USA Today this morning ran the results from a major employer survey by Peter Hart and Associates.  To no surprise the survey found that employers want to know more than test scores when judging a candidate’s ability to succeed in the workplace. The survey found that:

“57% of the employers surveyed said half or fewer of today's college graduates have the full set of skills and knowledge necessary to advance in today's workplace.” According to the article, “a national online initiative will be launched [in a few weeks] that allows families to compare colleges on measures such as whether they improve a student's critical-thinking skills.”

Employers across the board are saying the same for high school graduates entering the workforce as they are saying for college grads. They want to know that these students are not only literate and numerate, but also have applied skills such as the ability to communicate clearly both written and orally, work in groups, and solve problems among other things.