Abstract:

Studies on work readiness of university students in the US have emerged in the past decade documenting the extent to which recent graduates are prepared and ready for the workplace. Evidence is mounting on the fact that while students may have been educated in their content areas of their disciplines (hard skills), surprisingly, a significant percentage of these students do not have the “people” (soft) skills to function effectively in workplace settings. Meanwhile, employers are increasingly pointing out that soft skills are as important to have in order to be hired as having the necessary hard skills.

This study explored what supervisors think about student interns’ abilities to transition from the university classroom to practice in community settings. Are the university students ready for the workplace?

In the final semester before graduation, students in the Human Development and Family Studies program from the University of Hawaii at Manoa are required to complete a 180-hours, 15-week internship in a community setting. During this internship, students are given opportunities to gain experience working with a given population, and to apply the concepts, theories, and frameworks that they have learned in practice settings.

To examine the supervisors’ evaluation of the student interns, a retroactive review of data from a three year period (2015 – 2017) was conducted. To evaluate the student interns, supervisors completed a 51-item evaluation instrument in eight categories (e.g., problem solving and critical thinking skills, writing skills, oral communication skills, ethics, working with clients, and having emotional intelligence to regulate emotions. In addition, supervisors were also asked to respond to eight open ended questions.

Emerging themes from this analysis indicate that many students do not possess important skills in order to function effectively in the workplace. Some of these skills include having appropriate written and oral communication skills, having problem-solving and critical thinking skills, having the ability to work in a team, and behaving in a professionally acceptable manner. A discussion on the findings from the research literature and industry reports, implications, and next steps of the findings of this study will be included in the presentation.

Keywords:

Soft skills, work readiness, curriculum design.