Is the Skills Gap Real? Challenging the Validity of the Skills Gap Perception and Focusing on the Actual Gap at Hand

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND:

The phrase “skills gap” is nothing new in today’s world, as we consistently hear about it in business journals, HR magazines, and Higher Education critiques. Most of the time, the phrase is referring to a gap between recent graduates and necessary employment skills and unfortunately, the blame often falls on the institution for failure to teach these skills. As Instructional Designers, faculty, and course designers, this phrasing and constant finger pointing can begin to feel somewhat offense. We know we are delivering quality content that teaches our students the skills they need to be successful, yet we continue to face scrutiny regarding this“gap” from outsiders. After speaking to hundreds of students and graduates in attempts to figure out how to resolve this “skills gap”, the answer became clear; we are focusing on the wrong gap.

The gap that is being described as a skills gap, isn’t actually a skills gap. Students are in fact learning the skills they need to be successful, but they aren’t aware of it. The gap is actually a skills awareness gap. In its most simple form, our students are gaining the skills they need for employment, however they lack awareness of the skills they are building and more importantly, how they transfer outside the walls of the classroom. 

As educators, we can finally stop wrestling with ways to bridge the skills gap and shift our focus to bridging the skills awareness gap. It’s simple. We need to start doing two things well; creating valuable content that is relevant to the real-world today and explaining to our students how the content transfers to and interacts with the real-world. We have our work cut out for us, as we need to become better at explaining the skills gained within assignments and any surrounding coursework. If we can begin communicating the core competencies that are built within common assignments such as case studies, report writing, etc., students will be able to better articulate their skill set in an interview. Instead of saying “I don’t have experience with strategic decision making”, students can confidently say “during my undergraduate program, I learned how to make strategic decisions through practice of real-world case studies”. 

Join this session to learn more about the skills awareness gap and hear ten ways our institution has begun to make positive strides in the right direction. Whether you’re designing new courses or teaching existing ones, you will walk away from this session with a collection of easy to implement ideas, a fresh lens to design courses through, and a personalized strategy to begin executing upon return to your home institution. 

FORMAT OF PRESENTATION:

This presentation will begin by sharing ten effective practices that can be immediately implemented to begin bridging the awareness gap. Next, we will move into a space that is designed to explore your current content, identify areas of opportunity, and begin to brainstorm ways to address the opportunities. We will wrap up by sharing out new ideas with a partner and the larger group. 

1. Welcome and Ice Breaking Activity (5 minutes) 

• Let’s quickly meet each other with a fun activity! 

2. Presentation of Implemented Ideas (15 minutes)

• A brief overview of ten examples we’ve implemented within courses to begin bridging the gap. These examples will surely get your creative juices as you begin to think about ways they might apply at your home institution. 

3. Think, Pair, Share (8 minutes)

• Utilizing a worksheet, we will pause for a moment of reflection as you follow a set of questions to help identify specific ways you can make small adjustments within your own courses. After we think, we will partner up and share our ideas! 

4. Large Group Share (7 minutes)

• Circling back together as a group, we will quickly share out some of our ideas. The more ideas we share, the more ideas we walk away with! 

5. Q&A (10 minutes)

• Let’s utilize the last ten minutes for any presenter questions you may have. 

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to: 

1. Articulate the skills awareness gap and how it might be impacting their institution
2. Evaluate potential opportunities for enrichment within their own courses
3. Describe multiple strategies that can be implemented within current or future course development

MATERIALS: 

The presenter will provide participants with a worksheet and the resources necessary to allow them to apply the framework presented at their home institutions.

Participants are not required to bring anything to this session beyond their willingness to explore and share with other attendees. 

AUDIENCE:

This workshop is primarily tailored to participants who are responsible for developing or influencing curriculum design within their university. Examples include Administrators, Design Thinkers, Faculty, Instructional Designers, Curriculum Specialists, Deans, and Program Chairs.