From an employer's perspective this study highlights the need for a shift in leadership of who's driving the essential employability skills (EES) agenda from governments and institutions to employers and students. Success with student-demanded career placements, especially those in hyper-competitive marketplaces, are proving to be more related to EES than to the program of study. A variety of resources are being directed to teaching employability skills at many post-secondary institutions; however, no significant EES gap improvements have been noted in the last decade. Through a qualitative study using open-ended interview, this research sheds light on what EES gaps exist among employers, who should lead the development of EES, and how best youth entering the labour market should develop the EES they will need to succeed.

1. Teaching essential employability skills
2013 Lindsey Fair, MBA
A Qualitative Study from the Employer’s Perspective

2. Where the study started….
A decade after
governments, employers
and post-secondary
institutions established a
employability skills
(EES) significant
gaps still exist.
(Stuckey & Monroe, 2013)
2013 Lindsey Fair, MBA
core set of essential

3. 2013 Lindsey Fair, MBA
1. What essential employability skills (EES) as defined by the provincial
government are not being met.
2. Why is the current model not working?
3. Whose responsibility is it to address any gaps: faculty, students or employers
hiring students and graduates?
4. What are the employer's roles in ensuring graduates obtain the essential
employability skills they require (if any)?
5. What does the research suggest in terms of improving the model?

4. To many employers the discipline
of study
doesn’t matter but rather the ability for
employees to make
decisions, handle
complex information & to
communicate effectively does matter.
2013 Lindsey Fair, MBA
What was
learned...

5. competitive labour market are proving
to be more directly related to EES than to their
program of study.
2013 Lindsey Fair, MBA
Success with student demanded career
placements, especially those in a hyper-

6. 6. The responsibility for
teaching EES needs to
shift from teachers and
institutions to students
and employers.
6 Main
Themes
Emerged
2013 Lindsey Fair, MBA
1. Gaps are where the confusion
starts.
2. Defining the real gaps is
important as they aren’t
necessarily the ones reported.
3. EES are hard to teach, in fact
they may not even be
teachable.
4. School is probably not the best
place to teach EES.
5. If schools are going to teach EES
then they need to do it through
real work = Student Work should
be Real Work.

7. 1. Gaps are where the confusion starts.
2013 Lindsey Fair, MBA
Graduates may have a hard time meeting employers’ expectations due to
contradictions in desirable EES when hiring new graduates compared to their
identified shortfalls in EES when employing new graduates.

8. 2. Defining the real gaps is important as they aren’t necessarily the ones
reported.
2013 Lindsey Fair, MBA
Two significant gaps that are not
detailed within the official EES as
published by the MTCU but were
repeatedly cited by employers in
this study are time management
and drive. In fact, 73% stated that
the number one EES shortfall was
time management.

9. Overall, 36% said they believed EES
cannot be taught in the classroom
alone. Most believed that EES were
developed best through ongoing
experience, with 82% suggesting
that developing EES must be through
self-directed learning. One
participant, P6, deemed that
graduates that start out with a high
degree of EES see little improvement
to these skills with gained experience
and that the same was true for those
with extremely low EES; they argued
that the development of EES will only
be affective with those in the middle.
This begs the question then, are EES
really required for first careers or
should employers accept that new
graduates may not have all of the EES,
but instead will develop them in the
workplace?
2013 Lindsey Fair, MBA
3. EES are hard to teach, in fact they may not even be teachable.

10. 4. School is probably not the best place to teach EES.
82% believe that employers are the
ones to teach EES whereas only 25%
selected schools to teach EES.

11. 5. If schools are going to teach EES then they need to do it through real work =
Student Work should be Real Work.
Within real-life based
work, internships and an
on-campus agency
were favored methods
for delivery.
2013 Lindsey Fair, MBA
When employers were
asked what they
believed would be the
best methods for
teaching EES they
strongly supported workbased learning above all
other methods. 55% of
participants preferred
real-life work for
developing EES.

12. 6. Most Importantly, the responsibility for teaching EES needs to shift
Students will have to take
a much larger leadership
role in their own EES
development; in fact,
73% agreed this to be the
case. Limited resources
from the employment
sector (Stuckey et al., 2013),
a competitive marketplace
(Andrews et al., 2008) and
the need for developing
potentially unteachable
skills, are all contributing
factors as to why self-directed learning may need to be the focal point for
EES and not the classroom.
At the same time as students step up to the plate, so must employers. 86% of
participants in this study agreed that employers must be the ones to lead
when it comes to developing EES.
2013 Lindsey Fair, MBA
from teachers and institutions to students and employers.

13. 2013 Lindsey Fair, MBA
This Applied Research Project was submitted to Cape Breton University in
partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business
Administration in Community Economic Development. The full qualitative
study included eleven open-ended interviews with employers. The research
questions were narrowly defined to the Advertising and Marketing
Communications Management program at St. Lawrence College (SLC) in
Kingston, Ontario. To read the full paper and reference list visit:
www.lindseyfair.ca