1. Customer Service Acumen:
Preparing Students to Effectively Enter the Workforce
Dr. Vince Roos

2. Today’s World
With five generations in the workforce today, we don’t live in a one-size-fits-all world.
Employers today are re-examining which skills matter most to them.

3. Today’s World Research projects…
Studies consistently show that the skills learned in a first job are the cornerstones to future success…
Research projects…
the average person is likely now to have as many as 16 jobs over the course of their career.

4. Today’s World
Skills therefore, that young people learn either at or prior to their first job are going to be not only contributory, but essential in putting them on a path to promotion and long-term prosperity

5. necessary to successfully navigate the realities of today’s work-world
Today’s World
So it is more important than ever to make sure those who are entering the workforce, have at the outset,
the requisite skills needed
and attitudinal qualities
necessary to successfully navigate the realities of today’s work-world

6. Skills Gap
In terms of new hires coming into the workplace, Which skills do you think employers are finding the largest gap in, in terms of readiness to be successful?

7. Basic Communication Skills
Skills Gap
A LinkedIn study concluded the number one skills gap in the U.S. is:
Basic Communication Skills

8. Skills Gap
Research conducted separately by Harvard, Carnegie Foundation and Stanford, all concluded:
85 percent of job success comes from well developed soft and people skills
Only 15 percent of job success was predicated on technical skills or knowledge

9. Skills Gap
A Majority of Executives interviewed (92%) admit there is a skills gap. Surprisingly:
Only 22% believe this gap was technical in nature.
44% believe American workers lack the soft skills necessary to help a business succeed.

10. Skills Gap
“We now have very hard evidence that you have to have soft skills in order to succeed.” James Heckman, Economist and Nobel Laureate,
For example, non-cognitive skills such as “conscientiousness” (a tendency to be hardworking, organized, and responsible) predict educational attainment and labor market outcomes as strongly as measures of cognitive ability.
IQ and EQ

11. Skills Gap
While employers value these skills and increasingly look for them in new hires, evidence demonstrates that they are finding this challenging.
The Wall Street Journal found:
92% of nearly 900 surveyed executives said soft skills were equally important or more important than technical skills,
yet 89% said they have a “very or somewhat difficult” time finding employees with those soft skills

12. Fifty-nine percent of the executives surveyed blame higher education.
Skills Gap
Why, are so many high school and college graduates entering the workforce unprepared?
When asked what is causing the dearth of soft skills among American workers?
Fifty-nine percent of the executives surveyed blame higher education.

13. Skills Gap
Barry Schwartz, a professor at Swarthmore College echoed that sentiment saying,
The rising cost of attending colleges and universities have put institutions under immense pressure to produce students with the hard, technical skills.
Meanwhile, soft skills, such as critical thinking and people skills are filtered out of the curriculum

14. Skills Gap
Executives can’t wait for an overhaul of higher education because they need workers now with
Technical skills to solve today’s problems,
But ALSO…
Mental agility and people skills to address business relationships and contexts.

15. Solution ???
???

16. Solution ??? Such things as:
Integrating into our programs and curriculum – Soft skills development.
Such things as:
Customer Service Acumen
People Skills Development
Critical Thinking Skill Development
Leadership Development Awareness

17. Solution ???
Integrating into our programs and curriculum – Soft skills development.
“Building a stronger America will require building a more skilled America where businesses, educators, and workers are working together with shared purpose.
There are 6 million open jobs in the U.S. – 3.3 million of them being STEM-related. A good step to solving this problem are employee-school partnerships focused on “soft” and “hard” skills.”
- Dean Garfield, President and CEO, ITI

18. Simon Sinek on Needed Skills
The Millennial Question…