TY - JOUR
T1 - Identifying Critical 21st-Century Skills for Workplace Success
T2 - A Content Analysis of Job Advertisements
AU - Rios, Joseph A.
AU - Ling, Guangming
AU - Pugh, Robert
AU - Becker, Dovid
AU - Bacall, Adam
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 AERA.
PY - 2020/3/1
Y1 - 2020/3/1
N2 - This article extends the literature on 21st-century learning skills needed for workplace success by providing an empirical examination of employers’ direct communication to potential employees via job advertisements. Our descriptive analysis of 142,000 job advertisements provides two contributions. First, this is one of the first studies to empirically rank-order skill demand. In doing so, it is clear that oral and written communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills are in high demand by employers, with particular emphasis on the pairing of oral and written communication. Furthermore, it is apparent that many of the skills suggested in the literature as being critical for workplace success are in very low demand by employers, and some were not found to be mentioned at all (e.g., social responsibility). Second, this study explicitly examined whether 21st-century skill demand varied by job characteristics, which was found to be the case, with differences being noted for both education level and degree field requirements. Results were replicated with a sample of roughly 120,000 job advertisements collected 1 year from the initial data collection. Implications for developing educational standards around 21st-century skill development are discussed.
AB - This article extends the literature on 21st-century learning skills needed for workplace success by providing an empirical examination of employers’ direct communication to potential employees via job advertisements. Our descriptive analysis of 142,000 job advertisements provides two contributions. First, this is one of the first studies to empirically rank-order skill demand. In doing so, it is clear that oral and written communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills are in high demand by employers, with particular emphasis on the pairing of oral and written communication. Furthermore, it is apparent that many of the skills suggested in the literature as being critical for workplace success are in very low demand by employers, and some were not found to be mentioned at all (e.g., social responsibility). Second, this study explicitly examined whether 21st-century skill demand varied by job characteristics, which was found to be the case, with differences being noted for both education level and degree field requirements. Results were replicated with a sample of roughly 120,000 job advertisements collected 1 year from the initial data collection. Implications for developing educational standards around 21st-century skill development are discussed.
KW - collaboration
KW - communication
KW - content analysis
KW - critical thinking
KW - descriptive analysis
KW - problem solving
KW - social processes/development
KW - textual analysis
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85078217756&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3102/0013189X19890600
DO - 10.3102/0013189X19890600
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85078217756
SN - 0013-189X
VL - 49
SP - 80
EP - 89
JO - Educational Researcher
JF - Educational Researcher
IS - 2
ER -