Conference Board study shows lack in communication and ethics skills among graduates

The Conference Board, a business group, released a survey Oct. 2 rating the preparedness of two-year college graduates and four-year college graduates in specific skills identified as important by employers.

Skills ranged from written communications, to diversity to teamwork collaboration.

Employers deemed graduates of two-year colleges deficient in written communications, writing in English, lifelong learning/self-direction and creativity/innovation. Oral communications and ethics/social responsibility were the lowest ranked skills in community college graduates.

For graduates of four-year colleges, at least one in five employers found the recent graduates deficient in written in communications, writing in English and leadership. However, information technology application, diversity and critical thinking/problem solving were the three top ranked for skills seen as excellent in four-year college graduates.

“Employers consistently report deficiency in written and oral communication skill. They also consider communication skill essential to success,” said Rachel Holloway, head of the department of communication.

Donna Cassell Ratcliffe, the director of Career Services, has received similar feedback from employers saying that many of their employees that graduated from technical fields at Virginia Tech did not have the level of written and oral communication skills that were needed.

“Many companies are hiring graduates to work with clients and customers,” said Ratcliffe. “They are required to make presentations and so much of it requires verbal communication skills. Employers are saying that these students aren’t really up to the task.”

Tech has recognized and approached this problem by launching its new ViEWS (Visual Expression, written and spoken) requirement to recognize the importance of communication skill generally and to encourage ongoing skill development within majors.

“Communication and English departments work to provide a strong foundation in the first-year and assist through other courses as resources allow,” Holloway said.

Many courses at Virginia Tech are assigning students projects that not only have to be submitted in writing but also have to be presented to the class. This is to prepare students with the essential verbal presentation skills that employers look for when hiring for jobs.

“The challenge is figuring out how to meet a range of learning goals in the few hours of class we have with each student. It’s a pretty complicated puzzle,” Holloway said.

The English department has started to design their composition courses using the National Writing Program Administrators’ Outcomes Statement for College Composition this year.

However, much of the lack of communication and writing skills is found in students that studied technical fields. To try to solve this problem, Diana George, professor of rhetoric and writing and director of composition said that some members of the English department and the Writing Center are collaborating with engineering education.

“We are trying to make it more likely that students do connect their work in writing and speaking with the outcomes important to engineering curriculum,” said George.

Mike Lautenschlager, a senior English major, feels that many students are more prepared in science and technology because that is what the world today is mostly focused on.

“There are more science and technology oriented jobs available right out of undergraduate school so that is what everyone is concerned with,” said Lautenschlager said.

George believes that both fields are important and need to be put to work together.

“Our students absolutely must prepare to work and live in a world saturated by fast-changing technologies,” George said. “At the same time, our students also need to understand that these technologies do not function free from communication.”

Ratcliffe said that despite some deficiency in verbal and written communication areas, Ricky Morris, manager of College and Professional Recruiting at Norfolk Southern, a Norfolk-based transportation company and a huge recruiter of Tech students, said that Norfolk Southern certainly looks for candidates with good communication and written skills.

“Although a number of candidates don’t possess these skills, we weed through them and are able to find a number of candidates that demonstrate a master level of written and oral communication skills,” said Morris.