Are They Really Ready to Work? Employers’ Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century U. S. Workforce

The future U.S. workforce is here—and it is woefully ill-prepared for the demands of today’s
(and tomorrow’s) workplace. So say employers in a unique study by The Conference Board,
Corporate Voices for Working Families, Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the Society
for Human Resource Management, which looks at the readiness of new entrants to the workforce.
Knowing how employers view these new entrants is an important first step in enabling both these
new entrants and U.S. business to succeed on the global economic playing field.

In collaboration, The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and The Society for Human Resource Management conducted an in-depth study of the corporate perspective on the readiness of new entrants into the U.S. workforce by level of educational attainment. The study includes results from both an in-depth survey conducted during April and May 2006 and interviews with a sampling of a dozen HR and other senior executives.

In addition, a workforce readiness report card is included which provides a summary of the basic knowledge and applied skills that are either "deficient" or "excellent" in those areas that employer respondents rate as "very important".

Authors: Jill Casner-Lotto, Linda Barrington,

Please click here to download a complimentary copy. http://www.conference-board.org/pdf_free/BED-06-Workforce.pdf

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