research in some way. I think to cocoon ourselves and exist outside that is no longer viable and I think research would suffer if we did that.
