Employability Skills Valued by Employers as Important for Entry-Level Employees With and Without Disabilities

Abstract

Individuals with disabilities face persistent challenges in gaining meaningful employment. One of the barriers to successful employment is a lack of employability skills. The purpose of this study was to identify employability skills that employers value as being important and to examine whether employers have different expectations for individuals with and without disabilities. One hundred sixty-eight employers from different industries participated in this survey study. Employers considered certain skills as essential for all entry-level employees; however, there were noticeable differences between employers’ expectations for employees with and without disabilities. Different expectations were also found between male and female respondents and between employers from service/business areas and those from science/technology areas. Implications of study findings are discussed.

Employability skills for entry-level employees with and without disabilities: A comparison between the perspectives of educators and employers

“…The instrument was designed based on a review of previous studies, published topical reports, and school practice (Ju, Zhang, & Pacha, 2012).…”

The relations of employability skills to career adaptability among technical school students

“…Employability skills refer to general and nontechnical competencies required for performing all jobs, regardless of types or levels of jobs (Ju, Zhang, & Pacha, 2012), which are identified to be the most critical skills in the current global job market (Ministry of Higher Education & Malaysia, 2006). They are "skills which cut horizontally across all industries and vertically across all jobs from entry level to chief executive officer" (Sherer & Eadie, 1987, p. 16).…”

A Clinic-Based Assessment for Evaluating Job-Related Social Skills in Adolescents and Adults with Autism

“…The dependent variables targeted in this study were based on the results of studies that evaluated on-the-job behavior of employees with developmental disabilities (Butterworth & Strauch, 1994;Cheney & Foss, 1984;Greenspan & Shoultz, 1981), surveys of employers (e.g., Foss & Peterson, 1981;Ju, Zhang, & Pacha, 2012;McConaughy, Stowitschek, Salzberg, & Peatross, 1989;Salzberg, Agran, & Lignugaris-Kraft, 1986), commercially available assessment and curriculum guides (e.g., Montague & Lund, 2009;Partington & Mueller, 2015), and anecdotal information gathered from participants referred for our services regarding the reasons that they had been unsuccessful in keeping a job. We selected a variety of job-related social skills that included (a) making confirming statements when given a task, (b) asking for help with a task, (c) asking for help with missing or more materials, (d) responding to corrective feedback, and (e) notifying the supervisor of task completion.…”