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A Foundation for Success in the Workplace

The Skills All Employees Need, No Matter Where They Work

Today, employers in every industry sector emphasize the need for employees with certain foundational skills. These include, a strong academic grounding in reading and math, as well as individual abilities such as teamwork, problem solving, work ethic and integrity. While employers rely on employees to have the same basic skills, they do not always talk about or label them the same way. This makes it difficult for prospective employees and educators to know exactly what it takes to be ready to succeed in any career path in any industry.

The National Network has brought together the organizations that represent employers from major economic sectors, and they have worked to identify the core set of fundamental skills that potential employees need in the workplace – and a common vocabulary to explain them.

This model can take its place as the foundation for all industries to map skill requirements to credentials and to career paths. In doing so, this model allows employees to understand the skills that all industries believe prepare individuals to succeed. Educators and other learning providers will also have an industry-defined roadmap for what foundational skills to teach, providing individuals the added benefit of being able to evaluate educational programs to ensure they will in fact learn skills that employers value.

Employability skills can be acquired in a variety of ways, including military service, work experiences and community service, as well as traditional education.

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